Social Responsibility

5.11 Tactical® Vendor Code of Conduct

At 5.11 Tactical®, we continually strive to develop and promote high standards of business practices, social responsibility, and environmental protection.  We believe that these standards also best serve the interests of our customers.  Specifically, we require the factories that manufacture our products to operate workplaces where the principles and guidelines summarized below, are followed and verified.  These policies and guidelines are based upon internationally accepted labor standards and industry best practices.

Transparency 

Factories shall allow the 5.11 Compliance Officer or its authorized third-party monitoring firm unrestricted access to all areas of the facilities and to all relevant records whether or not advance notice has been provided. 

Factories are expected to take the necessary corrective actions to resolve all non-compliance issues found from their audits.  5.11 reserves the right to terminate the business relationship with any supplier who is unwilling to comply with this code of conduct. 

Compliance with Laws

Factories shall operate in compliance with the laws of their respective countries including all applicable rules and regulations regarding labor, wages, social benefits, workplace health and safety, and the environment. 

Environment

Factories shall comply with all environmental rules and regulations applicable to their operations.  They shall have an environmental management system in place and adopt measures to mitigate negative impact on the environment.

Child Labor

Factories shall not employ workers younger than 15 years of age or the age for completing compulsory education, whichever is greater.  In addition, factories must comply with all legal requirements for young workers, particularly those pertaining to hours of work, wages, and working conditions.

Wages & Benefits

Factories must pay workers the minimum wage required by local law or local industry standards, whichever is greater, and provide all benefits required by law.  In addition to their compensation for regular hours of work, workers must be compensated for overtime hours at such premium rate as is legally required or, in those countries where such laws do not exist, at least equal to their regular hourly compensation rate.

 Working Hours

Factories must ensure that, except in extraordinary business circumstances, on a regularly scheduled basis, workers shall not be required to work more than the lesser of (a) sixty (60) hours per week, including overtime (except in extraordinary business circumstances) or (b) the limits on regular and overtime hours allowed by the law of the country of manufacture. All overtime shall be voluntary.  All workers shall be entitled to at least one (1) day off in every consecutive seven (7) day period.

Discrimination

No person shall be subject to any discrimination in employment, including hiring, salary, benefits, advancement, discipline, termination or retirement, on the basis of gender, race, ethnic origin, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, nationality, or political opinion.

Forced Labor

Factories shall not use any forced labor whether in the form of prison labor, indentured labor, bonded labor or labor obtained through slavery, human trafficking, or otherwise.

Freedom of Association

Factories shall recognize and respect employees’ right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Working Conditions

Factories must provide their workers with a clean, safe and healthy work environment in compliance with all applicable legal requirements for workplace health and safety in the countries in which they operate.  This includes all production areas, warehouses and residential facilities if applicable.

Disciplinary Practices

Every employee shall be treated with dignity and respect.  Factories shall not engage in or support the use of corporal punishment, mental or physical coercion and verbal abuse including but not limited to threats of violence and sexual harassment.  In addition, factories shall not use monetary fines as a disciplinary practice.

 

Revised March 26, 2019

 

Sustainability

5.11’s roots are in Yosemite National Park, where Royal and Liz Robbins began designing purpose-built apparel for the climbing community scaling iconic landmarks like El Capitan and Half Dome.  They also had a deep respect for our environment as advocates of climbing techniques that left little or no damage to the rocks they climbed.  Today at 5.11, we do our best to carry on their vision through our product designs, manufacturing processes, quality control, and environmental mindfulness.

   

Below are some of the efforts we are making to ensure that we honor this heritage:

   

Product Durability

Our products are designed and manufactured under our strict quality guidelines.  We go to great lengths to ensure our products meet the demands of our users.  From fabric selection to our production process, quality control, and wear testing, each step is focused on producing purpose-built products that will deliver many years of service to our customers.  Simply stated, the longer our products last, the fewer resources are used and our carbon footprint in our landfills is reduced.

 

Our Suppliers

Our fabric and component suppliers have been inspected and certified to the ISO 140001 standard and/or bluesign® approved.  Meeting these standards means that our suppliers have effective environmental and waste management systems in place to reduce their impacts on the environment.

 

In addition, our leather suppliers are certified under the Leather Working Group (LWG).  Leather manufacturing can have a significant adverse impact to the environment due to the chemicals involved in the tanning process.  Being LWG certified, however, signifies that our leather suppliers have robust environmental management systems in place and the hides they source can be traced back up the supply chain to the original hide processors.

          

Furthermore, several of our suppliers are also members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition which is a leading alliance in the industry for sustainable production.

   

Chemicals

5.11 has adopted the American Apparel and Footwear Association's Restricted Substance List.  Our fabric and component suppliers are Oeko-Tex certified, meaning that materials used in our goods do not contain banned substances or levels of restricted substances that would impact human health and the environment.

 

LEED Certified

We opened a new, state-of-the-art, LEED-certified facility in Manteca, California in 2018.  The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification is issued by the U.S. Green Building Council.  It is a globally recognized symbol of achievement for sustainable building.  We are proud of our achievement in being LEED certified and continue to seek processes that reduce consumption and avoid the inefficient use of resources.

Water Conservation

Our Custom Shop invested in a sophisticated water reclamation system for our screen-printing operations.  Since purchasing the reclamation system, the amount of water required for our screen-printing operations has been reduced and we estimate that we will save approximately 62,000 gallons of water per year.

Energy Reduction

We use LED bulbs in our U.S. distribution center and have installed motion sensors to illuminate work areas only when necessary.  We have also installed industrial ventilation louvers and large fans throughout our warehouse to cool our facility while reducing the use of air conditioning system.

   

Carton Recycling

Like many apparel and consumer goods brands, we ship most of our products in cardboard cartons and our products are stored in our distribution center in carboard boxes which are partially derived from recycled materials.  All cardboard cartons received in our main distribution center are recycled, however.

 

The Future

Recycled fabrics:  Our goods are currently made from virgin materials.  However, we continue to explore the possibility and feasibility of sourcing recycled materials for our products.  As the development of recycled materials improves, we hope to find a viable alternative to using virgin materials that will meet our standards and the needs of our end users.

  

Paperless Work Packets: Our Custom Shop is evaluating the potential for switching over the packets used in taking and processing customer orders to a paperless system.  Under such a system, our operators will review orders on smart tablets while reducing our paper and toner consumption.

 

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