Supplier Feedback Mapped to Leading Responsible Purchasing Frameworks

  • Decent Work
  • Better Buying
  • Responsible Purchasing Practices

New analysis shows over 60 percent alignment between Cascale Better Buying survey data and leading due diligence frameworks.

February 11, 2026

Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Oakland (CA) – February 11, 2026: Cascale Better Buying has released Mapping Cascale Better Buying Responsible Purchasing Practices Survey Questions to the CFRPP and PP-DD Frameworks analyzing how its Responsible Purchasing Practices surveys align with two widely used industry due diligence frameworks: the Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices (CFRPP) and the Purchasing Practices Human Rights Due Diligence (PP-DD) Framework.

The analysis maps supplier feedback captured through Better Buying tools against each framework’s requirements to better understand where responsible purchasing and human rights due diligence expectations are already reflected, where additional coverage can be achieved through existing services, and where targeted refinements could further strengthen alignment. The report also identifies areas that fall outside Better Buying’s core focus or practices that suppliers cannot reasonably observe.

“Our goal was to bring greater clarity to how supplier-reported data can support responsible purchasing and human rights due diligence efforts,” said Katie Hess, head of product at Cascale Better Buying. “This mapping shows that supplier feedback already provides meaningful insight into many core practices, and it highlights practical ways companies can strengthen alignment without adding unnecessary complexity.”

Mapping to the CFRPP

The CFRPP was developed in 2022 by a working group of multi-stakeholder initiatives as a shared reference point for companies and supporting organizations to understand and improve responsible purchasing practices in supply chains. Better Buying Institute, whose assets were acquired by Cascale in 2025, was consulted during the development process and contributed input as part of the broader stakeholder consultation and benchmarking process.

Mapping the Cascale Better Buying survey questions to the CFRPP revealed:

  • Existing Cascale Better Buying survey questions cover 60 percent of CFRPP practices.
  • By subscribing to Cascale Better Buying services, companies can address an additional 21 percent of CFRPP requirements.
  • Targeted additions or revisions to survey questions will extend coverage by a further nine percent.
  • The remaining 10 percent of CFRPP practices fall outside Better Buying’s focus or are beyond what suppliers can directly observe or assess.

Mapping to the PP-DD Framework

The PP-DD Framework was developed by the Responsible Purchasing Practices Working Group, a coalition of multi-stakeholder organizations working to advance responsible purchasing and human rights due diligence in global supply chains. The PP-DD Framework defines the core actions companies should be accountable for when aligning purchasing practices with human rights due diligence expectations.

Mapping the Cascale Better Buying survey questions to the PP-DD Framework revealed:

  • Existing Cascale Better Buying survey questions cover 47 percent of the PP-DD Framework requirements.
  • An additional 22 percent of PP-DD requirements can be addressed through current Cascale Better Buying services.
  • Modest updates to survey content will extend coverage by a further 11 percent.
  • Twenty percent of PP-DD practices fall outside the scope of Better Buying’s tools or are not reasonably knowable by suppliers.

Summary

Together, the findings demonstrate how supplier voice data can support responsible purchasing practices and human rights due diligence when used alongside established frameworks. The report reinforces Cascale Better Buying’s role in helping companies understand where they are today and where practical improvements can be made to support decent work through more responsible purchasing.

Media Contact: Forster Communications, cascaleforster@forster.co.uk

Due Diligence in Practice with Fair Wear and Mammut

  • Decent Work

Labor conditions in the consumer goods industry have improved — but serious problems remain. How do we solve them? According to Annabel Meurs, Executive Director of Fair Wear, it begins with stronger worker representation, more formal brand-supplier agreements, and a willingness to listen to all stakeholders. But that’s just the start. Discover how alignment across initiatives can reduce duplication and drive real change.

December 02, 2025

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts

Learn more about Fair Wear and the HRDD Academy at www.fairwear.org

Check out Mammut at: www.mammut.com

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Produced by Cascale and Hueman Group Media. Views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of Cascale or Hueman Group Media.

Better Buying: From Research to Reform with Dr. Marsha Dickson and Under Armour

  • Decent Work
  • Better Buying
  • Responsible Purchasing Practices

For more than 30 years, Dr. Marsha Dickson has worked to make fashion more fair. From research and teaching to launching the Better Buying Institute, she’s led the change to center supplier voices and responsible purchasing in the pursuit of decent work. Now, as she steps away from day-to-day leadership and into a much-deserved retirement, Dr. Dickson reflects on what’s changed — and what still needs to be done.

October 29, 2025

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts

Click here to learn more about Better Buying

Visit Under Armour

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Produced by Cascale and Hueman Group Media. Views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of Cascale or Hueman Group Media.

Transparency Never Goes Out of Style with Retraced

  • Decent Work
  • Responsible Purchasing Practices
  • Transparency

Today, supply chains are more complex than ever.

But that doesn’t mean they have to be difficult to navigate. That’s why our guest, Lukas Puender, co-founded Retraced, an online platform that connects thousands of apparel suppliers and brands and allows them to seamlessly share their supply chain data. More data also means more transparency, a key component of sustainability.

October 14, 2025

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts

Learn more about Retraced

Check out Marc O’Polo’s sweatshirts here

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Produced by Cascale and Hueman Group Media. Views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of Cascale or Hueman Group Media.

There’s No Sustainability without Workers’ Rights with John Morrison

  • Decent Work
  • Responsible Purchasing Practices

Sustainability isn’t only about climate — it’s also about people. In this episode, John Morrison, CEO of the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) and author of The Just Transition, explains why workers’ rights must also be at the center of sustainability efforts. He also shares what a “just transition” to a sustainable industry looks like, with measures that ensure no one is left behind.

September 30, 2025

Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts

Learn more about the IHRB at ihrb.org

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Produced by Cascale and Hueman Group Media. Views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of Cascale or Hueman Group Media.

How Cascale, Fair Wear and SLCP Activate Human Rights Due Diligence at the Annual Meeting 2025

  • Decent Work
  • Responsible Purchasing Practices
  • Partnership and Collaboration
  • Annual Meeting

Cascale, Fair Wear, SLCP will dive deeper on creating impactful human rights due diligence at the Annual Meeting 2025.

September 05, 2025

Cascale’s Annual Member Meeting, “A Movement for All,” takes place in Hong Kong September 15 to 17. The event will address how we, as an industry, can collectively address and solve two of the most critical challenges facing our industry today: Combating Climate Change and Supporting Decent Work For All.

It’s an outsized challenge but a shared commitment. Leaders today are those frontrunner brands, suppliers, policymakers, and non-corporate players that are doubling down on climate change and decent work as a business imperative. Together, they are confronting a dizzying array of duplicate initiatives, repeat data sources, and outdated auditing systems in place. By collectively refining the approach to measuring, verifying, and enhancing social and environmental performance, compliance and responsible purchasing practices becomes a nearer reality.

The State of Play 

Compliance is a growing area of interest for industry players, and convening organizations have a role to play. In its background note on regulatory developments concerning due diligence for responsible business conduct, The Role of Sustainability Initiatives in Mandatory Due Diligence (OECD, 2022) recognizes Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives (MSIs) as playing a crucial role, acting as both facilitators, providing tools and guidance for companies, and verifiers, assessing and potentially certifying company practices. But the guidance also notes that, despite recent examples of initiatives converging and aligning approaches, the landscape is still complex and confusing, with 455 ecolabels and various environmental schemes listed in the Ecolabel Index at the time of writing.

In this playing field and true to this year’s event theme, Cascale, the Social and Labor Convergence Program (SLCP), and Fair Wear will come together to be greater than the sum of our already formidable parts to promote impactful Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) by brands and suppliers. We aim to support stakeholders on their journey through building and leveraging joint tools, best practices, and accountability mechanisms.

This joint work builds on discussions we originally held at our Annual Meeting in Boston, back in 2023, exploring the potential of HRDD as an organizing principle for the industry, and aims to be complementary – rather than additive. Because it’s only together that can we scale accountability in an actionable way.

Combining Unique Strengths 

Between us, we believe we have all the tools a company needs to conduct impactful due diligence. Cascale owns and develops the Higg Index suite of tools, and since February, has owned the Better Buying toolset informed by surveys on brand and retailer purchasing practices. We have over 300 members and 40,000 Higg Index users. Fair Wear led the industry effort towards alignment on the Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing, while its HRDD Academy supports brands to better understand the HRDD cycle and practically implement human rights due diligence both within the company and across the supply chain. SLCP now boasts over 250 signatories and its Converged Assessment Framework (CAF) forms the foundation of Cascale’s Higg Facility Social & Labor Module (Higg FSLM).

It’s an executive priority. “Cascale, SLCP, and Fair Wear see great opportunities in driving impactful HRDD by working more closely together,” said Harsh Saini, interim chief executive officer of Cascale. “Together, we have immense convening power, expertise, and volumes of credible and actionable data. We are all speaking the same language on due diligence, and our tools fit together and complement each other, providing brands and retailers with everything they need for their due diligence journey.”

As well, the work becomes a shared responsibility. “We’re united around a shared vision,” added Annabel Meurs, executive director of Fair Wear. “This will set the tone in the industry on what impactful due diligence looks like, holding brands and retailers accountable in making progress and to scale up best practices that will have a real impact on workers.”

Steve Harris, COO of SLCP , underscored: “Our three organizations will work together to develop and cross-promote each bilateral partner’s tools, drive collective action, sharing HRDD knowledge and best practice across the whole of our membership and signatories, and advocating for decent work with policymakers.”

The next opportunity to hear more about our collective expression of deepened and more targeted coordination will be at Cascale’s Annual Member Meeting in Hong Kong, September 15 to 17. The event will feature presentations from Fair Wear and SLCP on key topics, including making responsible purchasing practices the norm within the industry, and what needs to happen next to drive real movement on audit fatigue. You can also visit the Cascale, Fair Wear, and SLCP booths in the exhibition area to find out more about the tools and guidance available.

Cascale Highlights Collaboration & Risk-Based Due Diligence at SLCP Stakeholder Meeting

  • Decent Work
  • Better Buying

Joleen Ong joined a panel of industry experts to share insights on key issues impacting the apparel industry at the SCLP Stakeholder Meeting in New York.

July 23, 2025

At the Social Labor & Convergence Program’s (SLCP) recent Stakeholder Meeting in New York, Joleen Ong, Cascale’s senior director of brand and retailer membership, joined a panel of industry experts to share insights on key issues impacting the apparel industry.

The “Data Insights and Industry Perspectives” panel was moderated by Anna Burger, SLCP board member, and included Robert Reid, senior manager, corporate social responsibility at Randa Accessories, and Ana Chiu, senior director at PVH Corp.

Ong highlighted the collaboration between Cascale and SLCP and its pivotal role in laying the foundation for an even more targeted, deeper, and impact-driven approach to improving social performance in global supply chains. Delving deeper into Cascale’s collaborative work with SLCP, Ong highlighted the Higg Facility Social & Labor Module (Higg FSLM), which is built on SLCP’s Converged Assessment Framework (CAF), underpinning Cascale’s Support Decent Work for All strategic pillar and reflecting its commitment to champion workers’ rights, ensure fair purchasing practices, and streamline audits to foster safe and equitable workplaces.

Ong shared insights from the recent update to the Higg FSLM and CAF v1.7, noting that the update enhances risk assessment and regulatory alignment to deliver greater transparency through credible, actionable social and labor compliance data, driving decent working conditions across global supply chains. She noted that the CAF, which is available in 60 countries, forms the backbone of the Higg FSLM, making it Cascale’s preferred tool for streamlining assessments, reducing audit duplication, and obtaining credible and actionable data.

Highlighting the benefits of convergence, Ong referenced Cascale’s Better Buying Purchasing Practices Index (BBPPI) survey, which features a “Win-Win Sustainable Partnership” section that gathers manufacturers’ insights on how convergence supports outcomes such as a living wage and health and safety investments. Now, with Better Buying under Cascale, we can link purchasing practice feedback directly to SLCP data patterns. For example, the BBPPI found that:

  • 60% of suppliers reported monetary savings from CAF adoption
  • 24% used those savings to increase wages—a direct indication that reduced audit fatigue is helping to unlock resources for remediation and improvement.

She observed the growing momentum toward convergence: the average SLCP assessment is now shared 2.96 times—a 16% increase from last year—signaling a shift from proprietary tools toward shared trust in the Converged Assessment Framework (CAF). Tools like the Higg FSLM enable multi-brand recognition of a single verified assessment, reducing duplication, building facility ownership of data, and fostering collaboration.

At the same time, social compliance professionals must assess factory risk before production begins—but existing data from converged assessments can often provide these insights without requiring additional questionnaires. Key factors include the number of migrant or contract workers, gender ratios, factory location, and the presence of other buyers—all evaluated against internal codes of conduct and issue criticality.

Common “showstopper” risks include fire safety and forced labor issues. Pre-audit questions can help flag concerns, such as:

  • Do factories in China built before 1998 have automatic fire sprinklers installed, in line with the updated fire code introduced that year?
  • In countries where migrant labor is common such as Taiwan, Malaysia or Japan, have migrant workers paid recruitment fees?
  • In Southern India, are wages paid regularly rather than in lump sums, given known risks of Sumangali schemes?

Converged assessments make this type of pre-screening possible, helping teams prioritize due diligence and focus more time on meaningful remediation—especially when paired with the FSLM’s risk-based prioritization logic.

Ong concluded by sharing how human rights due diligence enhances long-term business resilience by fostering stable and reliable supplier relationships. She advocated for a collective, risk-based approach across industry initiatives to reduce audit fatigue and enable more meaningful resource allocation, thereby achieving lasting improvements.