LABS Initiative

The Life and Building Safety (LABS) Initiative is an industry-driven program, in which multiple brands and retailers are joining forces with public organizations to operate a scalable program to mitigate preventable fire, electrical and structural safety risks in key apparel, footwear, accessories and home-textiles producing countries in a targeted way.

Why LABS?

Many workers in key apparel producing countries work in unsafe environments which can have lethal consequences. That’s why it’s the mission of the Life and Building Safety (LABS) Initiative to provide safer working conditions for factory workers in the apparel, footwear, accessories and home-textiles sectors.

We organize our activities around identifying and solving risks related to fire and electrical hazards, structural building safety, and evacuation, so workers can lead better lives.

This is done by developing country-specific solutions. Here, we create a life-safety program that delivers a harmonized framework for monitoring, assessment, risk reduction, and remediation.

Factories onboarded

580

Workers reached

1150079

Safety trainings conducted

1072

Factories assessed

566

LABS Chat Platform

We are excited to announce the launch of LABS Chat Platform. We encourage all our factories to use the new platform to report safety issues and help us in our mission to create a safe and secure work environment. The Chat platform can be accessed by going to www.labs-chat.com.

LABS reaches 500-factory milestone

This year, the LABS program saw the 500th factory enter the program. We are thankful for the good collaboration from all sides that made this possible and are keen to move well beyond this milestone, in order to help make safe as many factories as possible. Thank you for being a part of this journey, and for helping us move far beyond this number in the future.

The Latest

Uncategorized

July 30, 2024

LABS Newsletter – July 2024

This edition of our newsletter highlights LABS’ progress during the second quarter (Q2) of 2024 and our efforts towards stakeholder outreach. With effective stakeholder engagement at the heart of our mission to foster safer working environments, we are fostering open dialogue within the sector to build a consensus-driven approach prioritizing safety first. Additionally, we are … Continue reading “LABS Newsletter – July 2024”

Uncategorized

May 20, 2024

Amazon Joins Forces with the Life and Building Safety Initiative

The Life and Building Safety (LABS) Initiative is happy to announce a significant milestone in its commitment to fostering safer working conditions and sustainable practices within the global apparel, footwear and accessories supply chain. Amazon, a leading e-commerce and technology company, has officially joined the LABS Initiative. As part of this collaboration, the LABS Initiative … Continue reading “Amazon Joins Forces with the Life and Building Safety Initiative”

Report

May 2, 2024

LABS Annual Report 2023

Welcome to the Annual Report 2023 for the Life and Building Safety Initiative! This year marked a pivotal chapter in our journey as we expanded our operations to include Indonesia, alongside our existing presence in India, Vietnam, and Cambodia. This expansion not only broadened our reach but also deepened our commitment to fostering safer workplaces … Continue reading “LABS Annual Report 2023”

Gurgaon, India

Utrecht, The Netherlands

Hanoi, Vietnam

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Bangalore, India

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Bandung, Indonesia

For Gap Inc., worker safety and well-being is paramount. We are pleased to continue our commitment to promoting safe, healthy working conditions for supply chain workers through our support for LABS.

Keith White

Executive Vice President of Loss Prevention & Global Sustainability at Gap Inc.

At Target, we believe in the value found by collaborating with other companies to create sustainable and systemic improvements. This includes supporting industry-aligned standards like those developed by the Life and Building Safety Initiative (LABS). Target is a proud founding member of LABS, aiming to improve worker safety in the apparel and footwear industries, and we would encourage others to join.

Bill Foudy

Senior Vice President and President, Owned Brand Sourcing and Development, Target

We believe collaboration within the retail industry and with suppliers, governments and NGOs go a long way towards creating a more responsible supply chain. We focus on operating our business in a way that promotes shared value, which includes supporting our suppliers, advocating for workers in the supply chain and helping lead the effort to tackle unhealthy and unsafe working conditions. LABS is the type of collaborative effort we want to support as we believe this effort to effectively identify and remediate the most pressing risks related to fire, electrical, and structural building safety and evacuation is incredibly important for workers and a safer supply chain.

Gokul Krishnan

Vice President of Apparel Production and Sourcing, Walmart

Every day, more than one million people go to work in a job that supports the production of VF products and we believe their safety and well-being is non-negotiable. To ensure a continued focus on improving worker safety in the apparel and footwear industry, VF is proud to be a founding partner of the Life and Building Safety (LABS) Initiative to improve structural, electrical and fire safety in garment factories across the globe. VF is committed to this essential work and the LABS initiative is a key step in addressing systemic safety issues within our industry to help prevent future incidents.

LABS Chat Platform

LABS reaches 500-factory milestone

The Latest

LABS Newsletter – July 2024

Amazon Joins Forces with the Life and Building Safety Initiative

LABS Annual Report 2023

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