FFC to bring sustainable improvement in apparel factories

FFC’s audit collaboration release allows for:

• Calendar sharing: FFC members can post upcoming events to enable joint factory visits or training;
• Audit database integration: Sharing members can initiate collaboration audits on the FFC platform with other members, then export audit data back into their own proprietary audit databases for full company reporting;
• Role-based security system expansion: Members can add employees at other brands as participants on new audits;
• Social networking collaboration: Allows members to create multi-company work teams, store, search, and rank audit-related documents;
• Improved internal and external communication, including the ability for all participants to comment separately on issues found and corrective actions.

Member Support is Strong

“The FFC has an uncanny ability to listen to its members and anticipate where the fast paced world of factory compliance is going next,” says Gregg Nebel, Head of Social and Environmental Affairs, the Americas, at adidas Group.

“Powered by the ability to invite other brands to participate in an audit, within just a few months we were effectively and efficiently managing several factory audits and corrective action plans that included as many as six different brands and retailers. The FFC is a good software partner because they stay close to what their members are trying to do and seek ways to improve and support the work we’re doing.

Last spring, members asked the FFC to make multi-company collaboration audits easier to conduct and manage. They documented new requirements based on our initial experiences and by September we were already testing the new collaboration release and it is fantastic.”

“NIKE has been working with the Fair Factories Clearinghouse to further enhance our Brand Collaboration Program and commitment to transparency,” said Elizabeth Garvey, External Partnerships/Sustainable Manufacturing Performance for NIKE.

“The FFC’s technology provides a platform for brands to work together in many forms from identifying factory overlap between each other to sharing compliance documents, utilizing a shared calendar to pro-actively identify collaboration opportunities, and working together on a shared corrective action plan for the same audit.

NIKE has been a member of the FFC since 2007. In FY11, we shared 39 percent of our audit results through the FFC and look forward to increasing our capabilities on their platform.”

Fair Factories Clearinghouse (FFC), a non-profit founded in 2004, was created to help those sourcing in the same factories collaborate on improving ethical sourcing, monitoring factory conditions, and establishing clear corrective action plans.

Fair Factories Clearinghouse (FFC)