Zuinig of society.
Zeeman School.
​
At Zeeman, we are zuinig of talent and ambition. We train our employees and give them opportunities to grow. For many years now, the Zeeman School has given our store personnel the opportunity to obtain a vocational education or to take part in an internal workshop.
Industry collaboration.​
We understand that we cannot solve the complex problems of the fashion industry by ourselves. For this reason, we seek collaboration with other parties to discuss and generate innovative solutions. We fully support the proposed IRBC law in the Netherlands (which is based on the UNGPS and OECD guiding principles) which will hold businesses accountable to act responsibly in terms of human rights, working conditions, and the environment.
We also support the UPV law which will hold the clothing industry accountable for collecting and recycling clothing. At Zeeman, we have already set up garment collection points in all Dutch stores and work with Het Goed in our Resale initiative to sort, re-sell and recycle the items.
​
In March 2023, Zeeman CSR & Quality Manager Arnoud van Vliet participated in a panel discussion in the House of Representatives about the future of the textile industry. We joined industry leaders, policymakers, raw material producers, and other large-scale fashion brands in this discussion.
Zeeman firmly believes in its mission to transform the textile industry to be Zuinig on people, the planet, and the environment. To achieve this mission collaboration is vital. On the one hand with retailers and brands and just as much within the chain.
​
Save Our Sisters projects in the production countries.
​
Zeeman has been supporting a number of projects in Central Asia for many years, in order to give something back to the countries where we produce. The goal is to prevent the sexual exploitation of girls and to help girls and young women who have become victims of human trafficking. There are three projects: in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. In Pakistan, we focus on something completely different: the labor participation of women.
​
India.
​
We've had a presence in Mumbai in India since 2005. Our partner the Vipla Foundation runs a project for us there, called Save Our Sisters. The project helps girls who have been rescued from forced prostitution. The rescued girls are taken in by the local authorities, and we provide support to help them build a new life.
In 2024, our various programmed helped 698 girls. 208 of them received an education, from primary schooling to vocational training. 25 girls chose entrepreneurship training, while 93 opted for beauty & wellness and garment making. In total, we helped 6 girls find employment and guided 42 girls in establishing their own small businesses. The girls we help in this programme receive three years of follow-up support.
We also helped to organise numerous group sessions to provide psychological support for girls admitted to shelters after their rescue. Some 300 girls took part in those sessions. We also help to provide legal support to girls who manage to initiate criminal proceedings against the people responsible for their human trafficking.
​
​
​
Bangladesh.
​
Our project in Bangladesh is similar to that in Mumbai, many of the young girls working in prostitution in India are from Bangladesh. The project's goal is to take in these girls as soon as they arrive at the Bangladeshi border after being rescued in India, and give them shelter and guidance. The new shelter was up and running by the second half of 2023, with capacity to take in 20 girls. Between March and December 2024, the project provided shelter for a total of 43 trafficking victims. Another 8 girls were saved from sexual
exploitation before it could occur. As part of the project, we see whether its possible to return the girls to their families. We help them process the trauma, provide them with education and follow up with them after they leave the shelter. We also do a lot of prevention work in the area around the shelter. In nearby villages, we provide counselling sessions for parents and young girls in the 10-16 age bracket. We warn them
about the tactics that pimps use, to prevent girls from being drawn into prostitution. We also encourage them to go to school.​
Pakistan.
​
Where our focus India and Bangladesh is on helping young women recover from prostitution and human traficking, in Pakistan we focus on women’s participation in the labour market. The project draws funding from a subsidy from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). In Pakistan, it is still common for women to be banned from working in factories. The project provides groups of women with training and
equipment so that they can work independently in Zeeman's partner factories. Previously, those factories almost exclusively employed men. In 2024, we joined with Schijvens Corporate Fashion to launch a project at 3 factories, 2 of which are suppliers of Zeeman. At each factory, a group of 30 women have been selected to receive training so that they can work in a sewing workshop. The factories had to update their
facilities, creating separate spaces for women. The male workers have also been prepared for the new situation.
Local support near our stores.
​
Many of our store colleagues have a big social heart. At Zeeman, they are given the space with the store team to choose a local charity and to sponsor a local team with competition shirts. We facilitated a clean-up campaign centrally in 2022.
Care for the neighborhood campaign
In March we had a ‘Zuinig' campaign in which we asked our customers to clean the neighborhood together. On Saturday, March 19, 2022, customers could come to one of our 1300 Zeeman stores to collect waste together in the area. The aim was to collect as much waste as possible from all customers and colleagues.
Donations.
​
We almost never have unsold goods. If there is anything left over, we put it on clearance. If anything remains unsold even then, or if we have items that we can't sell for any other reason, we donate them to charity. We work with a fixed partner, the Sarfath Foundation. The items we donate end up with people who can put them to good use, in Transylvania, Romania and in Syria.
Good, safe products.
​
Operating with sustainability in mind also means that we want to offer products with a long lifespan. That is why we pay a lot of attention to the quality of our products. A long-term partnership with a supplier is of great importance in order to be able to guarantee quality. Customers can rely on the quality of our products because our suppliers know our standards.
We test the quality of our products.
All products meet our quality standards, and we pay close attention to maintaining those standards. Of course, there are legal requirements that a product must meet. But not everything is laid down in law, so we have also set our own quality requirements. So we work according to fixed, general quality standards. In addition, we regularly test the quality of our products. We perform simple tests ourselves. If a needed test is more complicated, we go to a lab. For example, we perform wash tests, shrinkage tests, color-fastness tests, and lint tests. We believe that the quality of our products should always be good.
Random quality tests in partnership with TÜV Rheinland.
Additional random testing is performed every year in partner-
ship with TÜV Rheinland. Items (in particular high-risk items)
are taken directly from the shelves and tested by TÜVR. In
2024, 437 samples were taken, 93% of which (405 items)
met Zeeman’s safety standards as described in our Supplier
Manual and Quality Risk Policy. For a number of items, we took
corrective action, from replacing specific parts to completely
withdrawing the items from sale.
