Can you give us a little bit of detail about Mantis World, and how you produce your product ranges?

Mantis World offers high quality, ethically made clothing for adults, children and babies to the imprintables market. We work closely with our factories in Tanzania, East Africa and other suppliers to ensure that everything we do meets requirements for ethical and environmentally friendly production. We strive for transparency at every stage of production - working with vertically integrated mills for over 90 per cent of our range so we know exactly where and how every process takes place.

How does Mantis World support ethical practice?

As a company we support fair trade, fair wages and fair working conditions, along with reasonable working hours. We have absolutely no child labour, no forced labour, no migrant workforce and no discrimination of any kind. The Mantis World range achieved the highest marks during social compliance and ethical audits for the BSCI (Business Social Compliance Initiative), and our factory meets international labour standards as set out by the ILO, the OECD and United Nations.

In what ways is the Mantis World clothing environmentally friendly?

The organic cotton which is used in our ‘Tender Loving Clothing' (TLC) is very sustainable. The collection is environmentally friendly because it is made with 100 per cent GM-free certified organic cotton, which is processed without the use of any damaging chemicals or pesticides. This collection holds GOTS certificate (Global Organic Textile Standard) which covers environmental impact, social compliance and transparency for every step of production and distribution.

Why don't the Mantis World products carry the Fairtrade mark?

Currently there are no Fairtrade certified cotton farmers in East Africa where our factory is based. However, we feel that it would be unfair to move our factories and penalise the farmers we have worked with for decades simply because a European standard is not yet available to them. We also believe it is more important to keep much needed employment and value addition in Africa as part of our "Trade not Aid" ethos. Our Tanzanian and Ugandan organic cotton farmers receive a premium for their certified organic cotton very similar to Fairtrade. Our farmers also receive a guaranteed purchase volume, which offers better stability than the Fairtrade system under which any surplus is sold at conventional prices with no benefit to the farmer.  We have however been in regular contact with the Fairtrade Foundation for several years to get the scheme set up in East Africa.

What are your thoughts about the promotional clothing industry as a whole? Do you think others could be doing more to be ethically and environmentally sound?

Customers and consumers are obviously much more aware of ethical and environmental issues and now demand information about the origins and credentials of their clothing. The industry has in general risen to this however there is a significant risk of ‘greenwashing' in our industry. Quotes such as "the greenest T shirt on the planet" or claims of making zero impact on the world are misleading, undermine trust and customers get cynical. To be authentic and instill trust, manufacturers and suppliers should be factual and honest (about both their achievements and where they can still improve).

Most importantly perhaps, the whole industry should understand that the price model may vary. If we don't want unsafe, environmentally unsound and sweatshop made products, we might need to pay a little more.

Everyone in the supply chain from the manufacturer, distributor to the client may need to revise their margin expectation to make sure the right product can hit the market at the right price.

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