Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Audit

What is RBA?

The Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) is the world’s largest industry coalition dedicated to responsible business conduct in the global supply chain, particularly in the electronics sector. It provides a standardized framework, the RBA Code of Conduct, to assist RBA members in achieving these objectives.

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.
RBA selects an approved third-party firm to conduct the VAP assessment based on an online bidding process.
Findings from VAP assessments are rated by severity as “minor,” “major” or “priority.” All three categories of findings have specified periods of time during which the facility in question must remedy the findings and implement systems to prevent reoccurrences. Remedy and prevention measures are part of corrective action plans (CAPs).

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.

Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Audit Service Overview

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