The Growing Demand for Supply Chain Transparency
Two recent announcements related to clothing and coal supply chains offer small but notable illustrations of the growing public interest in tracking the social and environmental effects of various products.
Indigenous Designs, an organic, fair-trade fashion company, has been working with Worldways Social Marketing to develop the Fair Trace Tool – a technology that allows consumers to connect with artisans, farmers and laborers, see their stories, and view the supply chain maps and social-impact data related to the products they people produce.
Now the Santa Rosa, Calif., clothier has launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $30,000 to help make the tool available to “socially conscious brands that can’t afford it,” and to help pay for research into the social effects of fair trade in the developing world. The Sept. 30 through Oct. 30 campaign had raised $9,450 as of Friday afternoon, Oct. 11.
The online tool will enable consumers to scan a QR code to connect to videotaped stories about the workers who made their clothing or grew their food, see supply chain maps and view “social impact data” from the artisans, Indigenous says in an Oct. 7 announcement.
“No one should suffer or die to make what we consume. Unsafe and unfair labor conditions exist because many products are sourced in places where regulation is weak, exploitive wages are the norm and sweatshop conditions are unchallenged,” the campaign website says.
“With 1,129 garment workers killed in a single Bangladesh factory collapse, and more than 10,000 farmers killed each year by pesticides, it is time for a positive change. That change begins when we all know more about the origins of what we consume. That’s where this project comes in. The Fair Trace Tool enables companies engaged in fair trade to easily share the personal stories of people and communities in their supply chain, to map product origin, and to provide social impact research data.”
The Fair Trace Tool integrates technology from other organizations that promote fair trade and transparent supply chains, including supply-chain mapping firm SourceMap, the anti-poverty financial services-providing Grameen Foundation, and supply chain worker-oriented technology concern Good World Solutions.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit group Bettercoal announced on Oct. 7 that it chose sustainability data management software from CRedit360 to analyze “the ethical, social and environmental impacts of coal mining supply chains.” The online “Bettercoal Performance Database” will help coal buyers make responsible purchasing choices, the group says.
“CRedit360’s sustainability software provides an easy-to-use interface for coal mines, while its sophisticated data management tools allow a high level of precision and detailed analysis,” Martin Christie, Executive Director, Bettercoal, says in a press release. A group of major coal buyers established Bettercoal last year to promote improvement of corporate responsibility in the supply chain, the group says.
