Bershka

Bershka is owned by Inditex.

Our “Planet” rating evaluates brands based on the environmental policies in their supply chains, from carbon emissions and wastewater to business models and product circularity. Here we rate Bershka “It’s a Start”. These are a few factors influencing its score:

• It uses some lower-impact materials including recycled materials.

• It supports industry organisations that work to address the impacts of microplastics.

• It’s published a biodiversity protection policy that applies to its entire supply chain.

• It’s eliminated some hazardous chemicals but has not made a commitment to eliminate all hazardous chemicals in manufacturing.

• It uses some recycled packaging.

Workers’ rights are central to our “People” rating, which assess brands’ policies and practices on everything from child labour to living wages and gender equality. Here we rate Bershka “It’s a Start”. These are a few factors influencing its score:

• It doesn’t disclose where all of its final production stage occurs.

• It partly traces its supply chain including the final and some of the second production stages.

• It provides workplace harassment and violence awareness training for its suppliers.

• It provides a confidential complaints mechanism for workers in its supply chain to report harassment or violence.

• It audits some of its supply chain including all of the final production stage.

• Its Code of Conduct covers ILO Four Fundamental Freedoms principles.

• It claims to have a program to improve wages but there’s no evidence it ensures its workers are paid living wages in most of its supply chain.

• It’s taken insufficient steps to remediate its links to cotton sourced from Xinjiang, a region in China at risk of Uyghur forced labour.

Brands’ animal welfare policies and, where applicable, how well they trace their animal-derived products are the focus of our “Animals” rating. Here we rate Bershka “Not Good Enough”. These are a few factors influencing its score:

• It’s published a general statement about minimising animal suffering but not a formal animal welfare policy.
• It appears to use wool, exotic animal hair, and decorative feathers.
• It doesn’t appear to use leather, down, fur, angora, or exotic animal skin.
• There’s no evidence it traces any animal-derived materials to the first production stage.

Based on all publicly available information we’ve reviewed, we rate Bershka “It’s a Start” overall.