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Material Concerns:How responsible sourcing can deliver the goods
Material Concerns: How responsible sourcing can deliver the goods for business and workers in the garment industry, is a report which Impactt has co-authored with the fairtrade organisation Traidcraft on purchasing practices in the garment industry.This report is aimed at the sourcing and commercial directors of retailers and brands and sets out a new approach to sourcing which both protects and enhances commercial goals and improves labour practices in the supply base. The report provides:
- A clear set of operational principles setting out the ground rules for efficient and ethical purchasing.
- scorecards for buyers and suppliers to incentivise efficiency and better ethical behaviour
These give players in the garment industry the opportunity to create a virtuous circle, ‘better, cheaper, faster, more ethical’, delivering commercial targets, efficiencies, labour standards targets and reputational risk reduction.
The report is based on interviews with retailers, sourcing offices, agents, manufacturers and workers. The research was conducted in the UK. Hong Kong, China, Bangladesh and Cambodia.
Impactt and Traidcraft hope that the recommendations in this report will help sourcing directors in fashion brands to deliver the goods for business and workers.