Message from Management
-
Message from the President and CEO
I am proud of Gildan’s commitment to corporate citizenship and the progress we’ve made since the issuance of our first report in 2004. With over 31,000 employees around the world and multiple facility locations, we recognize that we have a responsibility to our employees, customers and shareholders, as well as to the communities in which we operate, to ensure that we are producing high-quality products with integrity and care as we continue to expand our market presence.
We continue to develop and apply innovative solutions that reduce the environmental impact of our operations throughout our entire supply chain. For instance, this past year, we completed the construction of our largest biomass facility, which will generate steam for our three textile facilities in Honduras. With the completion of this fourth biomass facility, over 35% of Gildan’s energy now originates from renewable sources. We also expanded and implemented our corporate citizenship practices at our new textile facility in Honduras and established our first set of environmental targets to be achieved by 2015, including reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, water, waste and energy usage per kilogram of product.
In May 2012, we acquired Anvil Knitwear, which is one of the world’s largest buyers of organic and transitional cotton, and which has developed profitable niche products under its eco collection, such as the anvilsustainable® and anvilorganic® brands. Over the course of this past year, we commenced the implementation of Gildan’s stringent corporate citizenship programs and our Code of Conduct at all of Anvil’s facilities. Our progress and results related to the Anvil facilities will be incorporated in our 2013 corporate citizenship report.
I am also pleased to announce the recognition of our continuing achievements in sustainability: for the fifth consecutive year, Gildan was recognized as one of Canada’s Top 50 Best Corporate Citizens by Jantzi-Sustainalytics/ Maclean’s magazine. We also received the RobecoSAM Sustainability Award – Sector Mover 2013 as having achieved the largest proportional improvement in our sustainability performance compared to the prior year within the top 15% of our sector.
Going forward, we will continue to challenge ourselves as to how we, as a company, can continually contribute to the environmental, social and economic well-being of the communities where we live and work. We believe, more than ever, that Gildan has a responsibility to influence our customers to understand the value of responsibly-made apparel.
I extend my heartfelt thanks to our employees, customers, shareholders, partners and suppliers for their ongoing support throughout the years. I look forward to updating you on our ongoing progress in next year’s report.
Sincerely,
Glenn J. Chamandy
President and Chief Executive Officer
