Li & Fung supports SLCP
By: Laura Rainier, Li & Fung
On November 6, 2018, SLCP Steering Committee member Laura Rainier (Li & Fung) and Susanne Gebauer (representing the SLCP Secretariat) presented an update on the project to the Intertek Ethical Sourcing Forum in New York. The session shared the SLCP strategy going forward, with a focus on Light Operations and the 5 Year Strategic Plan.
The Intertek Ethical Sourcing Forum welcomed just over 100 attendees (in-person and via webinar) from industries ranging from food and beverage to apparel and retail. In addition to the SLCP update, the forum included practical advice on how to address forced labor and modern slavery in supply chains, how to engage in mutual recognition programs, and an update on APSCA (Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors). During SLCP’s session, Laura emphasized the negative impact of duplicative audits on facility management, and underlined the potential shift in resources from auditing to continuous improvement, which would only increase with more SLCP adoption. Susanne commented on a previous session’s discussion about the industry's historical failure to arrive at common industry standards and technical challenges related to information sharing, emphasizing that SLCP has arrived at a standard agnostic tool whose data can be easily shared with others in a secure fashion.
We also shared the good news about approval of our 5 Year Strategic Plan. We were encouraged by the question of whether this approach could be implemented in other industries. SLCP’s journey certainly demonstrates the success of stakeholder engagement and collaboration towards a common purpose, and we believe similar successes can be achieved across other industries. However, for now our focus remains on learning from and evaluating the 2018 Light Operations implementation of SLCP in China and Sri Lanka, so we can successfully launch in additional countries in 2019.
