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Interview

Why worker wellbeing and ethical initiatives are the foundation of supply chain resilience

Let’ s start with an introduction to you and your career history. I’ m Carmel Giblin, President and CEO of the Ethical Supply Chain Program( ESCP), a global non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of supply chain workers worldwide. I’ ve worked in supply chain transparency and corporate responsibility for more than 20 years, with previous roles including CEO of SEDEX and Head of Corporate Responsibility at Sky. I joined ESCP in 2015 and am responsible for helping our members to protect workers while building resilient and responsible supply chains.

Can you tell us about ESCP’ s operations, history, and mission? Our guiding vision is to create better lives for workers worldwide. We do this via a range of programs and initiatives that help to protect the rights of workers, the communities in which they operate, and the environments in which they live and work.

The foundation of ESCP activities is our supplier certification program, which provides assurance to suppliers and their customers that they meet the required labor standards. Certification is achieved through onsite audit, with issues found being fully remediated before certification is awarded.

Beyond audits, we offer a range of programs and initiatives including our Family- Friendly Spaces( FFS). This is a workplacesupported childcare program developed in response to research that identified a lack of childcare as the primary reason for worker attrition. In the ten years since the program has been running, we’ ve provided employer-funded childcare in 95 factory and community sites, supporting 10,000 children and their families across China and Southeast Asia. In that time, 93 percent of workers have cited FFS as the reason they have continued to work at their current factory, with 83 percent also saying they have a closer relationship with their children.

The program is scalable and sustainable because it achieves measurable financial benefits. For example, one participating factory calculated they had saved US $ 621,000 over a four-year period through better worker retention rates and reduced training and recruitment costs. In 2026, we will launch an ambition to benefit one million children of supply chain workers by the end of 2031, directly supporting the achievement of several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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