Workers in our suppliers’ factories play a central role in our programme. It was concern for their working conditions and wellbeing that led us to write our ‘Workplace Standards’. Our suppliers must also safeguard their workers’ health and safety and ensure environmentally sound factory operations.
To explain how we expect our suppliers to live up to our Standards, we have produced a number of supporting guidelines that further define expectations for fair, healthy and safe workplace conditions.
Our supply chain is large, multi-tiered and varied. We have a detailed approach to managing the relationships with our suppliers and we continue to develop approaches for engaging suppliers who are part of indirect sourcing models.
Monitoring compliance is carried out by the adidas Group’s SEA staff and commissioned third party experts while independent auditors verify compliance or evaluate our Workplace Standards’ programmatic activities.
We are committed to facilitating workplace improvements and work with others to achieve this, so we continue to invest in training our suppliers and reaching out to stakeholders and third party service providers.
We have a process for enforcing compliance with our Standards and an innovative system for rating suppliers. This rating then informs the Sourcing team’s decision about whether we continue the business relationship with that supplier.