What is the Global Social Compliance Programme?

To this end, these companies do not seek to reinvent the wheel, but instead to harmonize existing efforts to deliver a shared, global and sustainable approach. This will serve the GSCP’s ultimate objective: to develop a collaborative approach to remediation by taking the focus off compliance audits and concentrating efforts and resources on capacity building.

The GSCP therefore offers a global platform to promote knowledge exchange and best practices, in order to build comparability and transparency between existing social compliance and environmental compliance systems.

To this effect, the GSCP is developing a set of reference tools and processes that describe best practices and provide a common interpretation of fair labour requirements / good environmental practices and their implementation at supplier level.

The GSCP brings together buying companies throughout the consumer goods industry (textile, electronics, toys, furniture, food, footwear, etc; retailers and manufacturers) and the world, which together drive this work towards convergence.

Why is the GSCP needed?

New challenges and diverging responses

Buying companies have responded to the challenges around fair labour and environmental conditions in their supply chains by developing codes of conduct and monitoring systems, either individual or collaborative. However, the number of codes has proliferated (there now exist over 1000 different codes and implementation systems) and approaches by companies and schemes have somewhat diverged. This has led to duplication (with the multiplication of overlapping audits per supplier) and sends a confused message to suppliers and to public authorities as to what is expected in terms of fundamental labour rights and site-specific environmental practices.

Adverse effect

This is causing inefficiency and slowing improvement within the supply chain. Moreover, it is in many cases hindering the application of international labour standards and hence the respect of human and workers’ rights, as buying companies and their suppliers suffer from confusion over requirements and a lack of clarity on best practice and accountability – basically not knowing what they have to do, what they can do and how to do it.

Potential for collaboration

The GSCP was born from the understanding that cross-industry collaboration is possible, and essential to truly drive change in this area. There is a need - and an opportunity - for collaborative work to bring about consistency and efficiency and drive remediation to root causes of social and environmental non-compliances through continuous improvement, training and capacity building.

Note from the GSCP Advisory Board, May 2009: “The GSCP is focused on protecting and improving the social and labour conditions of workers who are engaged in the supply chains of companies who buy products and services in countries where national and local authorities and social partners for various reasons cannot ensure that the principles of decent work are fully applied on all workers.” Read the full text here

What is the scope of the Programme?

The GSCP is a global cross-industry platform which includes all buying companies, all consumer goods in all geographies. The GSCP is not about individual business practices but about giving the means to buying companies to collaborate with regards to supply chain sustainability management. It is about how retailers / brands can work together to ultimately guarantee fair labour conditions and decent environmental practices in their supply chains.

The scope of the Programme encompasses:
-    Social and labour practices
-    Site-specific environmental practices (not product related)
At all levels of the supply chain

The Programme is neither another monitoring initiative, nor a substitute to existing systems. The GSCP will not undertake accreditation or certification activities as it must remain a non-aligned, neutral reference framework.

Is there a GSCP certification or accreditation?

The responsibility of the implementation of the GSCP reference tools, of the monitoring of any company’s supply chain’s compliance and of any due diligence linked to it, resides with the company or scheme owner, as the case may be.

What is the relationship between the GSCP and the Consumer Goods Forum?

The GSCP is hosted and facilitated by the Consumer Goods Forum (TCGF, formerly CIES – The Food Business Forum), and was launched within the CIES in December 2006. The GSCP has a separate governance structure with an independent Executive Board and Advisory Board. The GSCP Executive Board provides the strategic direction of the Programme and oversees the daily management of the GSCP. Furthermore, GSCP members include both TCGF member companies and other companies.

How can I become a GSCP member and what commitments do I have to make?

Basic requirements

• to commit to the principles and objectives of the programme
• to commit at least one senior executive to participate
• to ensure this person has the resources to actively contribute and participate
• to attend the annual Members’ Meeting and General Meeting
• to ensure relevant internal departments are informed about the programme and its developments
• to share knowledge and actively participate in web-based consultations
• not to use participation in the GSCP and the result of its work for marketing purposes or in order to gain competitive advantage
• to support the GSCP financially, with 12-month fee applicable as below:
  • €10,000 (turnover <€40bn)
  • €17,000 (€40bn-€150bn)
  • €24,000 (>€150bn)

For more information about GSCP membership and to discuss this with the GSCP team, please email us on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

What are the benefits of being a GSCP member?

How does the GSCP work with existing initiatives?

Harmonising and scaling up existing efforts

The GSCP seeks to promote harmonisation by building on what has already been achieved. The Programme offers a neutral and inclusive global platform for businesses, initiatives and other stakeholders where differences can be aired, discussed and reconciled in order to foster convergence and move towards remediation. In the same way, the GSCP will work with existing initiatives on scaling-up efforts, in remediation and capacity building notably, where relevant.

Consultations

The GSCP also involves initiatives in the reference tool development process through the consultations led by its Expert Working Groups. Initiatives can also be called upon to provide their knowledge and experience in the context of a given Expert Working Group’s project – where the project in question touches to one of their areas of expertise.

General Meetings

I'm already a member of an initiative or a scheme - are there benefits to also joining the GSCP?

Most of the GSCP member companies are actively involved in one or more existing initiatives. They bring to the Programme the expertise and perspective of the initiatives they belong to. This gives the initiatives in question a first-hand voice in the Programme and in the definition of high level guidance and tools, which the initiatives themselves may implement or use to benchmark their own tools and system.

This relationship also provides the GSCP and the initiatives with a constant stream of information on the projects undertaken and the issues tackled by each party at any time – ensuring that duplication is avoided and collaboration looked at instead (between the initiatives and the GSCP, but also between the diverse initiatives themselves).

Such cross-membership is therefore a powerful tool to assist sustainable sourcing efforts and programmes in moving away from working in silos, a pattern which naturally came into being as different, unlinked entities sought to find and implement their own solutions at different times and paces.

Now that corporate responsibility has become a priority for a vast majority of buying companies, it is time to foster convergence – this is where cross-membership with the GSCP can play an essential role.

How does the GSCP involve civil society in its work?

GSCP Advisory Board

The GSCP involves civil society stakeholders firstly through its Advisory Board.  The Advisory Board is composed of influential and knowledgeable experts drawn from a broad and balanced variety of civil society international stakeholders such as NGOs, IOs, Trade Unions, Academics, SRIs etc. Each member of the Advisory Board contributes to the Programme within her or his respective field of competence.

The Advisory Board’s role is to advise and challenge the Executive Board on the strategy, direction of the Programme and best practice for each step of the working plan. Moreover, it helps monitor and evaluate progress.

More on the GSCP Advisory Board here

Note from the Advisory Board, May 2009: “the members of the Advisory Board, representing stakeholders, have a full oversight of and influence on all issues and activities related to the standards and their implementation.”  Read the full text here

Consultations and General Meetings

Other representatives of civil society are continuously involved in the GSCP’s work through consultations on the GSCP reference tools and guidelines, and participation in the GSCP annual meetings. This gives these actors the opportunity to provide input on the programme’s direction, recommend areas and topics to be addressed and generally to be included in the GSCP forum with companies, schemes, initiatives and other stakeholders.

Why is there a need for reference tools?

If buying companies can agree on which social and environmental conditions should be required from their suppliers, they will ultimately be able to share audit-related data and results, thus reducing the number of audits performed every year at any one employment site. The supplier will therefore be able to focus on one comprehensive list of non-compliances observed and, with the support of their clients (in time and resources), remediate the root causes of these non-compliances.

This will concurrently allow suppliers and their clients to move away from auditing and compliance, and focus on building capacity, developing supplier-owned solutions, knowledge and skills.

How are the tools developed?

The GSCP follows a 6-step working plan, complemented by the development of an Equivalence Process (see next question on the reference tools). Each step of the working plan and complementary project is managed by an Expert Working Group composed of experts from Task Force member companies.

Click here for information on the step-by-step methodology followed by each EWG, and on the review process led by the GSCP after publication of each reference tool.

What are the different GSCP reference tools and what are their objectives?

Step 1 – Reference Code: common interpretation of working requirements and their implementation (social)

Step 2 – reference tools on Audit Process & Methodology: gathers best practice for each step of the social audit process in order to bring consistency to the way audits are prepared, led and followed-up (social)

Step 3 – reference tool for Auditing Competence: the requirements that define a reliable and appropriate level of competence for organisations and individuals undertaking audits in relation to social compliance and environmental compliance

Step 4 – Companies’ and Schemes’ Management Systems: looks at where a social compliance / environmental compliance programme sits within a buying company or scheme: the structure provided, resources allotted, hierarchy involved, communication processes in place etc.

The Environmental Module: module for the integration of basic site-specific environmental requirements within the GSCP framework (steps 1 to 4)

How can I use the reference tools?

To drive convergence, the GSCP is building a set of reference tools describing best practice, and providing the basic documents found in a classical monitoring system. For information on these tools please see Q12.

These tools are openly available (www.gscpnet.com) and can voluntarily either be:

In both cases, the responsibility of the implementation of these tools, of the monitoring of the company’s supply chain’s compliance and of any due diligence linked to it, resides with the company or scheme owner, as the case may be.

How will the GSCP facilitate the transfer of sustainability data?

• improve transparency
• gain better and wider market knowledge
• facilitate better planning and remediation
• develop protocols for data ownership and sharing

What is the GSCP Equivalence Process?

• buying companies
• suppliers
• schemes
• business initiatives
• auditing bodies and certification bodies
• NGOs that have their own standards & can perform audits
• public authorities

• assess internal tools & processes against one or more GSCP reference tools
• drive internal alignment: ensure internal processes are up to standard and that all business units follow a global approach
• compare internal tools with business partners’ (suppliers, customers) and peers’ codes, processes & tools
• assess service providers (auditing bodies) and schemes not yet used or recognised

I already use a collaborative system - why and how should I make use of the GSCP tools?

How is the GSCP working towards remediation and capacity building?

Preliminary work

The GSCP has gone through several phases since its inception in 2007: first a structural building phase of the Programme followed by the progressive unrolling of the GSCP’s working plan with the development of the reference tools and of the Equivalence Process.
These two phases are providing the foundation to achieve the GSCP’s main goal: to work on remediation of root causes to social and environmental non-compliances in the supply chain. Having built convergence where possible, and having promoted understanding and transfer of information, buying companies will then be better placed to work collaboratively on remediation of non-compliances and improvement of working and environmental conditions. Differences in remediation methods will in turn need to be discussed and understood.

Forum on remediation

Objectives of the GSCP forum on remediation (General Meetings and webinars):

• build relevant tools
• openly discuss issues of common interest
• exchange experiences and learn from each other’s practice in the field
• strengthen collaborative approaches

The GSCP is also working on fostering a collaborative approach to remediation. This is done first through the application by buying companies of the requirements embedded in the GSCP reference tools: the development and adoption of a common language and common tools by all buying companies will allow the delivery of one common message to suppliers, giving the latter the means and support to develop the necessary solutions to improve their systems. This in itself will generate improvement of working and environmental conditions at supplier level.
GSCP member companies will further the collaborative approach by working together on capacity building projects, in collaboration with their suppliers and other organisations on the ground (initiatives, NGOs, governments etc).

Topic-driven Expert Working Groups on remediation / capacity building issues

The GSCP is now working on the inception of topic-driven Expert Working Groups, which will examine particular social or environmental hotspots and develop tools or guidelines on – for example – how to best deal with particular employment situations such as homeworking, seasonal or migrant labour etc; or how to best accompany the implementation of change within their suppliers’ structure.