SMETA Ethical Audit

With today’s regulatory conditions and consumer expectations, companies need to understand and control risks in their supply chain. SMETA (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit) enables businesses to assess their sites and suppliers based on their standards of labour, health and safety, environment and business ethics.

SMETA is the most widely used social audit in the world with over 40,000 audits uploaded onto the SEDEX platform every year. A SMETA audit can be conducted at any type of business to check that trading is conducted ethically. The 2-Pillars mandatory for any SMETA audit are Labour Standards and Health & Safety. The two additional pillars of a 4-Pillar audit are Business Ethics and Environment.

Demonstrate Responsible Business Practice

In a SMETA audit, an organisation’s responsible business practice can be assessed and measured across four areas: standards of labour, health and safety, environment and business ethics.

Reduce Audit Burden

Suppliers can share one audit with multiple customers via the SEDEX platform to meet multiple customer requirements and reduce duplication and audit fatigue.

Increase Supply Chain Transparency

A social audit is one of the best ways to understand the working conditions at a supplier site. An auditor physically attends the site – or workplace – of a business, enabling the auditor to assess the conditions on the ground.

On Demand Webinar: Understanding social compliance auditing

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What Is SMETA?

SMETA (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit) assesses a site based on their organisation’s standards of labour, health and safety, environment and business ethics.

SEDEX (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange) is the largest collaborative platform which allows businesses across industries to tackle Corporate Social responsibility issues by sharing responsible sourcing data about suppliers.
SMETA Audit Methodology

SMETA audits use the ETI Base Code, founded on the conventions of the International Labor Organisation, as well as relevant local laws. SMETA audits can be conducted against 2 or 4 auditing pillars.

The 2-Pillars mandatory for any SMETA audit are Labour Standards and Health & Safety. The two additional pillars of a 4-Pillar audit are Business Ethics and Environment.

Social Audits
Social audits enable businesses to assess their suppliers, monitor health and safety for workers, and signal zero tolerance of human rights abuses such as child and forced labour. Once an audit is complete, buyer and supplier businesses can work together to address any issues, based on a Corrective Action Plan (CAPR). You need only complete a SMETA audit at a site once and you can share it with multiple customers via the Sedex platform.
SMETA Auditors
Only audit companies (and their auditors) that meet a set of criteria set out by Sedex can conduct SMETA. These are known as a Sedex Affiliate Audit Company (AAC), and are independent organisations from Sedex.  

Intertek is one of the largest providers of Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audits (SMETA)  conducting on-site SMETA audits at factories around the globe to assess how labour, health and safety, environmental and business ethics standards are being met. Sedex members are then allowed to store, share and report on this information in a secure, online database in an effort to improve working conditions in the global supply chain.

 

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