Exciting upgrades coming to the SA8000® System

Over the past several years, the SA8000^® System has experienced rapid growth in the number of certified facilities, workers protected, and brands and other organizations buying into the system. In the past two years alone, the number of certified facilities has increased by more than 23%, providing safe and decent workplaces to an additional 160,000 workers worldwide. Increasingly, global brands and procurement agencies are accepting and preferring SA8000, with even more expected to do so in the near future.

As we all work to promote this growth, to the benefit of workers, communities and businesses everywhere, the high quality, consistency and accessibility of SA8000 is of utmost importance.

To keep up with the demands of a growing system while maintaining quality and credibility, and to improve the SA8000 user experience, SAI has been working on two new developments that we are excited to be launching in early 2020. The first development, the SA8000 Unified Audit Report & Data Collection Tool, will standardize the data collected during SA8000 audits and result in a standardized audit report, improving consistency and accessibility across the system. The Data Collection Tool and Unified Audit Report will be housed in the new SA8000 Database, a centralized online platform for all SA8000 data.

Benefits and Features of the SA8000 Database and Unified Audit Report & Tool

The Unified Audit Report & Tool and the SA8000 Database will function together to bring benefits for all system users.

•  Increases consistency and reliability in the SA8000 System
  • Increasing consistency in the data collection and audit reporting processes lends greater credibility and reliability to the SA8000 System generally.
• Expands accessibility of audit data and brings new value to SA8000 System
  • Certified organizations can access their full audit reports and share their data directly with clients
  • Brands and other buyers will have easy access to data from SA8000-certified vendors in a standardized format, reducing barriers to accepting SA8000 in their social compliance programs.
• Supports data-driven decision-making and capacity building
  • Certification Bodies (CBs) can access data from all clients in a standardized format, facilitating internal data analysis.
  • Certified organizations can access their full audit report history in a standardized format, supporting internal analysis for strategic continual improvement and capacity building.
• Reduces complexities and administrative burdens in the current system
  • Self-Assessments and Independent Evaluations (IEs) will both be performed in the new database, removing opportunities for errors.
  • SAI and SAAS will have full access to system data, removing the need for CBs to send individual certification reports.
  • Certified organizations will have access to their own data through the database and will be able to share directly with CBs and clients.
• Supports ongoing improvements to the SA8000 System
  • SAI and SAAS will have full access to audit data system-wide in a standard format, making monitoring and evaluation more efficient and supporting continuous improvement.

Certified Organizations: SAI will send more detailed information and instructions in advance of these changes. Your CB will also be in touch with more information about how these changes may affect you. Please feel free to contact us with any questions at sa8000@sa-intl.org.

Expected Roll-out Timeline