Portfolio |
Initiative for Compliance on Sustainability (ICS)
Benefits
There is a clear need for greater visibility and transparency in the supply chains, in the business relationships at play and on working conditions and environmental impacts data. Transparency and traceability
are thus at the cornerstone of this revolution as powerful tools for the promotion of corporate accountability for garment workers’ rights.
![](https://sm.sustainable-trade.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Carole-Hommey.png)
« Transparency and traceability are at the cornerstone of the revolution to promote corporate accountability for workers’ rights.
ICS with its 50+ members fully believe that Sustainability Map, an opened and neutral platform, will help monitor and control working conditions and environmental impacts across highly globalized networks of actors. »
Background
The opacity of global supply chains is becoming ever more criticized. The challenges to ensure good working conditions in the textile industry, including both social and environmental issues, involve all actors.
Consumers and brands are pressing for greater visibility and transparency in the supply chains, in the business relationships at play and on working conditions and environmental impacts data. Transparency and traceability are thus at the cornerstone of this revolution as powerful tools for the promotion of corporate accountability for garment workers’ rights.
Both consumers and brands are pressing for change and this can be a great opportunity for factories to be part of this change. On the one hand, consumers do not want to buy clothes made by women and men working in dangerous conditions, over-worked, paid poverty-level wages or in polluted environments or simply if they do not have enough information on the goods they wear. On the other hand, both brands and factories benefit from greater transparency, encouraging them to engage and collaborate with various stakeholders such as civil society groups and trade unions in order to identify and remedy problems more swiftly, leading to better and fairer working conditions in factories.
Collaboration
ITC in partnership with ICS have created a FREE online gateway named Sustainability Map that enables factories to gain visibility in the international supply chains and connect to international buyers. Companies can easily create and manage online profiles and start to market their businesses.
Since its launch in 2017, over 50’000 companies, including international buyers, intermediaries and producers from more than 20 countries, have created their company profiles on the Sustainability Map platform.
To join the platform, factories receive invitations from ICS Members with whom they are already doing business. The Factory ID has already been populated by data provided through the ICS audit process (limited to general data about their company’s location, production and processing activities). Factories are invited to check or if needed to update data relative to their identification only before accepting to make it publicly available through Sustainability Map. Information about the ICS audits’ dates and types will be automatically shared and would not be modified. Factories own their Factory ID and can modify and update information about their factory identification, with the goal to share this data first with their ICS members’ clients and then by publishing transparently their Factory ID to make their business more transparent and attractive to international buyers. The Factory ID identifies a factory as one of the suppliers of a specific or multiple ICS Members.
The project
Partnership Objective
Launched
Sector(s):
![](https://sm.sustainable-trade.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/noun_Shirt_1241509.jpeg)
![](https://sm.sustainable-trade.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/noun_Pie-Chart_1929555.jpeg)
Partners
![](https://sm.sustainable-trade.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ICS_Logotypes_Couleur_desktop-300x300.png)
Funded by
![](https://sm.sustainable-trade.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/EC-300x79.png)
Selected projects
More in our portfolio
EU City Award
Showcase how EU cities set an example by having a global impact on sustainable, fair and ethical trade through local efforts.
EU Cities for Fair and Ethical Trade Award
The Award recognizes visionary EU cities which show leadership, and helps connect cities to exchange knowledge and share good practices in order to scale up cities’ efforts and their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals.
eco.business Fund Sustainability Standards Self-Assessment Tool
The eco.business Fund and the International Trade Centre have joined forces to enable businesses assess compliance against sustainability standards and potentially access preferential bank loans based on their sustainability score