Dear Readers,
As we step into 2026, we would like to sincerely thank our partners, participating factories, and collaborators for their continued commitment to strengthening life and building safety across the sector. The progress achieved over the past year was possible because of sustained collaboration and shared ownership of safety outcomes.
Over the last quarter, LABS continued to deepen its engagement across India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia – supporting factories through assessments, trainings, and follow-up visits and reaching over 1.3-million workers with practical safety awareness and capacity-building efforts. An important milestone this year was the graduation of 200 factories, reflecting growing maturity in factory-led safetymanagement systems.
Alongside factory-level interventions, LABS continued to advance its sector-level safety mandate. In India, we closed 2025 by partnering with the Tiruppur Exporters’ Association to convene an industry workshop focused on strengthening the collective understanding of life and building-safety risk and reinforcing the role of industry leadership in sustaining safety improvements beyond individual factories.
As we look ahead, LABS will focus on strengthening postgraduation engagement, supporting alignment with national safety frameworks, and deepening industry partnerships to embed safety as a shared responsibility across supply chains. We look forward to continued collaboration in the year ahead as we work together to build safer, more resilient workplaces.
Dear Readers,
Welcome to 2025’s third quarterly edition of the Life and Building Safety (LABS) Initiative newsletter. The initiative continued to advance its mission of creating safer, more sustainable workplaces across India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Quarter three (Q3) saw steady operational progress through comprehensive factory assessments, targeted safety trainings, and rigorous follow-up visits that are helping factories embed lasting improvements in fire, electrical, and structural safety.
Beyond operational milestones, the LABS teams actively engaged with industry and government partners to align with evolving safety regulations, share learnings, and strengthen collaborations. Notable highlights included LABS’ participation in the Ministry of Construction’s seminar on Vietnam’s upcoming fire-safety regulation, the Fourth Annual Gender Platform in Cambodia spotlighting the prevention of genderbased violence, and the GAP Inc. factories’ event in Indonesia celebrating two years of measurable safety transformation under LABS.
Together, these efforts underscore LABS’ holistic approach – combining technical expertise, worker empowerment, and multi-stakeholder engagement – to foster safer and more resilient supply chains across the manufacturing sector.
Dear Readers,
Welcome to 2025’s second-quarter edition of the Life and Building Safety (LABS) Initiative newsletter. ThisThe
quarter marked significant progress in our collective journey to create safer working conditions across the apparel, footwear, and accessories sectors in India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia.
During quarter two (Q2), LABS intensified its engagement with industry platforms, government bodies, and ecosystem actors to build alignment around risk mitigation and safety governance, reinforcing our commitment to systems change – supporting an industrywide movement that embeds safety as a core business value, not just a compliance requirement.
Dive in to explore key updates, milestones, and the stories behind our shared mission to make workplaces safer and more resilient.
Dear Readers,
As we wrap up the first quarter of 2025, the Life and Building Safety (LABS) Initiative is happy to share the momentum of our key geographies. One of this quarter’s highlights was the successful onboarding of several new factories – bringing more facilities under the umbrella of our safety standards and reaffirming the industry’s growing commitment to safer working environments.
Our collaboration with industry stakeholders – brands, suppliers, and others – remains central to our mission. Together, we’ve continued to build strong foundations for sustainable safety systems with knowledge-sharing, technical support, and joint action.
Looking ahead, 2025 promises to be a year of deeper impact. We’re excited to bring you field updates in this edition – and as always, we thank you for your continued partnership in building a culture of prevention and safety across the sector.
Dear Readers,
Happy New Year! As we step into a new year, we’re thrilled to bring you the latest updates from the Life and Building Safety (LABS) Initiative. At LABS, our mission remains steadfast: fostering safer working environments across the apparel, footwear, accessories, and home-textile sectors through robust safety systems and collaborative partnerships.
The final quarter (Q4) of 2024 was marked by significant milestones, including the signing of a Memo of Understanding (MoU) with the National Safety Council (NSC) at the SUTRA 2024 event, reinforcing our commitment to enhancing safety culture through knowledge sharing and capacity building. Weconducted comprehensive on-site safety assessments and engaged stakeholders to drive impactful changes at both policy and operational levels.
As always, we aim to inspire action and collaboration among stakeholders to achieve a shared vision of safety and sustainability. Thank you for being part of our journey. Together, we look forward to making 2025 a year of transformative progress inbuilding safer and more resilient workplaces.
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the latest edition of the Life and Building Safety (LABS) Initiative’s Quarterly Newsletter! As we wrap up another productive quarter, we are proud to share the progress, insights, and milestones achieved across our programs in ensuring safer working environments in the textile, apparel and footwear sectors.
In this edition, we highlight key developments from July to September 2024, including updates on safety assessments and collaborative engagements with factories and brands. Additionally, we explore how our efforts are driving positive change on the ground, supporting factories, workers, and the wider stakeholder group in building a culture of safety and preparedness.
Thank you for your continued support and commitment to fostering safer workplaces.
This edition of our newsletter highlights LABS’ progress during the second quarter (Q2) of 2024 and our efforts towards stakeholder outreach.
With effective stakeholder engagement at the heart of our mission to foster safer working environments, we are fostering open dialogue within the sector to build a consensus-driven approach prioritizing safety first. Additionally, we are striving for operational excellence by paying attention to detail and working collaboratively to establish benchmarks to ensure safer working conditions across the sector.
Welcome to the second quarter of 2024!
This edition of our newsletter highlights the progress made by the program during the first quarter and our continued efforts towards stakeholder outreach and operational excellence. Effective stakeholder engagement lies at the heart of our mission to foster safer working environments.
By promoting open dialogue and collaborative efforts with sector stakeholders, we aim to build a consensus-driven approach that prioritizes safety first and foremost. Additionally, operational excellence is at the core of the program; paying attention to detail and working in a collaborative manner establishes benchmarks for safety performance.
Navigating challenges and opportunities, we look forward to continuing to collaborate to ensure safe working conditions across the sector.
As we step into 2024, we are pleased to bring you the latest edition of the Life and Building Safety (LABS) Initiative’s Quarterly Newsletter. It is with immense pride and gratitude that we share a monumental achievement: by the end of 2023, our initiative reached an incredible milestone of one million workers globally!
This accomplishment is a testament to our collective efforts and dedication and the industry’s willingness to embrace safer practices.
In 2023, our focus on operational excellence propelled us forward. We actively worked towards enhancing LABS Standards, forging partnerships, and making a tangible impact on the lives of textile-industry workers.
Looking ahead, we are excited about the opportunities that 2024 holds for us. We aspire to build upon the momentum of 2023, continually improving and expanding our reach to make an even greater impact on the well-being of workers worldwide.
We are pleased to share this newsletter with you, summarising last quarter’s highlights. From productive meetings with global brands to vital collaborations in Cambodia, we have been at the forefront of initiatives aimed at improving industry standards. We invite you to delve into the following pages to discover the latest developments and the tangible progress that we have been making together, step by step, towards a safer, more ethical, and gender-inclusive future in the apparel, footwear, accessories, and home textile industry.