California Transparency

Enacted back in 2010, the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act mandates full operational openness for all brands that manufacture or resell tangible goods within the state’s commercial boundaries. The regulatory rule requires all eligible enterprises to fully disclose internal governance measures and practical operational arrangements for preventing and restraining unethical labor behaviors such as forced labor, illegal enslavement and cross-border human trafficking in all upstream and downstream supply chain links. The core legislative purpose of this formal act is to fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of local end consumers, equip the public with complete, true and intuitive industrial chain information, and guide the public to make rational, objective and ethical consumption choices based on the actual labor ethics management level and risk control capacity of different commercial brands.

To fully comply with the mandatory requirements of the California local regulatory act and actively assume social responsibility as a global lifestyle brand, Allbirds has independently formulated and fully implemented a full-process standardized responsible raw material procurement and supply chain management system. The systematic institutional mechanism focuses on fully safeguarding the basic legitimate labor rights and interests of all front-line factory workers, promoting universally applicable fair labor norms and long-term eco-friendly sustainable production modes in all cooperative production bases, and building a complete early warning screening mechanism to effectively identify potential hidden dangers of modern illegal labor exploitation and human trafficking, with targeted rectification and closed-loop management carried out in a timely manner. The brand has always adhered to a people-oriented operational concept, firmly believing that every front-line worker participating in the manufacturing, processing and assembly of Allbirds finished products is entitled to a safe working environment, dignified labor treatment and all legal workplace guarantees in line with international labor conventions. Meanwhile, the brand insists on opening the whole production process to consumers, ensuring that the public can clearly understand the real production links and actual staff composition behind every commodity.

Open and honest operational communication runs through the whole supply chain management work of Allbirds and serves as the most fundamental guiding benchmark for all cooperation with suppliers. All long-term and short-term cooperative suppliers at all levels are required to take the initiative to truthfully feedback practical progress in optimizing on-site labor environment and standardizing daily labor management, as well as existing practical difficulties and unresolved problems in actual operation, without concealing any key information. Allbirds does not limit risk supervision to direct first-tier cooperative manufacturers, but extends full-dimensional inspection and information verification to all secondary and tertiary raw material sub-suppliers, including submitting real enterprise qualification certificates, accurate enterprise registration information and specific factory geographical distribution data. Comprehensive and transparent information docking enables the brand to draw a complete supply chain risk map, accurately grasp hidden risk points in each link, and carry out targeted whole-chain risk prevention and control. Allbirds regards transparent information interaction not as a single rigid compliance task to cope with supervision, but as the core cornerstone of building mutual trust between brands and suppliers, improving internal management accountability, and realizing long-term continuous optimization of the industrial chain system, so that every consumer who chooses Allbirds goods can rest assured that the brand has invested sufficient manpower and material resources to continuously improve the working conditions and living standards of all production practitioners.

Binding written contractual agreements constitute another core safeguard measure of Allbirds’ responsible sourcing management system. The brand strictly screens cooperative partners in advance and only establishes long-term strategic stable cooperative relations with high-quality suppliers that can strictly abide by local national labor laws and fully respect international universally recognized basic worker welfare rights. All newly accessed processing and manufacturing partners must sign formal binding cooperation contracts with the brand in advance, strictly abide by Allbirds’ unified supplier code of conduct, and fully promise to abide by all local regulatory clauses related to prohibiting forced labor, preventing illegal enslavement and cracking down on human trafficking in all regions where their production factories are located. Clear and standardized contractual clauses clarify the unified access assessment standards and daily management norms for all suppliers, build a solid legal restraint barrier for standardized ethical procurement work, and standardize the whole process of responsible and legitimate business operation of all cooperative enterprises.

Before signing any formal mass production order cooperation intention, Allbirds will arrange professional independent third-party industrial chain evaluation institutions with industry authoritative qualifications to conduct on-site all-round social compliance audits of all new cooperative production factories. The special audit work is formulated to strictly check whether the actual on-site working environment, staff welfare configuration and safety guarantee facilities of all production workshops fully meet the minimum access standards clearly stipulated in Allbirds’ supplier code of conduct. The on-site inspection work includes one-on-one confidential anonymous interviews with front-line employees to collect real workplace feedback, careful review of all factory labor contracts, employee attendance records and salary payment vouchers, and on-site inspection and evaluation of workshop safety protection facilities, fire prevention conditions and overall occupational health and safety environment. The brand adopts a combination of scheduled regular inspections and random unannounced spot checks according to regional industrial risk levels and common bad phenomena in the local manufacturing industry, so as to implement rigorous due diligence work in place. Production areas with frequent labor safety risks or suppliers with poor historical compliance performance will be included in the key supervision list, with more frequent irregular special audits arranged throughout the year.

All violations involving modern slavery and human trafficking incidents are listed as zero-tolerance negative behaviors in Allbirds’ supply chain management system. Once any related illegal and irregular phenomena are verified in the on-site audit process, the cooperative factory will directly fail the comprehensive compliance assessment. In view of such serious human rights violations, Allbirds will immediately suspend all subsequent order cooperation and all product production arrangements, and will only resume normal cooperative relations after the relevant production enterprises completely rectify all existing problems in accordance with standardized rectification plans within the time limit agreed by both parties and pass the re-inspection. The brand’s strict and uncompromising management attitude fully reflects its high attention to human rights protection and firm determination to eliminate all illegal labor risks in the supply chain.

On the basis of regular special audits, Allbirds focuses on promoting long-term dynamic improvement of the overall level of the supply chain. The brand has formulated a long-term full-cycle follow-up supervision mechanism, tracking and supervising all cooperative suppliers to complete targeted optimization of all non-compliant links found in the audits and realize sustainable upgrading of labor management level. All rectification work requires suppliers to focus on solving fundamental root problems rather than dealing with superficial temporary remediation, matched with a sound internal management assessment system to implement personnel accountability and ensure long-term stable compliance of production links. The brand arranges special personnel to track, verify and evaluate the whole process of all rectification and improvement work to ensure that all optimization measures achieve practical results.

Professional special training is also an indispensable key part of Allbirds’ complete responsible sourcing system. All internal brand employees engaged in supply chain docking, supplier management and production supervision will receive regular special special lectures and professional skill training on identifying human trafficking clues, preventing forced labor risks and standardizing ethical procurement operations. The systematic training helps all management personnel master practical risk identification methods and targeted mitigation strategies, effectively integrate ethical labor protection concepts into daily management decisions and long-term supplier layout plans, and jointly promote the standardized, ethical and green high-quality development of the global supply chain.

Through the coordinated implementation of multiple dimensions such as transparent information interaction, contractual constraint management, on-site third-party audits, zero-tolerance risk disposal, continuous dynamic optimization and professional staff training, Allbirds has always maintained high-standard responsible procurement and supply chain management norms, effectively consolidated the safety, ethics and integrity of the whole industrial chain, and actively contributed practical strength to the global public welfare cause of jointly resisting modern slavery and eliminating human trafficking behaviors.