The vast majority of MASCOT's products is produced in the company's own factories, where production is conducted efficiently and with great respect for the environment and people.
The UN has formulated 17 global goals for sustainable development, which it expects all countries, companies and organisations to meet by 2030. The 17 global goals are common points of orientation, so that all players can realise the global need for business solutions that can help create a sustainable future for the generations to come.
MASCOT works with all of the 17 global goals at different levels, and we will continue to develop and intensify our work in this area towards 2030. As part of our workwear production, we want to help eliminate poverty and hunger, ensure health and education for all, and provide decent jobs, among other things.
Eliminate poverty
MASCOT manufactures clothing in countries where poverty is a challenge in some areas. By providing decent jobs and corresponding pay, we help raise the standard of living in these areas. MASCOT therefore makes a significant socio-economic contribution to developing the poverty-stricken local areas that our employees come from. MASCOT is constantly expanding our production in Laos, so that we can employ more people and thereby further contribute to the socio-economic development in these countries. We tend to recruit our factory employees from the surrounding and often poverty-stricken villages. To reduce our employees’ costs and increase their personal safety, MASCOT also provides daily transport between the factories and their villages.
Zero Hunger
When you set up production facilities in developing countries, you have an obligation to increase health, wellbeing and safety for employees. Or at least that is how MASCOT sees it. That is why MASCOT provides free access to medical assistance and health information, as well as a free nutritious lunch for all employees
Good Healh & Well-being
MASCOT has around 2,400 employees in Southeast Asia working in a European work culture and with MASCOT’s strong values. This results in safe, secure and decent workplaces with huge development potential for MASCOT’s employees. The employment contract also includes access to a free medical clinic, health information, training in safety, and a good, free lunch.
Gender Equality
The 5th global goal focuses on ensuring gender equality, and on ensuring that women’s and girls’ rights are strengthened globally.
More than 2,400 of MASCOT’s employees work outside Europe, where gender inequality in society tends to be the greatest. Gender inequality here is noted in areas such as health, co-management and business activity.
At MASCOT’s factories in Vietnam, 86% of employees are women. In MASCOT’s Laos factories, 81% of employees are women. MASCOT’s policy is naturally for all employees to have the same opportunities, just as it is always the best qualified people who are employed, regardless of gender. With a majority of female employees, we reduce gender inequality, as business activity helps increase equality. Access to the company’s free medical clinic also means that women’s access to better health is increased.
Decent jobs and economic growth
MASCOT invests heavily in innovation and market development. Both of these generate growth, which results in further productive employment as MASCOT’s investments are made in both technology and management systems. This also applies to our production in Vietnam and Laos.
Salaries for MASCOT’s employees in Vietnam and Laos are increasing far more, year on year, on a percentage basis, than salaries in Europe. This means that MASCOT not only helps reduce inequality across borders, we also help to generally increase the level of pay in those areas where we have factories. And with the good working environment that we offer our employees, we also increase the working conditions in the local area in general, as otherwise employers in the region would lose their employees. We create decent jobs and thereby give other players in the local area an incentive to do the same.
Responsible Consumption & Production
Economic growth and sustainable development require that we show due care and diligence when using our products and resources. We must ensure that our consumption and the way we produce our clothes around the world are done responsibly and with respect for current and future people and the environment.
Partnerships For The Goals
The 17th global goal is about partnerships. No one can solve the global challenge alone. It requires collaboration and forward-looking partnerships.
MASCOT already has a long line of established partnerships with stakeholders in our production countries. We collaborate with ministries and governments, just as we collaborate with organisations that work with the textile industry, so that together with other stakeholders we can promote both social and environmental conditions in the world’s textile-producing countries.
MASCOT is constantly building new partnerships. For example, we are currently working on partnership with several different players in the value chain, to invest with them in new technologies that can create a more sustainable and rational production.
The 17 sustainability goals describe a number of global challenges. These commit all UN member countries to strive towards achieving the goals. The global goals are interdependent and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: economical, social and environmental development.