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A group of multinational retailers is to attempt to develop a single
global standard for ethical supply chain management that would replace
existing models and be used by all sectors.
The plan, a response to complaints that the business world is awash with CSR-related codes and standards, will be taken forward by Comité International d'Entreprises à Succursales (CIES), a Paris-based global network of 400 retailers and suppliers in more than 150 countries. Members backing the idea include the world's four largest supermarket chains - Carrefour, Metro, Tesco and Wal-Mart - which have combined annual sales of over $500billion (£384bn).
Details are still sketchy but more information is expected this month after CIES, which is also known as the Food Business Forum, has discussed the project, which it is calling the Global Social Compliance Programme. Migros, Switzerland's largest retailer, is likely to take a leading role in developing it.
CIES says a single, overarching programme is needed because 'the number of codes has proliferated and approaches have diverged', leading to 'duplication of effort, confusion amongst suppliers, and inefficiency'. It hopes the programme will become the main ethical supply chain vehicle for businesses in all sectors and will offer 'a platform where all concerned parties can develop a shared and global approach to the monitoring of working conditions in the global supply chain, based on best practices'. It says the standard, although new, 'will build on the very best of existing systems'.
Companies and their suppliers have long complained that the large number of ethical supply chain codes and monitoring mechanisms, among them the Ethical Trading Initiative, Social Accountability International's SA8000 workplace standard, and the Foreign Trade Association's Business Social Compliance Initiative, is confusing. Its effort to remedy this is noteworthy chiefly for the size of the organizations involved: CIES members have combined turnovers of $2000bn a year, 4.5 million employees and 600,000 stores.
Nevertheless, reception has been mixed. Dan Rees, director of the Ethical Trading Initiative, said the programme might limit duplication, but Alice Tepper Marlin, chief executive of Social Accountability International, told EP: 'The proliferation of additional programmes - in this case one designed by industry alone without the benefit of stakeholder participation - is not constructive.'
Ineke Zeldenrust, founder of the Clean Clothes Campaign, said CIES members would be better served by joining an existing supply chain organization. 'What we don't need is another platform to discuss codes or standards,' she said.
The plan, a response to complaints that the business world is awash with CSR-related codes and standards, will be taken forward by Comité International d'Entreprises à Succursales (CIES), a Paris-based global network of 400 retailers and suppliers in more than 150 countries. Members backing the idea include the world's four largest supermarket chains - Carrefour, Metro, Tesco and Wal-Mart - which have combined annual sales of over $500billion (£384bn).
Details are still sketchy but more information is expected this month after CIES, which is also known as the Food Business Forum, has discussed the project, which it is calling the Global Social Compliance Programme. Migros, Switzerland's largest retailer, is likely to take a leading role in developing it.
CIES says a single, overarching programme is needed because 'the number of codes has proliferated and approaches have diverged', leading to 'duplication of effort, confusion amongst suppliers, and inefficiency'. It hopes the programme will become the main ethical supply chain vehicle for businesses in all sectors and will offer 'a platform where all concerned parties can develop a shared and global approach to the monitoring of working conditions in the global supply chain, based on best practices'. It says the standard, although new, 'will build on the very best of existing systems'.
Companies and their suppliers have long complained that the large number of ethical supply chain codes and monitoring mechanisms, among them the Ethical Trading Initiative, Social Accountability International's SA8000 workplace standard, and the Foreign Trade Association's Business Social Compliance Initiative, is confusing. Its effort to remedy this is noteworthy chiefly for the size of the organizations involved: CIES members have combined turnovers of $2000bn a year, 4.5 million employees and 600,000 stores.
Nevertheless, reception has been mixed. Dan Rees, director of the Ethical Trading Initiative, said the programme might limit duplication, but Alice Tepper Marlin, chief executive of Social Accountability International, told EP: 'The proliferation of additional programmes - in this case one designed by industry alone without the benefit of stakeholder participation - is not constructive.'
Ineke Zeldenrust, founder of the Clean Clothes Campaign, said CIES members would be better served by joining an existing supply chain organization. 'What we don't need is another platform to discuss codes or standards,' she said.
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