A new management platform for corporate social responsibility and sustainability has launched, garnering support from a cohort of industry initiatives, including Oeko-Tex, Fairtrade International, and The Ethical Trading Initiative.
The platform follows an agreement between the Brussels-based European Apparel and Textile Confederation (Euratex) and global union IndustriAll to coordinate an action plan started in 2013 on CSR in the textile and clothing sector, financed by the European Commission.
Now, responsiblesupplychain.eu supports companies to “do things right”, and aims to improve supply chain performances through managing CSR-related issues.
The platform is designed to provide support for the European textile and clothing sector, mostly composed of small and medium-sized textile enterprises, to effectively and efficiently manage CSR and sustainability issues along the supply chain.
According to the website it allows users to evaluate the current CSR risk level of a company, of the supply chain of a specific product, and of specific suppliers, and identify priorities of actions while managing mitigation measures. It also offers suggestions and guidelines to implement such actions, an evaluation of the results, guidance for continual improvement and a repository area for CSR documents.
The platform is also the hosting site for the first web-based tool designed to allow textile and clothing companies to manage their CSR compliance. It works to spread CSR knowledge among EU SMEs by simulating the levels of risk along the supply chain and suggests ways to mitigate possible risks of non-compliance.
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By GlobalDataThe process is based on three sequential steps: risk assessment; evaluation of results; and risk mitigation.
The risk assessment module provides a company report at the end of the process, that defines the CSR-risk profile of a supplier (or group of suppliers) for a given company.
Meanwhile, the risk mitigation module, provides a set of suggestions and supporting documents for corrective actions, which start at the end of the assessment phase. The tool also allows users to manage risk mitigation activities, such as programmes for a better knowledge of the supplier, revision of existing contracts, implementation of better controls, certifications.
