Human Rights and Sustainable Supply Chains: How Do Companies Rate?

Rob Handfield, Co-Director of the SCRC (The Supply Chain Resource Cooperative) at NC State University’s Poole College of Management, writes about the increasing death toll at the Rama factory complex in Bangladesh and the difficult realities and complexities that are involved in the production of “low value clothing” in emerging countries. He writes that Disney and Nike have announced that they will not be buying any apparel produced in Bangladesh. Protests are forming outside offices of apparel companies (Gap) where participants are demanding better working conditions in Bangladesh. At the SCRC, “a group of 30 MBA students decided to ‘stress-test’ the supply chain code of conduct behaviors of major companies in the retail, aerospace, chemical, and other industries…the scoring mechanism found for these firms represent an impartial, objective view of the integrity of their supply chains, and how well they are driving standards into their supply base.” These excellent sustainability 2013 reports can be found here.