Shein has allocated an additional $85 million across a five-year period toward its initiatives supporting social and environmental governance, the company announced in a news release Thursday.
The new influx of funding adds to the company’s previous $70 million commitment made in April, for a total of $155 million in funding across five years.
The funds are earmarked to support the company’s “Equitable Empowerment” program, which focuses on improving the lives of Shein’s community. Fifty million dollars of the new funds will be directed toward aspiring designers, and $35 million will flow to “women, young people and the underprivileged,” per the release. The April funding was set aside for suppliers.
The move is part of the company’s larger three-part ESG strategy, which also includes initiatives focused on sustainability, waste reduction and circularity.
"At [Shein], we aim to empower our different stakeholder communities with the tools, capabilities and funding to improve and change lives, whether in their personal or professional capacity," Molly Miao, COO of Shein, said in the release. "This fund will support these communities to grow alongside [Shein], towards a more equitable future."
The previously announced funding commitment aimed to boost Shein’s manufacturing supplier community. As part of the Supplier Community Empowerment Program, the company has said it wants to help its manufacturing supplier community transform traditional production models. Some of those enhancements include technology advancements, factory and facilities enhancements, and additional training and upskilling for workers and services for communities within Shein’s supplier ecosystems in Brazil, China and Turkey.
Shein’s financial boost to its supply chain comes as it faces scrutiny over labor practices in its supply chain. The U.S. House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party is asking Shein and other companies including Temu, Adidas and Nike to detail their compliance with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a law enacted in 2021 that bans products from the Xinjiang region in China.
