Water Front #3 2015

BEST WATER IDEASPhoto: Peter KnutsonRENÉE ANDERSSON:THE PIONEERRenée Andersson’s commitment to bringing about positive change runs deep.It has shaped her entire life.“I’ve always been thinking about water!I have lived in countries where I hadto boil water for 20 minutes to make itdrinkable. I have seen women’s bodiesbreak from carrying heavy clay potswith water long distances from earlygirlhood. I have worked in slums duringfloods where dirty water that spreadsinfection is as big a problem as droughtand lack of water. And the lack of sanitationaffects women more than men– they hold back all day and when theysneak out under the cover of darkness,many are raped. It is terribly unfair. “Renée Andersson responds easily tothe question on whether she wants tocall herself an activist. She left manyyears of development work for Save theChildren and other organizations to gointo the private sector. She thought shecould influence better there. With theSwedish family-run company Indiskabehind her, she started extensive workon ethics and environmental issues.This led to codes of conduct for productionat the suppliers in India, China andTurkey and eventually to guidelines formore economical, energy-efficient andclean water use.“When I went to China to check theworking environment among our supplierspeople said to me: ‘Do you thinkyou can go to China and change thefactories? Forget about it.’ But you can. “Now, Renée has received an honorarydoctorate from the University of Lundfor her efforts to influence suppliers toimprove working conditions and reducethe environmental impact of textileproduction. She works her final weeksat Indiska before retirement.We meet at the headquarters in Stockholm,among collections of the colourful,thin cotton clothes that are typicalof Indiska. The cotton is grown, woven,dyed and sewn mostly in India, Chinaand Turkey.We go back in time. Renée Anderssongrew up in a working-class family.The father cut shoe soles at the Tretornfactory in Helsingborg for 40 years, buthated his job. The mother had to startworking for farmers when she was still achild.“We had so little. Mom even patchedour nylon stockings. And speaking ofwater – we bathed once a week, jumpedinto the water one after the other, andwe could use the laundry room onlyonce in five weeks. “Renée married early. For 13 years,she cared for day-care children, fosterchildren and children of her own. Shealso began to volunteer at the AdoptionCentre and stood in line for adoption.When the question came - would youconsider adopting a disabled child? –Renée and her husband answeredyes. They receiveda little foundling, Sandhya,from India with cleft lipand cleft palate. It wasthere and then Renée’s life changed.She became a fighter and an activist.Renée discovered that the cleftpalate children in Stockholm receivedmedically professional care but weretreated as laboratory animals beforesurgery. They were kept separately fromfamily and proximity while subjected tomonths in hospital during pre-surgery.“It was like ‘a little shop of horrors’,the Red Cross Hospital. But beautifuland high-class with exquisite tableclothscrocheted by the nurses. Theycurtsied to the doctors. I refused toleave Sandhya there and demanded togo back and forth with her every day. “Two years later, Renée together withother parents put a stop to that form oftreatment.“I realized then that things could bechanged. I brought that knowledge withme when I started working with socialchanges in the factories. “Renée got a job at Save the Childrenand met her new husband. The familyworked in several countries. Whenthey came home from Bangladesh in1999, she saw that the companies H&M,Indiska, KappAhl, Lindex and the networkClean Clothes were looking fora project manager to find a system formonitoring the working environmentin the clothing industry. Clean Clothesmembers are Swedish trade unions andorganizations working to improve conditionsin the textile industry by gettingcompanies to adopt codes of conductand the right for employees to formunions. But it was not enough to have“I realized then that thingscould be changed”nice rules for the production conditions;they must also be followed up on thespot. Renee got the job, took leave fromSave the Children and went out on touristvisas to perform discreet interviewswith workers in small shops, in homesand buses. After the project concluded,she worked for other similar networks,Photo: Abbas Rehman, SXCand started the Amnesty BusinessGroup in Sweden. Her view of corporatecommunity commitment changed inthe course.“I have worked for human rightssince I was 13 but never imagined thatcompanies cared. My father always said:‘without the union, no food on the table’.But the companies we worked withwere always well informed and engaged,while human rights organizationschanged people all the time and thelabour unions were rigid and uninterested.Sida, the Swedish InternationalDevelopment Agency, did not want tobe involved from the beginning. Theydid not want to support companies.They are now on board, but they missed10 years of learning. “Renée learned the national laws,which are often very good.“The people I met on my travels said:‘You demand that we change ourselvesaccording to Swedish law.’ ‘No,’ I said,‘that is Indian law. Here you have stipulatedthe right to overtime pay, vacation,health insurance. “Renée worked for several years visitingsuppliers in India and China whohad signed a code of conduct.“What we did was nothing less thana revolution. There were no rules inplace. Child workers hid on the roofwhen we arrived. It was dirty, dangerous,and messy, there were no fire drills,no first aid, no toilets for women andthose for the men were disgusting. “Renée always tried to work in a respectfulway and listen carefully to thepeople she met.“If I do not understand how youthink, I can yell until I am blue aboutworkers’ and children’s rights, withoutaccomplishing anything.”When the project assignments ended,Renée did not want to return to thedevelopment cooperation sector.She wanted to work with businesses onthe ground so she contacted Indiskaand immediately got a job travellingaround to suppliers and suggest improvementsfor the workers. After threeyears, the management wanted to moveon with environmental issues. ‘But Ionly know human rights issues’, Renéesaid. She was sent for an environmentaleducation in India.“After the training I was able to doenvironmental audits. What I saw wasterrible. Textile industry polluted to anPhoto: Renée Anderssonextreme degree. You could see in thegroundwater what the colour of consumerclothes would be next season –pink or blue. The groundwater pumpedup was dyed. Slag products were used inroad construction and house buildingand poisons were leaked out. We had tochange all the way back in the productionchain.”But by 2010, Renée had had enough.“I told the Indiska’s management thatwe must come together with others todevelop common guidelines for water.”Renée contacted SIWI, the StockholmInternational Water Institute,which became enthusiastic. Textileimport companies in Sweden were invitedto a big meeting. A learning projectwith 34 companies together with SIWIstarted. When the guidelines were completedIndiska, KappAhl, Lindex andSIWI wanted to test them properly fortwo years. Sida supported the project,which was carried out in three states inIndia.“We worked with talented Indianconsultants who are experts in water,chemicals and energy, and good attraining. We tried to get suppliers tounderstand that it will be cheaper if youuse the resources correctly. The problemwas that water was free. It was easyfor the producers to understand thatenergy used for heating water costs,the chemicals cost, and cleaning thewater costs. But the water had no priceon it except the pump cost. They oftenpumped it up from deep down in thewater table. It was horrible. You have toclean the water and then recirculate it. “In 2014, 42 suppliers collaboratedin what is called STWI, Sweden TextileWater Initiative. The same year theysaved 284 million litres of water and402 tonnes of chemicals, and 3 per centof energy and 3 per cent of other pro-duction costs. That means the investmentsin water and more efficient productionmethods have given manifoldback. Meanwhile, workers are trainedon chemicals and water economy.“We calculated that the project hassaved the equivalent of daily water for15 Indian villages for a year. Nothinghas been lost from focusing on water –all is included – chemicals, energy andwaste. Water is so extremely central. “It was Renée who took the initiativeto STWI. She and her employer theIndiska took the lead, and some muchlarger companies followed – H&M andIkea to name a few. The method can betransferred to other industries. This isjust the beginning.“We are competitors on the shopfloor but not when it comes to preservingthe environment. It is a whole newway of thinking, both here at home andamong our suppliers. “Renée is retiring this year, but shewill continue to be active. She sits onthe board of SWEDFUND, the developmentfinancier of the Swedish state,where she intends to monitor H&M’snew textile production in Ethiopia, acountry she used to live in. “I think itis good, they need jobs, but it must bedone right.”Photo: Samuel Rosa, SXC32 WATERFRONT # 3 | august 2015WATERFRONT # 3 | august 201533