Who We Are
What We Do
Who We Are
Corporate Responsibility at Columbia Sportswear
At Columbia Sportswear, Corporate Responsibility (CR) is part of what we do every day — for our employees, the communities where we operate and for the environment. To us, responsible business practices mean balancing our economic goals with social and environmental considerations.CR involves supporting responsible sourcing practices that promote the values of equality, fairness, and safety in the independent factories that manufacture our products. It means considering our environmental impact from designing products with more eco-friendly material to cutting down on our packaging. It includes empowering communities through partnering, volunteering and promoting programs that support those in need and enhance quality of life.
Whether it’s working on fair labor in our manufacturing locations or lessening our environmental footprint, we believe corporate responsibility is a companywide effort.
Our Code
At the heart of our CR programs are our Standards of Manufacturing Practices (SMP). Columbia manufactures products around the world and values ethical and fair treatment of people and practices. We are committed to assuring that the partners with whom we do business share these values. Each factory producing Columbia Sportswear products is monitored regularly against these Standards in addition to local labor laws and International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions.
Our Team
We created our CR organization in 2001 at our headquarters in Portland, Oregon. We have been growing our global team ever since, and are continually improving our program throughout the world.
Our team members are local to the region in which we operate. We speak the language. We understand the culture. And, we are passionate about what we do. Here’s how we focus our efforts:
- Monitoring – Assessing, promoting and assisting the factories in improving their working environment.
- Environment – Communicating, educating and motivating partners to seize opportunities to reduce environmental impacts.
- Stakeholder engagement – Engaging, relating and partnering with industry associations and non-profit groups to achieve mutual understanding and work toward solutions.
- Community – Supporting and empowering communities in countries where we manufacture. (More giving activities can be found under Giving Back.)
meet the employees
My work at Columbia is exciting to me because in a normal day I meet people at all levels in a factory – from the workers who produce Columbia products to line supervisors to the directors and owners. Our philosophy is to work with suppliers to continually improve the conditions. I feel a personal satisfaction and pride when I see the positive changes taking place in the factories.
Most of my time is working with the factories. I like getting involve in the gradual improvement of factory working conditions. Every day, my job brings me new challenges, new opportunities to learn and new situations to work out.
My job at Columbia affords me the opportunity to combine my passion with my work. Being able to provide support, analysis and recommendations to our business partners to drive sustainable initiatives is fulfilling, and I like contributing however I can to keeping the outdoors enjoyable for everyone.
We at Columbia Sportswear believe that everyone in the company has a part in promoting corporate responsibility. I like working to ensure we contract factories that treat workers well, pay them fairly, and provide a safe and healthy working environment. Consumers want to buy products from businesses they trust, so I am proud to be part of a company that operates with responsibility and with integrity.
