Certified Facilities: 2093

Countries Represented: 64

Industries Represented: 66

Number of Employees: 1,150,644

"The CSR field has been searching for simple ways to measure the social compliance of companies and their supply chains. The environmental model of CSR has come up with the "carbon footprint." Simple. Quantifiable. Memorable.

Social compliance in the supply chain is a highly complex issue. It is dealing with issues that are of grave importance to people's lives. It is rooted in the ongoing struggle to bring fairness and dignity to workers... The challenge is to distill the measurements in a way that is credible to all parties in the multi-stakeholder community: to distill without losing the essence and to distill without forgetting the true purpose of the battle for continual improvement in the supply chain.

In searching for the social equivalent of the carbon footprint, I believe that the most important indicator is the degree to which a brand or retailer has truly integrated its social compliance policy into the day-to-day activities of its merchandising and sourcing departments. The degree of integration is the social KPI for all stakeholders to measure a company's social compliance performance in its supply chain. It is simple, quantifiable, memorable, and credible."
 
This chapter was written by Craig Moss, Director of Corporate Programs and Training, SAI. For more information or to order a copy of this book, click here

This holiday season, SAI will send all donors a gift copy of "SA8000: The First Decade." Click here to donate to SAI

This December, SAI carried out two two-day Professional Development training seminars in Mumbai and Bangalore, which addressed "Implementing a Socially Responsible Supply Chain."

The December seminars were a follow-up to SAI's Professional Development seminars that took place in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Pune last April, "Enhancing Competitiveness through Improving Social Compliance." The December seminars built on the learnings from April, and highlighted key concepts of social compliance, explaining the management systems required and demonstrating practical techniques for building internal social compliance teams.

The seminars brought together a mix of returning participants and newcomers. Returning participants were encouraged to bring 2-3 key suppliers in an effort to extend social compliance systems further into the supply chain. Returning participants also engaged in dialogue about progress since last April and about their next steps.

On December 3-4, in India's commercial city of Mumbai, the two-day seminar had over 30 participants from diverse sectors-manufacturing, automotive, retailing, global sourcing, banking, information technology, garment and textiles, engineering, and pharmaceutical healthcare. The seminar was jointly led by Craig Moss, SAI's Director of Corporate Programs and Training, Badri Gulur, SAI Authorized Representative and Lead Trainer, and Madhuri Lele, SAI Authorized Representative.

On December 7-8, in Bangalore, India's 'Silicon Valley,' the seminar's 30-plus participants represented engineering, manufacturing, textile, pharmaceutical, and automotive sectors. This seminar was led by Craig Moss, Badri Gulur, and Pramitha Achaiah, SAI Authorized Representative.

At the heart of the program is SAI's Tiered Rating System. Designed for use in a company and its supply chain, the process-based rating system focuses on measuring and improving social performance. Participants did a self-assessment and identified specific areas for improvement in their company and among their suppliers.

Several participants commented that they were impressed with the "practicality" of the tiered system with its 'measure and improve' approach, and pledged to integrate it immediately in their companies.

These seminars in India were made possible thanks to the generosity and support of GTZ, the German Technical Cooperation Agency.

These seminars are aspects of SAI's Professional Development Series (PDS). First launched in Fall 2008 in New York, PDS training consists of one- and two-day courses targeted to the specific needs of sourcing personnel, corporate compliance managers, suppliers and auditors. Professional Development courses offered include: Building internal Compliance Teams, Control of Sub-Contractors, Management Systems for Social Compliance, Integrating Sourcing and Compliance.

For more information about SAI's Professional Development Series click here
To view the current course training schedules, click here

SAI is pleased to report that on December 4, Anvil Knitwear's interactive new website, www.TrackMyT.com was named Best Site of the Day from the Favourite Website Awards (FWA).

As reported in our November newsletter, at the time of the website's launch. The "TrackMyT" website enables consumers to follow a product's journey and explore the cotton farms, gin and spinners, as well as Anvil's textile mills, cut and sew plants, and distribution facility-- just through entering the tracking number printed on each shirt. SAI congratulates Anvil's efforts towards  in  transparency, social and environmental responsibility, and its expansion of the scope of its audience to include youth with this educational and interactive website.

Anvil Knitwear, Inc. has been a signatory member of SAI's Corporate Programs since 2007, which is the strongest level of company commitment towards the SA8000 standard.

For more information about Anvil, please visit www.anvilknitwear.com and www.anvilcsr.com

In November 2009, SAI Corporate Programs member, the Otto Group, teamed up with the Grameen Trust in an innovative joint venture--the Grameen Otto Textile Company-- a modern social business for the production of textiles. This joint venture will be set up as a "Factory of the Future" in Dhaka, Bangladesh. All profits from this joint venture will go to a foundation-the Grameen Otto Trust- rather than being distributed to owners or investors; the Trust will invest all profits for improving living conditions of employees, their families, and sponsored communities.

"Poor people do not ask for charity, as charity is not a solution for poverty. They want to work in order to earn their livelihood," said Nobel Laureate, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Trust, "the Grameen Otto Textile Company creates work for the poor. It will act as an example against poverty in the world."

The "Factory of the Future," with an initial workforce of 500-700 people, will produce clothing for export, under socially and ecologically sustainable conditions. The aim of the project is to break the cycle of poverty in Bangladesh by providing good jobs, opportunity, and community investment.

Dr. Michael Otto, co-initiator of the project and Chairman of the Otto Group's Supervisory Board, added, "the Grameen Otto Textile Company will show that it really is possible to reconcile ecological and social criteria with economic goals. It should become a model for textile production in Bangladesh and for similar factories all around the world."

The Grameen Otto Textile Company aims to grow in a sustainable way, with expansion of the factory at the Dhaka site planned for the second phase, and expansion to other sites in Bangladesh and abroad in its third, long-term phase.

Based in Hamburg, Germany, the Otto Group is the largest mail-order group in the world, as well as the biggest online retailer in Germany. It was a founding member of SAI's Advisory Board, and joined SAI's Corporate Programs in 1999 at Supporting level.

For more information on how to become a member of SAI's Corporate Programs, click here  
To read the Otto Group's full press release, click here
For further information, please visit www.ottogroup.com