How to Find Ethical Suppliers? And Suppliers That Align with My ESG Strategy? Supplier management and your Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy are interconnected as both play critical roles in your business’ ecosystem. Selecting the right suppliers not only ensures product quality and improves supply chain stability, but also shows responsible investors that your company has the competence to manage various supply chain challenges and ensure business continuity. At the ICTI Ethical Toy Program (IETP), we often receive emails asking “Can you send me a list of IETP certified suppliers? ”. We are pleased to see more toy businesses are committed to responsible sourcing and procurement, in this article, we will share how to select compliant manufacturing partners that meet your specific ESG objectives. Tools to Find Ethical SuppliersIETP provides two online tools to facilitate searching for manufacturers and to promote responsible sourcing via our social certification program.1) IETP Certified Supplier Search is publicly available on IETP’s official website (www.ethical.toys ). The tool allows users to check the Certification status of any supplier within the Ethical Toy Program, and also validate the authenticity of certificates & audit reports. This simple supplier lookup function helps to identify if your current or potential partners are meeting the expected compliance standards. 2) Connect Platform, provides advanced supplier search functionality, including precise filtering by factory size, product type, industry type, and factory location. As well as offering responsible sourcing intelligence including insightful analyses of your supply chain – how does your supply chain compare to competitors in the sector? What is the compliance gap of your entire chain? The Connect Platform also sends you instant alerts of potential risks such as a sudden closure of a manufacturer.Advanced features of the Connect PlatformSolutions to Identify Suppliers Who Align with Your ESG Strategy (i.e.: Supplier ESG Assessment) To achieve supplier sustainability & goals within your ESG strategy, you will need a supplier ESG Assessment to collect data-driven statistics to identify which suppliers are moving towards your objectives and which suppliers need more encouragement and guidance to improve to meet your expectations. Focus on the E: Online Environmental (Impact) Assessment Both the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 13 Climate Action, have urged businesses to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impact. Since the demand to measure environmental impact is high, IETP will leverage our technology platform to help businesses collect a uniform set of data that can be used by any company for internal and external reporting, at scale and at a low cost. The Online Environmental Assessment has been developed with the support of a dedicated group of responsible sourcing experts representing all parts of the global toy industry. The Environmental (impact) assessment will cover a range of topics such as Energy Usage, Waste Water, Air Discharge, and much more. This will prove a helpful tool to kickstart or enhance your organization’s environmental action plan.Focus on the S: Social Impact Assessment The Social Impact Assessment (SIA) is an effective solution to measure your suppliers’ social performance. This non-category-specific remote assessment is designed to help companies assess their supply partners' ability to manage their social compliance risks. It verifies a suppliers’ capability to manage labor standards and working conditions in the facility or their supply chain depending on the type of company: direct manufacturer, or vendor.The Social Impact Assessment tool (SIA) Covers Ten AreasSocial Impact Assessment is globally available and applicable to any supplier you are working with. In addition to being provided a score for each key area, suppliers are given an improvement plan with priority areas identified and will be offered support and the resources needed to implement the improvements – empowering sustainable enhancements helping you achieve your ESG objectives. In 2021, adoption of the Social Impact Assessment grew significantly. This program serves a different need to that of Factory Certification. The remote assessment, with verification, is scalable, quick, and cost-effective. IETP is the specialist program designed by the industry for the industry, we foster industry collaboration to improve efficiency and reduce costs for over 1,500 buyers and 1,000 manufactures in our community of responsible businesses. Visit www.ethical.toys or contact us via join@ethicaltoyprogram.org to discover how we can help you.**The article has been updated with to reflect the latest change of the programs**
