Responsible Manufacturing means knowing where your products are being made, who makes them, the working conditions in which they are produced, and building long term relationships with factories to ensure continuous improvement.

To support this, we maintain an internal Corporate Responsibility database that houses factory profile information, along with audit and remediation performance to record the data needed to track conditions and progress over time. We are committed to transparency and collaboration. Therefore, we disclose our factories that are directly contracted by Columbia. We believe that this level of transparency helps foster collaboration, improves factory performance under brands’ codes of conduct, and affects positive change across the industry.

We value, expect and promote fair and ethical treatment of people and are committed to assuring that the partners with whom we do business share these values. Our Standards of Manufacturing Practices (SMP) (also known as our Code of Conduct) outlines our expectations in 12 core areas listed below. These standards are based on International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions and Fair Labor Association standards.

Each factory producing Columbia products is required to post our standards on the production floor in the local language to ensure workers are aware of their rights. Factories are regularly monitored through unannounced audits against our SMP, in addition to local labor laws. Our SMP outlines standards in the following areas:

• Forced Labor
• Child Labor
• Harassment or Abuse
• Nondiscrimination
• Freedom of Association
• Compensation
• Employment Relationship
• Hours of Work
• Health and Safety
• Environment
• Ethical Conduct
• Documentation and Inspection

Columbia employs a team of Corporate Responsibility Specialists who conduct regular audits of our suppliers against our SMP. All of our audits are conducted on an unannounced basis, allowing our Specialists to see the factory conditions as they are on a typical day. We work with the factories to develop a Corrective Action Plan to remediate issues identified during the audit. As we consider our suppliers as partners, our approach to remediation is continuous improvement, working together to improve working conditions.

To track our supplier SMP performance, we have developed an SMP Scorecard that allows us to evaluate and track performance based on the following criteria:

• Audit Performance
• Remediation Efforts
• Management Systems
• Transparency

We use the SMP score, which is updated monthly, to determine level of support needed by our suppliers. The support ranges from additional capacity building for lower performing suppliers, to participation in special projects such as the HERproject for higher performing suppliers. The SMP score is also a key component of our overall supplier ratings which is used to inform seasonal sourcing decisions.

Monitoring alone is not enough. We also support supplier efforts to promote sustainable solutions. Our training and capacity building program encourages suppliers to further develop their skills:

• Human Resources Management
• Effective Worker-Management Dialogue
• Production Efficiency
• Environmental Management
• Fire and Emergency Safety

We strive to make products that are safe for all who come into contact with them; workers who make them, consumers who use them, and the environment. We maintain a Restricted Substances List (RSL) based on global standards and laws, and a corresponding testing program that ensures our products meet these standards. We provide extensive training on our RSL and testing standards for our global product creation, sourcing and manufacturing teams to ensure high levels of knowledge around our RSL requirements.

We recognize that we are a single player in a large, complex, global supply chain. To impact meaningful change, we need to work with brand, industry, and multi-stakeholder players to:

• Align on common standards for evaluating social and environmental impacts in our business and our supply chain. Standardization will enable greater efficiency in evaluation methods and comparability of results


• Develop shared tools to reduce costs and improve methods for implementing social and environmental programs


• Share resources with industry partners on specific projects, such as audit and capacity building, to reduce audit fatigue and increase collective impact

We select organizations for investment and engagement based on their ability to influence systemic change and their relevance to our business and supply chain. We also seek to work directly with other brands and retailers who share our values and whose products are made in the same factories as ours.

We value ethical practices at every step in the supply chain and work with industry groups, civil society organizations and government organizations to keep educated on ethical standards and practices across the supply chain. Read more about Columbia's specific positions on: