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Making supply chains in the textile industry transparent
Knowing and understanding your own supply chain is a fundamental prerequisite for the implementation of corporate due diligence obligations.
Companies can only effectively counter social, environmental and corruption risks in their supply chain if they know where, how and by whom their products are manufactured.
In order to enable long-term improvements for people and the environment in supply chains, good, interoperable supply chain data must be publicly accessible. This is the only way to identify opportunities for cooperation between companies, exploit synergies and increase impact. This benefits rights holders in particular. In addition, consumers, investors and legislators increasingly expect companies’ knowledge about the origin and production conditions of textiles to be made transparent to the outside world.
Supply chain transparency and incident management in the textile industry remain key priorities for the stakeholders in the Textile Dialogue. The DST relies on the use of established external resources: Participating companies are strongly encouraged to upload their data to tools such as the Open Supply Hub to enhance transparency in their supply chains.
Open Supply Hub
The Open Supply Hub is an open source tool that maps textile production sites worldwide and assigns them a unique identification number. The OS Hub is thus a point of contact for identifying production facilities and their affiliations by compiling supplier lists from different players from all sectors in a central, independent and publicly accessible database. In this way, the OS Hub aims to improve the identification of production sites and thus promote closer cooperation between the various stakeholders.
Textile Incident List
The Textile Incident List, maintained by DST participants FEMNET, HEJSupport, INKOTA, and SÜDWIND, is a key resource for our network. With its detailed, scientifically grounded approach, it examines individual incidents in the textile industry and presents them in a clear and organised manner. Brands and suppliers can use the list as a starting point for risk mitigation and the implementation of their HREDD commitments to act efficiently and address incidents appropriately.
Guide “Step by step to more transparency in the supply chain”
Together with the Green Button and in cooperation with focusright GmbH, the Dialogue and Impact for Sustainable Textiles has developed a guide to help companies achieve more transparency in their supply chains. The guide provides helpful information on the role of supply chain transparency in the implementation of due diligence obligations. A particular focus is on mapping the deeper tiers of the supply chain and the associated actors. It provides guidance on how more transparency can be created externally and what options are available for disclosing supply chain data.