Sedex joins SOURCE Founding Partnership to advance sustainable fashion supply chains

[Ethical Fashion Forum]

London – 13 October 2014. Sedex, the leading non-profit organisation dedicated to improving global supply chains, announced today that it has been appointed as a Founding Partner of SOURCE, a ground-breaking online solution developed by the Ethical Fashion Forum that makes it easy for businesses all over the world to source, produce, and do business in the most sustainable way. Sedex joins leading brands, suppliers and organisations such as the Fairtrade Foundation and GOTS which are pioneering sustainability and fashion through the SOURCE Founding Partnership.

 SOURCE is the global online platform for sustainable fashion. Launched by the Ethical Fashion Forum in 2011, it was set up to transform livelihoods for 2.5 million people in the developing world and significantly reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry. It provides a platform of tools and services for the fashion and textiles industries, from field to final product. It aims to make it easy for fashion professionals and businesses to work sustainably, inspire and motivate members, facilitate research and industry collaboration and put the spotlight on best practice.

With members including Aurora Fashions, Boden, Jaeger, John Lewis, New Look, Marks & Spencer, Monsoon, Net-a-Porter and many more, Sedex has deep experience in helping fashion retailers to manage and improve their supply chain and hopes to contribute this expertise through SOURCE Founding Partnership. Sedex‘s broader membership has grown to 36,000 buyer and suppliers, representing some 24 million workers worldwide.

“As an organisation with sustainability built into its very foundations, Sedex is delighted to join the SOURCE Founding Partnership” commented Carmel Giblin, CEO at Sedex. “In the last ten years we have worked with many fashion brands to improve their responsible business practices and SOURCE gives us the opportunity to help many more. We fully support the aims of SOURCE and look forward to actively contributing to the initiative.”

Tamsin Lejeune, CEO at SOURCE commented: “SOURCE is very pleased to welcome Sedex to the Founding Partnership. With 10,000 members in 140 countries SOURCE is growing fast, and by gaining the support of a well-known and widely-used supply chain membership organisation like Sedex we can further spread our influence. SOURCE has ambitious goals – from reducing the environmental footprint of the fashion sector to improving the livelihoods for 2.5 million people in the developing world in five years. With Sedex’s support we are one step closer to achieving these goals together.”

 

 

ENDS

Media Contacts

 

Sedex

Mark Robertson | Head of Marketing & Communications

[phone] (direct)

[e-mail] |Twitter: @SedexCSR

 

SOURCE

Mallory Giardino | Membership Director

[phone]

[e-mail]

 

Notes to editors

 

About Sedex

 Sedex (www.sexdexglobal.com) works with buyers and suppliers around the world to deliver improvements in responsible and ethical business practices in global supply chains. Our mission is to drive collaboration, increase transparency and build the capacity that’s needed to raise standards across all tiers of the supply chain. We offer the world’s largest collaborative platform for managing and sharing ethical supply chain data, along with leading-edge services which multi-national companies use to understand, monitor and manage supply chains risks and improve standards. Our global membership totals over 36,000 buyers, suppliers and audit firms, including key sustainability thought leaders.

  

About SOURCE

SOURCE Goals are:

• To put the spotlight on the businesses that are pioneering best practice around sustainability
• To inspire and motivate wide scale engagement by fashion professionals with sustainable practices. .
• To save users time and money, breaking down barriers to sustainable sourcing.
• To improve livelihoods for 2.5 million people in the developing world within 5 years, through fair working conditions and through linking fair trade and community suppliers to market. 
• To reduce the environmental footprint of the fashion sector through facilitating sustainable business practices.
• To transform the fashion industry from the inside out, integrating sustainability at the heart of industry practices.