A leading supplier of personal protective equipment (PPE) has tapped global SaaS provider TrusTrace to help ensure compliance with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).
On Thursday, the supply chain traceability platform announced its first agreement with a client in the PPE, workwear and safety footwear space. PIP Global Safety will use the TrusTrace platform to help gather granular data on the cotton used in products across its 30-brand portfolio that includes CAT, John Deere, Scotts Miracle-Gro and Puma Safety Footwear.
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“PIP Global Safety is a leading provider of head-to-toe safety solutions,” TrusTrace CEO and co-founder Shameek Ghosh said. “We’re thrilled to support their sustainability and corporate responsibility initiatives and help them comply with impactful regulations by automating their supply chain data collection of granular, product-level data.”
Stockholm-based TrusTrace will provide PIP Global Safety with verified, real-time insights into the provenance of the cotton used to develop its PPE and workwear. The platform integrates with retailer, manufacturer and supplier systems, as well as certification bodies and other sustainability solutions providers. The partners said the relationship would bolster the efficiency of chain of custody data collection tied to UFLPA compliance. Enacted in June 2022, the law compels U.S. companies to proactively assess their supply chains for risks related to forced labor.
PIP Global Safety will replace a previously manual information-gathering process with TrusTrace’s automated data collection and sharing. “After an extensive vetting process, we selected TrusTrace as our traceability platform because of their ability to provide us with detailed, product-level data that enables us to thoroughly and accurately map our supply chains,” said Nathan McCormick, senior vice president of operations and integrated supply chain for the Latham, N.Y.-based PPE supplier.
“While a lot of laws and regulations around due diligence have not yet come into force, we are taking a proactive approach to ensure that we’re ahead of the curve to support our customers’ needs while proactively monitoring for risk of forced labor in our supply chain,” he added.
The TrusTrace integration will also support the company’s sustainability and CSR initiatives, McCormick added. PIP Global Safety is seeking to shrink its environmental footprint by optimizing manufacturing processes, bolstering sustainability programs, developing more recycled products and investing in social welfare initiatives.
