Sedex explains joining Treedom is part of its new mission to become a leader in driving social and environmental sustainability in supply chains. This is alongside its roadmap to develop more effective data tools, insights, and assessment solutions (including the SMETA audit) to support businesses’ supply chain ESG goals. The company pointed out that it is parallelly developing its own sustainability programme. Treedom platform, founded in 2010, runs its projects in partnership with local organisations that have a social purpose, such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or farmers’ cooperatives, to plant the right trees for a region’s people and biodiversity. The platform provides freely available information on each tree’s species, coordinates, a photo, and its estimated CO2 absorption for its first 10 years, for transparency about all its forests. Sedex’s Treedom forest already includes 200 geolocated trees across Cameroon, Madagascar, Tanzania and more. These trees will capture an estimated 31 tonnes of CO2 in 10 years. The positive impacts aren’t just environmental, but social too – such as cacao trees in Cameroon providing an additional source of income. Maurizio Capuzzo, Sedex's chief marketing officer, said: "Our commitment to driving social and environmental progress is unwavering. At Sedex, we firmly believe that actions speak louder than words. By partnering with Treedom, we’re excited to leverage their intelligent platform and tap into a wider network to scale our impact. This collaboration presents a fantastic opportunity for Sedex to contribute to projects that capture CO2, foster ecosystem diversity, and support local communities. We look forward to seeing our forest flourish with our valued customers, partners, and dedicated Sedex teams' support." Treedom's business development manager, Vanina Ricci, added: "We are incredibly excited to partner with Sedex, who are doing many wonderful things to be a leading sustainable business in their sector. I’m proud that Treedom now forms a part of their ESG strategy. I can’t wait to see how this partnership develops over time.” Sedex is launching its Treedom forest at this week’s Sustainable Apparel and Textiles Conference USA event in New York. The company plans to build its forest throughout 2023. Earlier in February, Sedex appointed Ross Heritage as its chief technology officer in time to help deliver the company’s new strategy to drive supply chain ESG (environment, social and governance). The following month, Sedex's Sustainability Awards ceremony recognised businesses for their efforts to drive social and environmental sustainability in global supply chains.