Auditing company EcoVadis SAS, headquartered in Paris, links its pre-audit supplier survey to risk.
This could include requiring sourcing from approved suppliers who meet pre-defined sustainability principles or auditing suppliers' operations against social and environmental requirements.
Ms. Letton said Whole Foods scrutinizes every supplier on how it raises, transports, slaughters and processes animals, and audits suppliers every year.
It will also spend more on auditing suppliers and testing raw materials to avoid a repeat of a major cereal recall and problems with its Eggo waffle distribution that hurt its results.
No one tragedy spurred competitors like Apple, Microsoft, Google and HP to form the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition, but they, too, have strengthened industry-wide efforts to audit suppliers to protect workers (and the environment) in the developing world.
Auditing suppliers is widely considered the gold-standard for enforcing ethical values.
This is odd - not only do the majority of companies not evaluate the supply or quality of deforestation-linked commodities over the next five or more years, but just "44% of manufacturers and retailers with procurement standards monitor compliance with these standards and audit suppliers across commodities," says the report.
Based on data from archival databases and a survey, we present evidence suggesting that rivalry between the largest audit suppliers increased, as did audit costs, non-Big 4 audit market share, and joint audit rates.
Apple said it carried out its own regular audits of supplier factories.
The report added that Apple had now audited all suppliers polishing aluminum products and had put stronger precautions in place.
Apple, which has audited its suppliers since 2006, said in a statement Thursday that it shares "the F.L.A.'s goal of improving lives and raising the bar for manufacturing companies everywhere".
