078. Manufactured x Asia Garment Hub: Wellbeing – Do Social Compliance Audits Make Factories Better Places to Work?

What do two manufacturers, one brand, and one ex-social compliance auditor think: do social compliance audits make factories better places to work? What’s the intention behind social audits? Are audits about assurance? Or should they be a tool for collaboration and conversation? Or both? [...]
28 Jun 2022
00:44:02
Manufactured
Manufactured
078. Manufactured x Asia Garment Hub: Wellbeing – Do Social Compliance Audits Make Factories Better Places to Work?
/

In this fourth and final installment of a miniseries on wellbeing, the conversation is all about social compliance auditing.  What do two manufacturers, one brand, and one ex-social compliance auditor think: do social compliance audits make factories better places to work? What’s the intention behind social audits? Are audits about assurance? Or should they be a tool for collaboration and conversation? Or both?  Also, what’s their take on how we could do them better?

Today’s episode brings together: 

  • Mulyawan Laij, Senior Social Sustainability Manager, TAL Apparel (manufacturing company)
  • Mr. Venkat Rao, Chief Compliance Officer, Shahi Exports (manufacturing company)
  • Shivam Punjya, Founder and Creative Director of Behno (A handbag brand producing in India that’s taken a very progressive approach to social compliance)
  • Andre Raghu, CEO of HAP  (and former social compliance auditor)

 

Want to dig deeper ?

This episode is thanks to a collaboration with the Asia Garment Hub. The Asia Garment Hub is a one-stop shop for industry data, news, resources and tools. It connects people and organizations from across the sector with a single vision –to make it fairer, more sustainable, and more competitive. Becoming a member is free.

The Asia Garment Hub is a joint initiative of GIZ FABRIC and the ILO’s Decent Work in Garment Supply Chains in Asia project. The ILO’s Decent Work in Garment Supply Chains Asia is funded by the government of Sweden. It aims to support decent work and sustainability in the garment sector by enhancing regional knowledge and policy coherence, together with industry level support to improve environmental sustainability, gender equality and business competitiveness. The FABRIC project is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and supports the Asian textile industry in its transformation towards fair production for people and the environment.

Find out more about Behno.

Find out more about HAP:

– Recent HAP updates: https://www.hapintl.com/updates
– HAP’s new consumer app: https://www.esgwatchapp.com/

Other episodes that tackle the subject of social compliance audits

There’s increasing alignment  around the idea that social compliance audits haven’t delivered for workers. The New Conversations Project put forward several theories as to why this is (and this April 2021 publication goes into more details on the opacity theory).

Recent Episodes

92. How it’s made: On Cotton with Rajeev Baruah

92. How it’s made: On Cotton with Rajeev Baruah

25 Jul 2023

On this episode we’re taking a look at cotton value chains in the Indian context with Rajeev Baruah, who has worked in cotton for decades. Though his background is originally in agriculture and tea, his cotton journey started with a spinning facility back in the 90s on a mission to work with organic cotton farmers – something that, at the time, was unheard of. In the years since, he’s gone on to work in a number of different roles with different stakeholders across the value chain. Rajeev gives Kim an in-depth look at the steps that go into growing, harvesting, ginning, and spinning cotton, who the commercial actors are, and what their incentives might be within the Indian context.

read more
91. How it’s made: On Garment Finishing with Rita Castro & Dionísia Portela

91. How it’s made: On Garment Finishing with Rita Castro & Dionísia Portela

11 Jul 2023

On this episode we’re exploring one of the final stages of production in apparel manufacturing with Rita Castro & Dionísia Portela from Confetil, a Portuguese garment manufacturer that has been supplying brands all over the world since 1960. Dionísia is Sustainability Manager and Rita is Sales and Commercial Manager for four of Confetil’s customers. They tell us more about the processes that give our clothes the final look and feel that brands aim for, from solid T-shirts to those with graphic patterns or vintage looks, different types of dyes and dyeing processes, and the sustainability of these finishing processes.

read more
90. How it’s made: On Silk with Hilmond Hui

90. How it’s made: On Silk with Hilmond Hui

27 Jun 2023

To understand the process, benefits and barriers within regenerative sericulture, we go back to Kim’s conversation from November 2021 with Hilmond Hui, Vice President of international clothing enterprise PFG and its subset Bombyx. Hilmond tells us more about Bombyx, which was formed in 2018 with a focus on regenerative silk production and transforming the way silk is produced, traded and consumed. Their Nanchong Ka Fung (NCKF) facility is located in the northeast of China’s Sichuan province, and they’re on a mission to do everything from dirt to fabric and beyond.

read more