How to Motivate Your Supplier to Enforce Human Rights

Corporations pay lip service to enforcing human rights and fair working conditions in offshore factories. But the deaths and injuries continue. An estimated 2.3 million deaths each year, in fact, from work-related accidents or diseases. Many are the result of unsafe factory environments, despite efforts by original equipment manufacturers to ensure that their suppliers are meeting high standards for ethical behavior. Recently the European Union announced financial support for the Group of Seven's Vision Zero Fund, a multi-donor initiative that provides cash for fire inspection and enforcement of safety regulations in factories worldwide. But our guest on this episode, Pierre-François Thaler, co-founder and chief executive officer of EcoVadis, believes that effort is inadequate. It's not enough money, he says, and it's the wrong approach. Here, he explains his reasoning, and offers advice as to what companies really need to do, in order to ensure that factory workers are being treated in a fair and safe manner – despite the lack of visibility that many companies have to all partners within their multi-tier supply chains.