This month, Levi Strauss & Co. ranked 11 out of 50 for the first time ever on Fortune Magazine’s “Change the World” list, which recognizes 50 companies who are turning their do-good efforts into positive business results. This was our first appearance on the list and we were featured specifically for our Worker Well-being program, which goes beyond labor compliance to support financial empowerment, health and family well-being, and equality and acceptance for the people who make our products.
“This goes way beyond making a profit,” LS&Co. CEO Chip Bergh told Fortune. “We are demonstrating there is an opportunity for companies to redefine their role in society, and that’s good for business.”
Worker Well-being is setting a new industry standard for improving the lives of the millions of people who work in the factories that make the clothes we wear, giving them the tools to thrive at work and beyond. Fortune not only credits LS&Co. for setting the standard for how garment workers should be treated, but it also notes how others like Target are now following suit.
“As the bar for social impact and business value gets raised, we believe that each iteration of the Change the World list gets stronger, with well-established and new companies alike proving that purpose and profit can go hand in hand,” Mark R. Kramer, Founder and Managing Director of FSG which helped cull this year’s list, wrote for Fortune.
As we see it, Worker Well-being can and should become the new norm for how apparel companies do business around the world, in the same way that our Terms of Engagement transformed the industry more than 25 years ago. It is a perfect example of the opportunity that companies like LS&Co. are increasingly embracing, in turn broadening the definition of good corporate citizenship and the need to play a bigger role in making the world a better place. We are honored to be recognized among some of the best in business doing just that.
Read Fortune’s full feature on our Worker Well-being program. Also check out the full “Change the World” list.
