Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Audit

What is RBA?

The Responsible Business Alliance is an industry coalition dedicated to responsible business conduct in global supply chains.

Founded in 2004 by a group of leading electronics companies, the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), formerly the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), is a nonprofit comprised of electronics, retail, auto and toy companies committed to supporting the rights and well-being of workers and communities worldwide affected by global supply chains. RBA members are encouraged to commit to a common Code of Conduct and utilize a range of RBA training and assessment tools to support continuous improvement in the social, environmental and ethical responsibility of their supply chains.

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Importance of RBA in Today's Business Landscape

Consumers nowadays are becoming increasingly conscious of the ethical implications of their purchases; businesses are under more pressure than ever to demonstrate their commitment to responsible practices.
The RBA provides a framework for companies to showcase this commitment and facilitate them in meeting high standards of ethical conduct.

Understanding the RBA Audit

Purpose of the Audit

The RBA Audit is designed to assess a company's compliance with the RBA Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct encompasses various areas including environmental sustainability, labor rights, and ethical business practices. They are based on international norms and standards including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO International Labor Standards, OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, ISO and SA standards, and many more.

Key Components of the Audit

Environmental Standards: Evaluates a company's environmental practices. It looks into areas, like waste management, energy usage, emissions control and more.
Labor Rights and Social Standards: Another crucial aspect focuses on ensuring that fair treatment, proper compensation, and safe working conditions are provided to employees. It aims to safeguard labor practices within the company.
Ethical Business Practices: The audit also examines broader ethical considerations, such as supplier relationships, governance structures, and overall corporate integrity.

Types of RBA Audits

Validated Assessment Program

RBA Validated Assessment Program (VAP) Assessments are carried out on RBA member facilities and their suppliers' facilities are completed by independent, third-party firms specially trained in social and environmental auditing and the VAP protocol.

One of the most fundamental RBA programs is the Validated Assessment Program (VAP), which is a leading standard for onsite compliance verification and effective, shareable assessments conducted by independent, third-party firms.

Customer-Managed Audits (CMAs)

RBA members may choose not to use the Validated Assessment Program for their supply chain sustainability audits (although they must use the RBA VAP protocol for their audits). Members that choose not to use the VAP can complete approved customer-managed audits (CMAs) or auditee-managed audits (AMAs) if they use an approved third-party audit firm, have their auditors approved by the RBA Assessment Program Manager, and execute the RBA VAP protocol in its entirety.

Customized Assessment

The RBA has also added a modular approach to assessing a facility, to provide users with flexibility, efficiency, and cost-savings when more comprehensive assessments are unnecessary. The service is called Customized Assessment and is completely in the control of the requestor. The Customized Assessment allows the user to select elements of the RBA Code of Conduct based on their specific needs.

Why Choose BV as Your RBA Auditing Company?

Your RBA Program, managed by a Dedicated Team and Superior Technical Governance

Superior Technical Governance for Superior Service Delivery
We regularly review risks and our technical team cascade mitigations and procedure updates as needed to provide best-in-class service to our global clients.

Dedicated Program Manager for your RBA Audit
BV’s dedicated social audit and program management team is committed to offering your unparalleled support and conducting every audit with an unmatched attention to detail and profound technical expertise.

Worldwide Reach. Local Expertise. Global Consistency.
While our reach is global, we combine in-depth local expertise to every audit with a consistent international approach. Regardless of the country, every audit adheres to the same high standards of excellence and compliance, providing our clients with reliable insights for ethical and responsible business practices across the globe.
• Our auditors are located in all key sourcing locations in the Americas, EMEA and Asia.
• Save time & cost from our best practice approach and methodology.
• Benchmarking available by country/region against prior period or industry averages.
• Global operational platform links to/from client platforms via EDI.

Integrity is at the Heart Of Everything We Do
It’s who we are, and it’s what sets us apart. We have established an independent integrity team to ensure our commitment to integrity is upheld at all times.

One-stop Solution for Supply Chain Management
With our extensive experience and unparalleled expertise, we support our clients through our suite of supply chain and CSR solutions.

Added value service:
• Multi-skilled staff can conduct a multitude of differing inspections
• Available modules include social audit, security audit and environmental audit

BV Digital Platform – BV OneSource

All Your Supplier & Factory Performance In One Place

Create One Source Of Truth

Integrate your audit data and make it analysis-ready in your dashboard.
Customizable Dashboard

Customize your key metrics in one dashboard. Turn data into opportunities.
Less Time To Maintain

Set up once and let us handle the rest. Automated Dashboard and Reporting save you time so you can focus on optimizing your supply chain.

Bureau Veritas – Your Trusted Partner for Social Audit

OUR COMMITMENT & DEEP KNOWLEDGE IN SUSTAINABILITY

25+ Years Experience
We’ve been a leading global provider of social audits for over 25 years.
Extensive industry expertise with leading CSR industry schemes. We help to shape industry standards and future policies.
Founding Members of International CSR schemes such as APSCA, Sedex, amfori, SLCP and more. We help to shape industry standards and future policies.
Rank #1 out of 140 companies in the Profession Service Industry category for sustainability performance (Dow Jones Sustainability Indices 2023). We walk the walk.
UNWAVERING COMMITMENT TO SUPERIOR SERVICE DELIVERY AND SOLUTION OFFERINGS

Dedicated Social Auditors with in-depth experience and consistency for better assessments.

Approved Auditor for a Large Number of Schemes allows us to stay up to date in the sector. We can easily regrade any report to help clients benchmark and reduce audit fatigue.

Superior Operational & Technical Governance enables us to provide best-in-class service to our global clients.

Dedicated Program Managers for you to streamline communication and keep you informed throughout the audit process.

One-Stop Supply Chain & Sustainability Solution: we address the whole span of your needs from sustainability to supply chain management, through our cross-functional specialists' teams.
WORLDWIDE REACH, GLOBAL CONSISTENCY & UNMATCHED INTEGRITY

Global Network & Local Insights: Auditors in key sourcing regions provide cultural understanding and reduce travel costs.

Top 2 Global Presence & Audit Volume for efficient audits with minimal disruption.

Your Requirements, Aligned Globally: Our unified teams provide consistent, scalable services worldwide to minimize risk and simplify communication for you. You can receive the same high level of support globally.

Independent Integrity Team for monitoring ethical conduct and objective audit reports.
LEVERAGE DATA & DIGITAL TOOLS FOR EXCELLENCE

Extensive Data & Industry Knowledge: We leverage our insights from accessing 200,000 factories annually to benchmark your performance.
OUR DIGITAL TOOL EMPOWERS YOUR SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS AND SIMPLIFY YOUR JOB:

BV OneSource: Our digital platform assesses your supply chain's social maturity and identifies areas for improvement.

BV Clarity: Our digital platform assesses your supply chain's social maturity and identifies areas for improvement

BV Academy: Facilitate organization learning of Social Compliance with our self-paced online platform. Elevate knowledge of your team, and your supplier networks around topics of sustainability and supply chain management.

SOCIAL AUDITS

SEDEX SMETA AUDITS

WRAP Certification

PAS AUDIT

ICS

Dressmaker woman sews clothes on sewing machine in factory

SLCP

HIGG FSLM

AMFORI BSCI

ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT

Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Audit Service Overview

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