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Social Fingerprint® Online Courses
- Getting Started in Your Company
- Building Your Internal Social Performance Team SA8000® Online Auditor Training Courses - SA8000® Revision Course
Professional Development Series - SA8000® Introduction Sao Paulo, Brazil March 26 & June 4, 2012
SA8000® Basic Auditor Training
Feb 13-17, Istanbul, Turkey Feb 13-17, Hamburg, Germany Feb 19-23, Dhaka, Bangladesh Feb 20-24, Mumbai, India Feb 27-March 2, New Jersey, USA
Feb 8-10, Shanghai, China
Feb 8-10, Bucharest, Romania
Feb 13-15, Shanghai, China
Feb 29-March 2, Hamburg, Germany
Full training schedule
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(New York, NY)
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Social Accountability International (SAI) is a non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization established to advance the human rights of workers by promoting decent work conditions, labor rights, and corporate social responsibility through voluntary standards and capacity building.
SAI is headquartered in the United States with field representation in Brazil, China, Costa Rica, India, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Philippines, Switzerland, and UAE.
For newsletter inquiries contact:SAI Communications Manager- Joleen Ong, jong@sa-intl.org |
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 SAI President Recognized as one of 2012's Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior
For the second year in a row, Alice Tepper Marlin was chosen by Trust Across America™, after a competitive selection period
 | SAI President Alice Tepper Marlin was recognized as one of 2012's Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior for the second year in a row
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SAI President Alice Tepper Marlin was recognized as one of 2012's 100 Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior by Trust Across America (TAA). The Top 100 Thought Leaders were chosen after an 8-week public nomination period, followed by a competitive selection process by a panel of 6 judges that represent diverse backgrounds.
The recipients of this honor include individuals from both the public and private sector and varied backgrounds -- authors, consultants, researchers, academics and CEOs. Honorees this year include Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo; Terry Mollner, Executive Director of Trusteeship Institute, Inc.; Ron Berenbeim, Professor at NYU; Jed Emerson, Executive Vice President of ImpactAssets; Thomas Friedman, NY Times columnist; and Hazel Henderson, Founder of Ethical Markets Media.
TAA, a New York-based think tank that seeks to measure and applaud responsible business conduct, states, "an organization cannot be deemed trustworthy without a culture that embraces the following characteristics: Financial stability and strength, Accounting conservativeness, Corporate integrity, Transparency, Sustainability and long-term Reputation preservation." These elements are also criteria that TAA used when selecting the Top 100 Thought Leaders.
The Top 100 is a program of Next Decade, Inc., a firm that has been committed to unraveling and simplifying complex subjects for over twenty years. TAA has a twofold mission: to help rebuild trustworthy behavior in public U.S. companies, and to provide an educational forum for companies to share their best practices.
To learn more about Trust Across America and to see the full list of honorees, please visit the Trust Across America website at http://trustacrossamerica.com. For more information, contact SAI Communications Manager Joleen Ong at JOng@sa-intl.org.
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Social Fingerprint® at Timberland's Global Summit
The 1st Social Fingerprint® Trainer Certification course - Timberland assessors to help improve supplier capacity
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SAI Dir. of Corporate Programs & Training, Craig Moss, leads two-day Social Fingerprint training in China for Timberland's assessors to help their suppliers' capacity.
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On January 12-13, 2012, SAI Director of Corporate Programs & Training, Craig Moss carried out a two-day training on Social Fingerprint® at Timberland's Global Summit in Zhuhai, China. At the Summit, Mr. Moss trained Timberland assessors on how to use Social Fingerprint® as a methodology to help its suppliers improve.
The training opened up with an exercise to help the auditors understand the attitudes, skills and knowledge needed to be a good auditor, and then compare that with the attitudes, skills and knowledge needed to be a good consultant. Auditors are focused on identifying issues in factories, whereas consultants are focused on identifying and implementing the solutions to those identified issues. This exercise also supports the assessors' transition from auditing to their new focus on supplier capacity building. The auditing function is now managed by VF staff, since Timberland was acquired by the VF Corporation in September 2011.
A key focus of the training was to compare a code-based approach with a process-based approach to social compliance. To drive improvement within a company, it is essential to supplement the traditional focus on code compliance and code violations, and to address the processes and systems that the company has in place. The Social Fingerprint® program takes a process-based approach to driving social compliance, encouraging more dialogue and supporting continual improvement.
SAI Lead Trainers, Mike Lee and Shirley To, helped to provide a local context to social compliance challenges that assessors face. This was illustrated through examples of how Social Fingerprint® has been used in China to help measure factories' systems, then to develop and implement improvement plans.
The course was the first step for the assessors to become Certified Social Fingerprint® Trainers. As certified trainers, they will be able to conduct independent evaluations, and provide training and technical assistance to the suppliers with an ultimate goal of helping suppliers to have a Certified Social Fingerprint® Team Leader at their facility who will lead the improve process.
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RAGS Project in India: Supplier Communications
SAI Communications Manager Joleen Ong joined SAI's Team in India to promote the RAGS Project & supplier communications
 | | From left: 1) SAI Lead Trainer Sanjiv Singh (left) and Communications Manager Joleen Ong (right) with Mridula Jain, Managing Director of Shingora Textiles (SA8000® certified); 2) Chandra R, General Manager, Operations of Bharat Silks (left) shows one of Bharat's creations to SAI India Director Rishi Singh (right); Joleen Ong stands with Mahima Shethi, HR Executive (center) and Creche Teacher, Jeevamani (right) at Shahi Exports (SA8000® certified). |
 In January 2012, SAI Communications Manager Joleen Ong joined SAI's team in India to support the RAGS Project with supplier communications. From the wool manufacturing cluster of Ludhiana in the North, to the silk producing hubs of Bangalore in the South, Joleen visited five factories (several SA8000® certified) to learn more about their operations, and elicit feedback on their efforts to maintain social compliance. In Ludhiana, Joleen visited Shingora Textiles (SA8000® certified) with SAI Lead Trainer Sanjiv Singh. In Bangalore, with SAI India Director Rishi Singh, she visited these workplaces: Shahi Exports (SA8000® certified) with S. Ravi and Sandhya Suresh from Bureau Veritas; Concord Creations (SA8000® Certification pending) with S. Muralidharan and Dr. Kalpana Muralidharan from RINA; Bharat Silks; and JJ Creations.
During these visits, Ms. Ong was pleased to discover several provisions for workers' welfare that also benefit the local community, such as on-site child care facilities, health clinics, reverse osmosis water filtration systems for potable water, and summer camps for workers' children. In particular, Shahi Exports - which has 29 factories in Bangalore, of which 5 are SA8000® certified, won Gold for Best Employer by the Apparel Exporters Promotion Council (APEC) of India for 2009-2010.
SAI hopes to further engage with these factories in the RAGS Project, to enhance existing social compliance programs and provide more opportunities to reach global retailers. More information about these factories will appear in forthcoming newsletters, and SAI's 2012 Annual Report. For more information about SAI's RAGS Project, visit www.sa-intl.org/indiaRAGS, or contact Joleen Ong at Jong@sa-intl.org. Back to top |
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Corporate Member Spotlight: Gucci
Gucci enhances its SA8000® path through CSR intiatives, and achieves Responsible Jewellery Council certification
 Together with its long lasting values of high quality and craftsmanship, Gucci - a SAI Corporate member since 2007- applies the principles of social, environmental and economic sustainability to every area of its business. This article specifically reports on several 2011 actions.
When, in 2004, the Florentine company defined a path of social responsibility, it included the entire production process, so that every link of the supply chain would adhere to strict environmental and social standards. This ambitious goal started to become a reality in a few years. In 2006, Gucci's suppliers in Italy participated in an EC-funded training on SA8000® in leather tanneries. This project was in collaboration with ETUF and the ITGLWF.
Since that time, the company has conducted 2,000 annual inspections of working conditions and about 400 supplier audits aimed at verifying compliance with sustainability principles. Regarding implementation of policies on personnel management, the company earned SA8000® certification in September 2011 for all of its Italian stores. This certification was awarded by Bureau Veritas.
In addition, the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) has just announced that the 90-year old luxury brand has earned certification by meeting the highest ethical, social and environmental standards established by the RJC's Member Certification System.
"Gucci is delighted to have achieved the RJC Member Certification two years after joining the Council as effective members," said Patrizio di Marco, Gucci President and CEO. "The certification gives me great pleasure since it represents a further step towards an always more authentic and genuine sense of responsibility that informs our company and the people who work with and for the Gucci brand. The certification not only reinforces the integrity of our processes, supply chains and final products also in this sector, but it also has a special meaning to me because it is related to a category that represents a relatively small part of our business. The total commitment and transparency that we have granted during the whole certification process is a testament to Gucci's desire to exceed not only in our core businesses, but in all the activities and initiatives that we put in place."
Attention to human rights is also a key priority that led the Florentine company in February 2011, to support the Clean Clothes Campaign's mission to end all sandblasting production processes. With the aim of promoting the health and safety of workers, Gucci, along with trade unions and research institutes, has launched an on-going discussion about the development of alternative techniques.
Furthermore, with the aim of enhancing the skills and well-being of all employees, Gucci in July 2011 signed a trade union agreement which redesigns and enhances welfare policies. During the same year, the company has intensified its educational activities on social responsibility aimed at all managers and employees in order to spread the culture of sustainability and to create new channels of dialogue between all staff.
From an environmental standpoint, in June 2010 Gucci launched a worldwide eco-friendly program designed to progressively reduce the company's impact on the environment. The centerpiece of this initiative is use of newly designed packaging to reduce materials. Also, Gucci uses FSC Certified paper, which is 100% recyclable.
On a global level, the Gucci's partnership with UNICEF entered its 7th year with a continuing focus on education through a contribution of a further, US$1.15 million to UNICEF's Schools for Africa initiative. This brings the total funds donated to over $10 million since 2005.
For more information, contact Rossella Ravagli, Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility Department at Gucci - rossella.ravagli@it.gucci.com- and Niccolo Moschini, Corporate Communications Department - niccolo.moschini@it.gucci.com.
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China: Exploring CSR Strategies - Electronic Industry
At a seminar hosted by CESA, strategies were explored to promote social responsibility in the booming electronics/IT sector
 | | CESA and CNTAC sign an memorandum of understanding at the CESA Seminar in Beijing on December 21, 2011 |
On December 21, 2011, the Launch Conference of the Social Responsibility Committee of the Chinese Electronics Standardization Association (CESA) and the First Members Assembly was held in Beijing. The focus of the seminar was to explore strategies to promote social responsibility in China's electronics/IT sector. Electronics/IT is China's number 1 export sector, with more than $500 billion US dollars export value in 2010. CESA is a business association affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
43 participants attended the seminar, mostly leading electronics/IT companies such as Lenovo, Huawei, China Electronics, Nokia, Sony etc. At the seminar, CESA launched a CSR Committee consisting of 27 members. It also signed a MOU for collaboration on CSR promotion with the CNTAC (China National Textile & Apparel Council, representing China's no. 3 export sector), which developed the CSC9000T, China's first sector-wide management system on CSR. This MOU lays a foundation for bilateral cooperation, and it also signals China's first cooperation plan in the field of social responsibility conducted between different industry organizations.
A CESA working group has developed draft Guidelines on Social Responsibility for the Electronics and Information Industry, with reference to international systems such as ISO26000 and SA8000®. This CSR Committee plans to finalize the draft in 2012 and develop assessment and training tools to help the industry in implementing the guidelines.
For more information, please contact SAI Communications Manager Joleen Ong at JOng@sa-intl.org.
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SAI Board of Directors Welcomes Joe Iarocci
After serving on SAI's Advisory Board for almost a decade, Mr. Iarocci also joins SAI's governing Board of Directors
 | | Joe Iarocci |
SAI is pleased to announce that Joseph J. Iarocci, President of Mission-Driven Partners and the former Chief of Staff at CARE USA, is now a member of SAI's Board of Directors. Mr. Iarocci has been a member of the SAI Advisory Board since 2003. His experience in both the nonprofit and business sectors will greatly contribute to the Board's existing diversity and expertise.
In his role at Mission-Driven Partners, Mr. Iarocci works with nonprofit organizations and social enterprises that seek greater innovation, growth and impact.
Mr. Iarocci served as Chief of Staff of CARE USA, one of the largest international NGOs dedicated to ending global poverty. Mr. Iarocci joined CARE in 1998 as General Counsel, serving as CARE's chief legal officer until 2004, when he was appointed Chief Financial Officer. In 2008, he became CARE's Chief of Staff, managing CARE's strategy and executive functions. Before joining CARE, Mr. Iarocci practiced business law in Atlanta and New York City. He received his A.B. magna cum laude from Brown University, his J.D. from the Cornell Law School and a Masters in Theological Studies from the Candler School of Theology, Emory University.
Mr. Iarocci is a director of MicroVest, a leading private sector microfinance investment fund. He serves on the board of the Georgia Center for Nonprofits and co-chairs the board of Citizen Effect. Mr. Iarocci is an adjunct faculty member at the Candler School of Theology, where he focuses on the intersection of religion, international development, human rights and corporate social responsibility.
For more information, contact SAI Communications Manager Joleen Ong at JOng@sa-intl.org.
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Enroll in Global SA8000® Auditor Training Courses
International Locations & Online Courses Available | |
SAI Lead Trainer, Sanjiv Singh (right), with participants from SAI's SA8000® Basic Auditor Training Course in New Delhi, India - 14-18 November, 2011
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Upcoming: SA8000 Basic Auditor Training Course
Location: Fairfield, NJ - Date: February 27-March 2, 2012 SAI training courses are designed to encourage proficiency in social compliance issues and emphasize the implementation of management systems. Learn about a management-system approach to social compliance auditing and supply chain management. These courses are required for all SA8000® or BSCI auditors, and are also valuable for auditing to any labor code or standard. The courses are open to all, and aimed towards social auditors, buyers, suppliers and corporate compliance managers.
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SAI Team Expands in New York
Please join us in welcoming the latest additions to SAI's team
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From left: Stephanie Wilson, Training Coordinator; Roshana Nabi, Research Associate; Yuting Zhu, Research Intern
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Stephanie Wilson, Training Coordinator
Stephanie Wilson joins SAI with extensive experience from her prior position as a Training Coordinator for a global IT training company. She has a long-standing interest in development and human rights and recently moved from Perth, Australia. Ms. Wilson is in the final stages of her Master's Degree in International & Community Development and has done extensive volunteer work, including projects in India. As SAI's Training Coordinator she will manage SAI's classroom training courses.
Roshana Nabi, Research Associate
Roshana Nabi is experienced in the field of international development, particularly in issues regarding corporate social responsibility and international migration. She worked for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and recently worked on projects with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Trade Organization. Ms. Nabi has a BA from Mount Holyoke College and a Master in International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
Yuting Zhu: Research InternYuting Zhu is a recent graduate of Boston University School of Law with a degree of Master of Laws (LLM), with a focus on labor rights and CSR. At SAI, she will help to support SAI's work in China, and the revised SA8000® guidance document. A native of China, she earned her first law degree with honors from Wuhan University Law School. Earlier, Ms. Zhu worked for the Institute of Contemporary Observation (ICO), a leading Chinese civil society organization in the field of labor development and CSR.
For more information, please contact Stephanie Wilson, SWilson@sa-intl.org; Roshana Nabi RNabi@sa-intl.org; and Yuting Zhu, ZYuting@sa-intl.org.
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New Statistics: SA8000® Around the World
Over 1.6 Million Workers are Employed in SA8000® Certified Facilities
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Number of workers, by country
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# Employees:1,648,086
# Certified Organizations: 2,785
# Countries Represented: 62
# Industries Represented: 65
# Accredited Organizations: 20
SA8000® Certified Facilities List
For more information, contact SAAS Program Manager, Lisa Bernstein at LBernstein@saasaccreditation.org.
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Highlights & Announcements
 | SAI Lead Trainer Sanjiv Singh stands with participants at the SA8000® Basic Auditor Training Course in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Jan 16-20, 2012. Participants included members of the Sri Lanka Standards Institution, and certification bodies' staff.
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SAI participated in Meta-Culture's second Garment Sector Roundtable Meeting in Bangalore, India, Jan 19-20. From left: Ashok Panikkar, Meta-Culture; Joleen Ong, SAI; Beth Fascitelli, Meta-Culture, Rishi Singh, SAI.
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2nd Annual Garment Sector Roundtable On Jan 19-20 in Bangalore, SAI participated in Meta-Culture's second multi-stakeholder Garment Sector Roundtable to discuss key issues in the Indian garment sector (see photo, left).
SAI Presents at Wellesley College's Albright Institute On Jan 17, SAI Executive Director Eileen Kaufman spoke at Wellesley College's Madeline Albright Institute for Global Affairs 2012 Program. Her talk is available online @bit.ly/zIE1Ok
Social Fingerprint® & SA8000® Training Seminar in Shenzhen SAI conducted a one-day seminar on the Social Fingerprint® program and the SA8000® standard. During the seminar, key issues discussed were the difficulties in the field of social compliance auditing, and possible solutions (see photo, right).
 | On Jan 16 in Shenzhen, China, SAI led a seminar on Social Fingerprint®® and SA8000® in Shenzhen, China. From left: Mike Lee, Lead Trainer; Cherry Liu; Phoenix Zhang; Craig Moss, Dir. of Corporate Programs & Training; and Shirley To, Lead Trainer.
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Social Fingerprint® Webinar in the Middle East On January 25, SAI Lead Trainer, Sanjiv Singh, and SAI Director of Corporate Programs and Training, Craig Moss, hosted an online demo of the Social Fingerprint® Program for Middle East and South Asia-based participants.
Public Comment Period: UN Women Gender Equity Standard In response to SAI & UN Women's public announcement for feedback on the standard, we received over 100 responses from a wide variety of people, including NGOs, academic, intergovernmental agencies and gender experts. The public comment period closed Jan 31, 2012.
ASHCA Workshop: Implications of Public Policy & Corporate Practice On Jan 26 in Washington, D.C., SAI Senior Manager Matthew Fischer-Daly presented presentation at this event on SAI's Project Cultivar and findings from the Project's final report on impact. More info @www.ashca.com
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