Does Sedex increase efficiency in ethical trade auditing, or does it perpetuate the top-down, ‘audit-heavy' approach that many companies are seeking to move beyond? A look at how Sedex divides the ethical trading community.
"It was very dusty.. the sweat dripping of the end of your nose by time you were half way through, then when you were coming home you didn't have energy to have a wash properly.."
"All companies sourcing from China must work far harder to meet their responsibilities towards the workers making their products, whatever the product."
"No company can use lack of transparency in supply chains as an excuse for inaction anymore. The members of the National Homeworker Group have demonstrated what is possible."
"In the South African context, it's important not to force people to do things. It's about wooing people, building trusting relationships and winning over their confidence."
"Creating widespread, sustainable change for workers - particularly in the current global economic climate - is a tough challenge, but it must always be our focus. I am convinced that our new approach will help us realise this."
Would it not be more sustainable if compliance with standards came through normal collective bargaining, rather than through inspection and corrective actions?
Are some buyers too soft with suppliers and putting their company reputations at risk? Or are others just plain unreasonable in their expectations of the time it takes to resolve issues effectively?
Ethical trade managers used to be called the "sales prevention team" - a term "often used facetiously by buyers to describe those in their companies with responsibility for ethics." Has this changed?
As one conference participant said: "People think that because they might have to spend £200 on a Goretex jacket the industry must be swimming with money. That's just not the case. In many cases we're talking about lifestyle businesses that are operating on a survival basis."
World Day for Decent Work was on 7 October. Ben Moxham of the UK Trades Union Congress tells us why it's so important, and what progress is being made towards it in today's tough economic climate.
For many companies - perhaps smaller ones, or those who are just starting out in ethical trade - the ideal of full integration between ethics and core business practices may seem overwhelming. Here are a few tips to get you started.
ETI has helped bridge a big gap between its member trade unions and companies. But there is still a long way to go before ETI company-union collaboration becomes the norm, rather than the exception.
As the economic ‘recovery' in the West falters, are we prepared to sacrifice our children's education and learning to bring more money into our households to try to maintain our consumerist lifestyles?
"Sunita told me that she works with three or four other women, clearing about 40 tonnes a day of waste stone rubble between them by hand and on their heads."
"Effective and credible ethical trade strategies can help generate not just more jobs at any cost, but better jobs, more stable jobs, with better wages, that will enable millions of poor and vulnerable people to lift themselves out of poverty."
"For the NHS, ethical sourcing should be just as much about protecting the people who make its equipment as it is about the patients who are treated with it."
