Accelerating social and environmental supply chain due diligence, SAC gets funding of €1 million

Global multi-stakeholder non-profit alliance promoting sustainable practices for the consumer goods industry, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) has entered into a partnership with the Initiative for Global Solidarity (IGS) to coordinate a project to boost industry wide convergence around both environmental and social and labour assessment methodologies in the garment and footwear sector.

The initiative is in collaboration with the Apparel Impact Institute (Aii), ZDHC, Implementation Hub and the Social & Labor Convergence Program (SLCP).

The funding of approximately €1 million is geared towards accelerating social and environmental supply chain due diligence, and targets suppliers in selected global value chains, brands and retailers as well as workers at supplier factories.

With the aim of creating and expanding the use of open data standards for social and  environmental performance, this project will have the potential to make a significant impact towards transparency and greater sustainability in the textile and garment industry and beyond.

As a result, a crucial success factor for the project will be the widest possible adoption of the data standards amongst producers, auditors, sustainability organisations and brands.

The project will employ three key principles that will inform the work, active stakeholder engagement, openness and transparency and a focus on improvement.

Andrew Martin, Vice President Membership and Stakeholder Engagement, SAC said, “We are excited to receive this funding and truly see it as an opportunity to move the needle further, making even bigger strides towards achieving industry-wide collaboration and transformation. As an organisation united by a shared vision to move the consumer goods industry into one that gives more than it takes, to the people and the planet, we see this project as an opportunity to further our efforts and drive real and positive change by creating synergies with our partners and aligning around sustainability goals, tools and programmes that will help us to achieve these goals.”