Drawing on the information from the case study and using Carrolls pyramid of CSR discuss how Primark fulfils its responsibilities?

Case study -

Are Primarks sustainability efforts enough to make a difference?

Primark, the Irish fashion retailer owned by Associated British Foods (ABF), is seen as one [of the] biggest fashion retail success stories of the past decade. Best known for its low price and high value offering, Amazing fashion, amazing prices, the high street staple has extended its reach across Europe and overseas into the United States. However, in spite of its retail success, Primark has been struggling to overcome the consumers pre-fixed notion that fast-fashion is not sustainable, and certainly not ethically made.

Following the tragic collapse of Rana Plaza, the most deadly accident in the history of the garment industry, more and more people begun to question how a t-shirt costing as little as 2 pounds could ever be responsibly made. On April 24, 2013 a building housing five garment factories which manufactured products for approximately 28 brands, collapsed in near Dhaka, Bangladesh, claiming the lives of 1,138 workers and injuring more than 2,000 individuals. The tragedy was not only seen as a wake-up call for the international fashion industry to band together and protect those most vulnerable in their supply chains it was also an immediate call to action for Primark, who sourced from New Waves Bottoms, a supplier in Rana Plaza, to take a closer look at its ethics and CSR, to see where it could improve.

Primark was among the first retailers to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, initiated by the IndustriALL and UNI Global Union. It was also one of the first to ensure the factory victims and families affected by the collapse received financial support and food aid immediately following the disaster. The value retailer pledged to give both short and long-term financial compensation to those affected by the factory collapse and has paid a total of 14 million dollars to date 11 million of which has gone to workers and families employed by its supplier, New Waves Bottom. Since then Primark has continued to work with local partners and non-profit organisations to ensure any funds or support they gave to workers and their families would be secure by offering financial advice and guidance. In addition, the Irish retailer launched the Pashe Achi Project to ensure compensation recipients retain access to their financial compensation and understand their rights.

What steps Primark has taken to become more responsible following Rana Plaza

Lastly, Primark also tightened its programme of structural surveys in Bangladesh to assess the structural integrity of the factories from which it sources from. At the moment Primark has a team of over 80 experts dedicated to sustainability, ethical fashion and worker training as part of their Ethical Trade Team. These teams based in its nine key sourcing locations, such as China, India, Bangladesh and Turkey, act as the retailer's eyes and ears on the ground, according to Katharine Stewart, Primarks Director of Ethical Trade & Environmental Sustainability. Primark regularly visits factories where it holds a lead role in respect to the Accord and is in frequent contact with all other factories which it supplies from. But Primarks ethical and sustainable initiatives go much further than Rana Plaza.

Unlike fast-fashion competitors, such as H&M, who has been extremely open in communicating their sustainable initiatives to the public through campaigns such as Close the Loop, Primark has remained relatively quiet on what it does in terms of sustainability, ethics, and labour rights. Until recently that is. Following the expansion of its Sustainable Cotton Programme, which sees Primark working with CottonConnect and the Self-Employed Womens Association (SEWA) to support over 11,000 female cotton farmers in India, as well as increasing consumer interest in Primarks own sustainable and ethical practices, Primark has decided to become more vocal concerning its commitments to producing responsible fashion.

Historically when we did not say anything, people believed that we were not being sustainable at all, when we were just trying to find our comfort level in communicating this, explains Stewart. Its not something new, its business as usual and we have been doing it for a very long time. But now our customers are asking us about it, so we are talking about it more...especially now that our customers are getting older, they want to know more. Over the years Primark has implemented a series of strategies and initiatives which vary from improving the livelihoods of its garment workers, to reducing its carbon footprint as well its chemical usage, water usage and waste output, to using more sustainable materials.

Our purpose is to provide safe, nutritious, affordable food and clothing that is great value for money. In doing these things well we know we contribute to making millions of people's lives better, says George Weston, Chief Executive Officer of Associated British Foods, parent company of Primark in ABF 2016 Corporate Responsibility Update. However, our decentralised structure, combined with the wide range of our activities, means it is not straightforward for people outside the Company to assess the difference we make to society. That is why we have begun to explore how we can better measure what we do so that we might provide more credible and tangible evidence of our impact.