The RSI was launched last year at the initiative of bicycle companies in the WFSGI, and this year the federation is encouraging companies from other sectors of the sporting goods industry to take part. “We see huge potential for sports companies to work together, to sustainably promote and monitor corporate and social responsibility standards throughout the industry,” says Marc Magnus, trade and corporate responsibility manager at the WFSGI.

The RSI functions with a system of audit-sharing that makes it more practical and affordable for companies to thoroughly check the compliance of their suppliers. The audits are conducted by independent, third-party audit service providers approved by the RSI, working with standards that are aligned with the WFSGI Code of Conduct. Participants may administer their audits on the RSI platform, or request the WFSGI to take care of the administration.

The audit-sharing leans on Fair Factories Clearinghouse (FFC), a platform created by a non-profit and membership-based software provider. FFC runs an online service where members may find audits of their suppliers conducted by other (unidentified) members. However, the RSI has created its own system within the FFC and it pro-actively creates links between companies that are planning audits at the same factories.

As Magnus explains, RSI requests participants to compile a list of their planned audits twice per year. It then conducts an overlap assessment and provides the participants with a list of their factories where other companies are considering audits. This allows the participants to re-evaluate their audit list, in order to take more advantage of shared initiatives.

The system developed efficiently with bicycle companies last year is that RSI appoints a “lead brand” for each of the shared audits. This lead brand is the factory’s contact for any corrective action plan. This lead brand is the factory’s contact for any corrective plan and it has an obligation to share the results of the corrective actions.

The audit costs are split equally between the companies that agreed to share the audit.

Exchanges on audit-sharing, the results of audits and corrective measures are all communicated on the RSI platform. Participants may also use the FFC as their in-house IT solution to manage their supply chain beyond the audit-sharing feature.

“The entire system helps companies to save money and human resources, and to reduce audit-fatigue among their suppliers,” said Erik van der Hout, Chair of the RSI Steering Committee and CSR Manager of the Accell Group. “For smaller companies that may not have their own corporate and social responsibility standards and teams in place, it may also help them to gain traction in this area.”

Participation does not require WFSGI membership and is open to any interested party.

The RSI turned out to be efficient for bicycle companies because they share many suppliers and adopted a strongly collaborative approach. The broad support for the RSI in this sector provided increased leverage. The RSI could thus have the most significant impact in other parts of the sporting goods industry that operate with clusters of manufacturers working for the same brands, such as team sports ball production.