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Disclosure

17 May 2021

ELEVATE responded

The work we do at ELEVATE is all about helping our corporate customers discover, understand and manage risks with the suppliers in the supply chain, regardless of country, whether they are in the US, Mexico, Bangladesh or China.

Supplier transparency is the fundamental building block to understanding risk. Without transparency it is difficult for an audit to report on risk exposure associated with wage underpayment, excessive working hours, child labor, unauthorized subcontractors, compliance to social insurance, harassment and unauthorized subcontractors.

We work hard to help our customers understand the risks in their supply chains and support them in their efforts to manage them. Vulnerable workers have always had a high profile with our customers and that demand has been central to the services we have developed and provided. A more aggressive application of WRO’s by the US government in regions seen as having higher risk of forced labor have magnified the risks of lax supplier due diligence. ELEVATE is trying to help its customers operate in this new environment whilst still operating within the remit of generally accepted auditing practices and local law.

ELEVATE provides its customers with insights into the variety of risks they have in their global supply chains. We try to help companies focus on areas of risk, develop approaches to clarify the nature of the risk, design programs to mitigate and if requested, intervene in any country in which we operate. We also provide education and training for our clients on 54 topics spanning many of the major areas of risk e.g., forced labour.

Every ELEVATE audit report includes supplemental information to distinguish data collection points as transparent, inconclusive or inconsistent and all ELEVATE audits look at worker demographics and other aspect of the factory operation that are typical indicators of vulnerable workers. Our auditors are trained to identify vulnerable workers. When conducting ELEVATE responsible sourcing assessments, we conduct both in person interviews and Worker Sentiment Surveys which we deploy through mobile technology, the surveys cover six topics including demographics (the region / city where the worker is from).

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