Rab

How sustainable is Rab?

This scree­ning has been done by Fai­ri­fy on Novem­ber 6^th 2020

Rab is a Bri­tish outer­wear brand that was foun­ded in 1981. The brand doesn’t publish a sustai­na­bi­li­ty report, but it pro­vi­des infor­ma­ti­on on its web­si­te. Rab is cur­rent­ly not transpa­rent about car­bon emis­si­ons, doesn’t publish an over­view of its sup­pliers, and there’s no clear over­view of mate­ri­al use. On the other hand, its down is cer­ti­fied by
the Res­pon­si­ble Down Standard, and it offers a life­ti­me war­ran­ty for all its pro­ducts. The com­pa­ny is acti­ve­ly wor­king on making pack­a­ging more sustai­na­ble, redu­cing was­te and incre­a­sing rene­wa­ble ener­gy use.

Rab has been a mem­ber of the Fair Wear Foun­da­ti­on sin­ce 2020 but pro­du­ces in high-risk coun­tries in terms of labor abu­se. It sta­tes that it takes this risk very serious, and that it doesn’t remo­ve its busi­ness from the­se com­mu­ni­ties becau­se that ​“would severe­ly impact the eco­no­mic via­bi­li­ty of the area and open the wor­kers up to exploita­ti­on by orga­ni­za­ti­ons with lower standards and less regu­la­ti­on in pla­ce than our­sel­ves”. Rab is proud to cre­a­te jobs the­re and wants to increa­se wages and living con­di­ti­ons for the popu­la­ti­on. Besi­des that, the com­pa­ny sta­tes that all its fac­to­ries are regu­lar­ly audi­ted by a third par­ty, but sin­ce FWF hasn’t publis­hed a report yet, it’s not clear
whe­ther the­se standards are maintained.