For almost ten years, the fashion industry focused on transparency and traceability as a tool for ensuring social progress in supply chains. Prior to this, the industry relied on social compliance to improve labor conditions. Unfortunately, the social compliance system is plagued with dysfunctions (corruption among them) and audit fatigue (an exorbitant amount of a facility’s resources, time and money being exhausted by multiple audits from different clients throughout the year).
Responsible purchasing practices most often codified in codes of conduct, are a new foundation for social and labor programs, but they’re just a start. On this episode of Unspun, Lauren, Catherine and Danielle sit down to discuss the birth of social compliance, transparency and traceability and what’s needed to create radical accountability: shifting our lens to the entire value chain.