ETI’s transparency journey and partnership with Open Supply Hub

Garment factory workers

ETI becomes first multistakeholder initiative to mandate publication of tier one suppliers directly on Open Supply Hub 

ETI considers transparency to be a key enabler in increasing accountability and advancing human rights in global supply chains. That’s why we have chosen to partner with Open Supply Hub to further enhance our company members’ efforts towards transparency. 

ETI and transparency 

Transparency has been central to ETI’s strategy for the past decade.  We believe it’s integral to addressing human rights impacts in supply chains, through due diligence and collaboration.  To carry out effective human rights due diligence (HRDD), our company members need to be open about where they are sourcing from and the issues they find. To address these collaboratively, our members need to share this information, to know who else is sourcing from or working in the same places. 

What are we doing about it? 

In 2021, we launched our Corporate Transparency Framework (CTF) which details public reporting requirements for all ETI company members. The CTF is a tool that requires company members to publicly disclose how they work to reduce human rights risks. Company members commit to meeting these requirements and to move towards better practices. We work closely with our company members to support them to meet these requirements. The CTF sets out 6 minimum requirements expected of members in relation to public reporting, along with further ‘Good practice’ and ‘Better practice’ requirements.  

As ETI enters its third year of public reporting under the CTF, company members will be required to publish their tier 1 suppliers directly on Open Supply Hub. We are proud to be the first multistakeholder initiative to mandate this as part of our membership obligations. 

CTF minimum requirements

1.1 Publish a statement articulating your company’s commitment to respect labour rights...

1.1 Publish a statement articulating your company’s commitment to respect labour rights in its supply chain activities, in line with the ETI Base Code.

1.2 Set out internal governance and accountability structures for managing human rights in supply chains. 

1.3 Describe how you have identified and prioritised human rights risks in your operations or supply chains.

1.4 Include a description of your supply chains1, including the geographical spread of production and/or sourcing, and locations of highest risk, and a list of first-tier suppliers on the Open Supply Hub.

1.5 Describe the company’s approach with regard to respect for trade union rights, including respect for freedom of association and collective bargaining.

1.6 Report on salient risks identified and plans made to mitigate risk.

1.7 Information in the public domain should describe the most up to date information at the time of publishing on all of the above requirements.

Get the full framework

Partnership with Open Supply Hub 

Open Supply Hub is a collaborative data sharing platform hosting supplier data from around the world. This year, all full ETI company members will share their tier 1 supplier data via the platform to improve accessibility and increase collaborative opportunities for impact. We have built a partnership with Open Supply Hub and are working together to continue to improve transparency and drive progress on human rights in global supply chains. 

To build safe and sustainable supply chains, we need harmonized approaches that make collaboration easier and more effective. The way that data is shared and leveraged is a critical part of powering that harmonization.  

Ethical Trading Initiative is leading the way in this regard by mandating company members share their supply chain data on Open Supply Hub. This is a tangible commitment to making their corporate members’ supply chain disclosures as impactful as possible by ensuring their data is open and accessible, easy to layer over one another to find overlaps and opportunity, and available to potential collaborators within and outside of the ETI community.

Natalie Grillon, CEO & Executive Director, Open Supply Hub 

Page

Supply chain transparency

ETI company members publish their Tier 1 suppliers – a requirement of our Corporate Transparency Framework. We will be publishing their performance against the framework in 2025.
Read more
ETI's blog covers issues at the intersection of business and human rights. We feature posts by, for and from our members and allies; we do not accept or offer payment for posts or publish content outside of these criteria. We welcome a range of insights and opinions from our guest bloggers, though don't necessarily agree with everything they say.