What is our objective?

To reduce supplier evaluation fatigue and align on key issues of responsible sourcing, AIM-Progress enables the sharing, mutual recognition and convergence of supplier assurance approaches among our membership.

Very concretely, several AIM-Progress brand manufacturers agree to consider mutual recognition of social compliance audits of their suppliers.

We also have a partnership with Ecovadis through which common members can share their list of assessed suppliers with the AIM-Progress membership.

Why is important?

AIM-Progress seeks to promote responsible sourcing while reducing the duplication of supplier evaluation approaches. Member companies all have responsible sourcing programs which may include the request for on-site audits or remote assessments of suppliers with often very similar questions.

AIM-Progress enables the sharing and/or mutual recognition of supplier evaluation approaches, thereby also promoting convergence of practices, raising the floor and the ceiling for responsible sourcing.

How are we enabling mutual recognition of supplier audits?

Step 1: The first step is to benchmark member companies' audit protocols against a joint set of common criteria. If the audit protocol is equivalent to  a majority of members' audit requirements as reflected in our common benchmark - SMETA 4-pillar 6.1 - (85% commonality at a minimum), companies can participate in the Mutual Recognition of audits initiative. The protocol benchmarking is supported by the ITC (International Trade Center). The ITC Sustainability Map is the basis for a bespoke protocol benchmarking tool they have created for AIM-Progress.

Step 2: The second step of mutual recognition is to agree to the general principle of accepting other companies' audits. Members do this by signing on to the joint Mutual Recogntion statement. 

Step 3: Companies then share their list of audited suppliers over the last three years via the AIM-Progress Secretariat who assembles the lists into one common document, which is sent back to participants in a sufficiently aggregated and anonymous format to avoid anti-trust concerns.

Step 4: Companies check the list for suppliers they plan to audit. They can request these suppliers to share the audit reports directly with them or, if they are a member of a data sharing platform, upload them via the platform, which provides a secure online data exchange between suppliers and customers.  In this way a new audit can be avoided.

Note:

Members are by no means required to recognise an audit carried out on behalf of another AIM-Progress member. It remains their prerogative to request an additional audit or not.

The audited supplier list is only available to companies who are signed up to the MR framework and who contribute to the list.

How are we enabling sharing of supplier assessments?

Through our partnership with Ecovadis we can provide all AIM-Progress members with access to a list of suppliers which have undergone Ecovadis assessments commissioned by common AIM-Progress/Ecovadis members. This list shared on a regular basis.

It is up to the AIM-Progress member company to make contact with the suppliers to request access to the results of the assessments.

The list is put together by the Ecovadis Secretariat. 

Other:

AIM-Progress also carries out an annual survey across the membership to benchmark how member companies are implementing responsible sourcing and how their maturity is evolving.