German footwear producer Adidas has recently begun to disclose its global supplier list publicly.

The company followed a number of other footwear and apparel companies in doing so: in mid-2005, Nike became the first major footwear company to publish a list of all of its suppliers globally on its website, after labor rights groups had pressured the company (and its peers) for several years on this issue. Levi Strauss started publishing its list later that year.

Timberland states in the FAQ section of its website that it releases the names of its supplier factories to “code of conduct specialists and other locally-based NGOs” with which it works. Puma’s website FAQ section says that its list of suppliers is publicly available on the website of the Fair Labor Association (to which Puma provides a link), but after looking on FLA’s site for several minutes, I gave up.

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From within the world of SRI, one gets the impression that a key aspect of global supply chain management is how to uphold and improve labor standards for workers producing the things that you and I use every day.

Human rights groups, labor unions, social investors, international organizations, academics and a number of companies have spent years on this question, and there are now annual conferences devoted entirely to labor rights in supply chain production.

So when I came across a brochure recently for the upcoming Tenth Annual European Supply Chain & Logistics Summit 2008, to be held in Germany in May, I was surprised to find almost no mention of labor standards. I was even more taken aback when I saw that scheduled speakers include company representatives from industries, such as technology and electronics, that have been hit by allegations of supply chain labor violations.

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As we look back at the genocide and military conflict in Darfur, Sudan during 2007, the Sudan divestment movement in the U.S. has largely succeeded in bringing increased pressure on financial firms and companies involved in Sudan to sever their financial ties to the Government of Sudan.

A few of the many divestment-related news stories from the past year are highlighted below:

Institutional investors in Petrochina, a Chinese oil company with significant oil exploration projects in Sudan, faced shareholder pressure to divest from the company. Save Darfur, a U.S.-based advocacy group launched a campaign targeting Berkshire Hathaway, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton, three of the largest investors in Petrochina.

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Jonathan Dee’s article, “A Toy Maker’s Conscience“, which appeared in the New York Times Magazine at the end of December is a must read.

First, it’s a generous yet clear-eyed portrait of Baruch College professor Prakash Sethi, a defining force in the movement for corporate accountability for more than 35 years.

His story is one of the great ones in our business, but it has gone, largely, unheralded. And Jonathan Dee has gotten both the story and Prof. Sethi’s voice right.

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