How We Work

SAI’s mission is to advance human rights in workplaces globally. We believe that socially responsible workplaces benefit business while securing fundamental human rights for workers. We help businesses understand their responsibilities to workers and communities and work with them to adopt socially responsible business practices and convene stakeholders from unions, government, and business to advance socially responsible policy.

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Assurance

SAI provides assurance services to various social accountability credentials through our accreditation division, SAAS. Assurance services create confidence that social accountability credentials are granted with a high degree of quality and integrity.

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Standard Setting

In 1997, SAI created the SA8000 Standard as one of the first auditable social certifications for decent workplaces in any industry. As the system owners, we conduct a comprehensive and collaborative SA8000 revision process every 5 years to ensure it continues to uphold the highest social standard amid changing norms, industries, and context. Over the years, we have applied our experience creating and managing the SA8000 Standard to help create company codes of conduct, industry standards, and other social certification programs.

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Responsible Supply Chain Management

“You can’t improve what you don’t measure.” This is one of SAI’s core philosophies. We have developed a suite of measurement tools for social management systems and we often create custom tools and resources in our work with companies.

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Training & Capacity Building

SAI offers a wide range of training and capacity building services related to human rights at work. Over the years, SAI’s training programs have benefited over 50,000 social auditors and representatives of brands, suppliers, trade unions, non-profits, governments, and academia.

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Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration

SAI was created as a multi-stakeholder initiative by representatives from the private sector, governments, NGOs, labor unions, and academia. We continue to run under the governance of a multi-stakeholder Board of Directors and Advisory Board. Human rights at work is an issue that requires input and collaboration from each of these sectors; convening stakeholders from across the board is a key component of many SAI programs.