We place a high importance on social and environmental compliance. In our early years we were a part of the Business for Social Responsibilities Apparel, Mills and Sundries working group that was a collaboration with top retail brands to set a high standard in regard to social and environmental compliance. After this group disbanded, we adopted Sedex’s SMETA audit as well as Intertek’s Workplace Conditions Assessment (WCA) for our supply chain. These focus on labor standards, health and safety, management systems, entitlement to work, subcontracting, and environmental issues. We also conduct other industry and customized audits per requests of our retail and footwear customers and work on continuous action plans for any improvements identified in these audits. In 2014 we also started to use the Higgs Index created by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) to measure and score our suppliers’ sustainability performance. Nexgen believes in a continuous improvement approach and will work with all suppliers to help remediate any non-compliance issues. We have our own internal compliance team based in our Hong Kong headquarters, which performs internal audits and manages the continuous action planning process to provide guidance on industry best practices and ensure all suppliers are working to improve issues. Many of our suppliers have adopted ISO 14001 (an environmental management standard) to improve their environmental performance through more efficient use of resources and reduction of waste.

Nexgen Packaging is committed to respecting human rights. We respect human rights by seeking to avoid infringing on the rights of others and working to address adverse human rights impacts with which we are involved. Our approach to human rights issues are set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the International Labour Organizations (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

Our employees: We respect the rights of our employees in accordance with the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Nexgen Packaging policies that incorporate these protections include our Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, Anti-Discrimination and Harassment Policy. These policies are complemented by a full range of programs that support the well-being of our employees and their family members, including employee benefits focused on health, personal wellness, parental leave, diversity and inclusion, and education.

Our suppliers: Our human rights commitment extends to our suppliers. All Nexgen Packaging suppliers must agree to and abide by our Code of Business Conduct, which protects workers’ rights by setting clear standards for ethical business practices, employment practices, and compliance with environmental and worker safety requirements. We adopted Sedex as our principal social and environmental standard, and we regularly audit them to ensure our Code is being met.

Nexgen has a conflict minerals policy in place with all of our suppliers to help ensure that our business activities do not finance or benefit armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its adjoining countries in regards to the use of tin, tungsten, tantalum, or gold (collectively “3TGs”). We utilize Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) Conflict Minerals Reporting Templates throughout our supply chain.