For more than 25 years, I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the world’s leading brands and non-profit organizations to build compliance systems. During that time, I’ve asked myself one question again and again: Why is social, labor, and environmental supplier compliance so hard?

Early in my career, I learned that a company that outsources production really has two supply chains. The first is the one everyone knows—the logistics of where you place purchase orders, approve invoices, and ship products. This is the supply chain of things, and it is well-managed by complex systems. But there is a second, often poorly understood, supply chain. This is the one where products are actually made, where human beings go to work every day, and where an organization’s greatest reputational and social risk lies. It includes subcontractors, material suppliers, and lower-tier factories that can change from country to country. And for decades, this second supply chain was a mystery.

My colleagues and I, along with many well-intentioned organizations, were determined to solve this problem. We all simultaneously built our own social, labor, and environmental compliance systems. Every one of them was designed to manage supplier data, but we soon hit a fundamental roadblock: because there was no single, trusted source of data, we each created our own unique supplier ID.

This collective effort, while born of good intentions, had an unintended consequence. We created hundreds, even thousands, of “islands of automation”—separate data silos with no easy way to collaborate. It was an immensely frustrating challenge for me and everyone else in the industry. We couldn’t easily share information to more quickly improve the lives of workers and the environmental impact of outsourced production. We were trying to build a city without a shared master plan, with every architect designing their own unique streets and addresses.

A Vision for a Connected Future

Several years ago, a vision for a great new compliance “city” began to take shape, led by Natalie Grillon, the Laudes Foundation, and many others. The idea was that if all supply chain actors would adopt a single, universal supplier ID, it would allow for greater transparency and collaboration. Meetings were convened with leaders from across the compliance industry to think about this bigger picture. A new non-profit organization emerged from that early work, first called the Open Apparel Registry, but now known as Open Supply Hub (OS Hub).

I am proud to have served as board chair of this organization since its incorporation. The mission of OS Hub is clear and impactful: to make supply chain data open, accessible, and trusted for the public benefit. They steward data, providing a single, essential reference point—a universal address book—that enables stakeholders to collectively address challenges and drive progress for human rights and the environment. OS Hub has grown quickly, attracting some of the world’s most innovative data management problem-solvers. In their short existence, they have mapped nearly 2 million production locations in various industries, from apparel and footwear to mineral extraction and agriculture. There are now more than 3,200 data contributors who understand that a single OS ID is the key to a better future.

For decades, I watched as the compliance industry grappled with fragmentation. But now, I see a movement taking hold, one that is finally building the shared foundation we always needed. For the first time, we have an elegant solution to a problem that has plagued us for a quarter-century.

What Can You Do to Help?

This is not a spectator sport. The time for action is now. Here is how you can join this movement:

For Brands and Retailers: Contribute your supplier data to OS Hub and make use of their tools designed specifically for you. This will help you improve your supplier dataset and meet stakeholder pressure for greater transparency.

For Foundations and Investors: Consider an OS Hub grant or invite them to meet with you. They are the most effective way to drive systemic change in supply chain transparency.

For Industry Trade Associations and Working Groups: Meet with OS Hub to learn how they can accelerate your mission by providing a universal data standard.

For Compliance Service Providers: Adopt the OS ID to help you share and collaborate across data silos. If your current provider does not yet use the OS ID, ask them when they plan to.

For Government Policymakers: As you consider new laws or regulations for supply chain transparency, include a requirement to adopt the OS ID as a fundamental step.

For Suppliers: If you are listed on OS Hub, claim your profile and enhance the quality of your information. This improves the accuracy of the platform for everyone.

For the sake of workers everywhere and a cleaner planet, I ask you to give OS Hub your support.