June 11, 2024 | less than a minute read

Could climate become the weak link in your supply chain?

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Astrid Walstra

Global Strategic Key Account Manager

Get in touch

Astrid Walstra

Global Strategic Key Account Manager

Climate change affects everyone, but the extent of the effects varies across regions. As country/local laws are often non-existent, how do you make sure workers in your supply chain are still covered for the dangers of climate extremes due to climate change such as heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes?

The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) puts social dialogue with workers and their representatives at the heart and shares how an apparel factory in Koforidua, two hours north of Ghana’s capital, Accra, is managing their heat-related challenges by utilizing a worker-centric approach. As the article highlights, not all the examples from Koforidua will be relevant to factories in other parts of the world, yet still the article is an informative read.

Researchers calculate that 490 billion hours of labour were lost due to heat exposure in 2022, a 42% increase on the period 1991-2000. Workers in the apparel and textiles industries are considered highly vulnerable to extreme heat. Researchers from the Global Labour Studies Institute at Cornell University for example found that by 2030 workers in Dhaka’s RMG factories could face 65 lost working days per year due to heat, and that the combination of extreme heat and flooding could cost the Bangladeshi RMG industry 27 billion USD, and lead to the loss of 255,000 jobs.