Working with vendors towards an ethical supply chain

The downturn has put more pressure on suppliers and ethical practices are suffering. Helen Gilbert asks how to encourage vendors in the right direction.

Unethical supply chain conditions may not be a new topic but it is clearly a problem that refuses to go away.

In the past month two damning investigations have exposed the exploitation of factory workers in China and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

So why does unsavoury behaviour persist? According to Dan Rees, director of the Ethical Trading Initiative, sometimes the worst supply chain problems can occur in locations that are the hardest to reach.

"If the raw materials are sourced in countries where the rule of law has broken down, like Congo, it is virtually impossible for retailers to trace their supplies of raw materials down to the source," Rees tells SM.

"In these cases, it can be hard for individual companies to exercise sufficient influence on their own. Industry-wide approaches are needed, involving all key players from retailers down to the mines themselves, as well as governments. We're already starting to see this kind of collaboration in the cotton industry."

Fiona Dowson, senior sustainability advisor at Forum for the Future, insists many managers still "underestimate" what is involved in reducing unethical issues in the supply chain. "It takes much more than an annual supplier questionnaire to make progress," she says.

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