An initiative of the International Apparel Federation (IAF) and the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), the Standard Convergence Initiative (SCI) aims to combat growing audit fatigue by aligning third party and brands/retailers’ proprietary standards across four key areas. Multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the Social & Labor Convergence Program are already tackling the issue of audit fatigue. To complement these efforts, retailers plan to adopt streamlined third-party standards in place of proprietary standards.
The SCI has just released preliminary results of assessing the degree to which standards are prepared to converge across four key areas. The preliminary results assess six prominent standards operating in the textile and footwear sector, specifically: amfori BSCI, Fair Labor Association (FLA), Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), Made in Green by Oeko-Tex, SA8000 and WRAP.
The SCI website will promote standards that initially show a high preparedness for convergence and, subsequently, work toward increased convergence. Once standard bodies understand their position on the spectrum of convergence, they will be encouraged to work toward a common goal of increased alignment across certain standard requirements, quality assurance processes and oversight methodologies.
