Responsible sourcing
What social auditing can establish.
A social audit examines working conditions at a site on a date against a scheme's standard. It is a real control and it has acknowledged limitations, and the largest is scope: it describes the audited site and says nothing about the farms, boats or workshops feeding it.
What it examines.
Hours, pay records, age documentation, contracts, health and safety, freedom of association, and the systems behind them. Auditors interview workers as well as reading documents, and the interview quality is a large part of what separates a useful audit from a paper exercise.
The output is findings against a standard, with severity, and usually a corrective action plan. What a buyer does with that plan matters more than the audit: findings closed on paper without anything changing is a known failure mode.
What it cannot reach.
Upstream. In Indonesian agricultural and seafood chains, the site being audited is a processor that buys from collectors who buy from smallholdings and boats. An audit of the processor describes the processor.
Homeworking and subcontracting. Craft and furniture production in Jepara and Cirebon routinely moves work into homes and small units that no site audit visits, which is a structural feature of how those clusters work rather than a concealment.
The day after. An audit is a snapshot, announced or semi-announced, and behaviour on an audit day is not necessarily behaviour on other days. This is acknowledged within the audit industry rather than being a criticism from outside it.
What a buyer can actually establish.
That a specific site was audited, by whom, against what, on what date, with what findings and what was done about them. That is a fact with documents behind it and it is worth stating precisely.
That you visited, how often, and what you saw. First-hand knowledge stated plainly is stronger than a scheme logo and much harder for a competitor to copy.
What you cannot establish from an audit is anything about the chain behind the site. Claims that reach that far need evidence that reaches that far, which usually means a shorter chain rather than a bigger certificate.
Questions buyers ask.
Should I require a social audit?
If your own customers require it, the question is settled. Beyond that it is a control worth having on a site you buy from repeatedly, and it should be one control among several rather than the thing you point at. What it establishes is narrow and real.
Can small Indonesian workshops be audited?
Physically yes, and the cost falls on somebody. For a workshop supplying one container a year, a full audit programme is disproportionate, which is one reason craft sourcing tends to rely on direct relationships and frequent visits instead. That is a legitimate approach and it is a different one.
What should I say on my packaging?
What you can evidence. That a named site was audited to a named standard on a date is a statement with a document behind it. A general claim about conditions across an Indonesian supply chain is not, and in several markets the burden of substantiating it would fall on you.
Read next.
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Why Indonesian chains have so many hands
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What to look at on a factory visit
A day at a producer answers questions no document can. What to look for and the three things that tell you most.
ASC and farm assurance
Voluntary farm schemes that European and North American retailers treat as a condition of listing. What they audit, and what they leave to the regulator.
Checking for child labour
An audit day tells you what the site looked like that day. What genuinely reduces the risk.
What a fair price means
Below-cost buying moves the cost somewhere you cannot see. How to think about it properly.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.