Seven years ago, a small group of organizations started contributing production location data to a shared, open platform called the Open Apparel Registry. That platform evolved into Open Supply Hub (OS Hub), and today, more than 4,000 organizations have joined that original collective. Together, the community has built what is now the world’s largest open map of its kind, spanning millions of production locations across 225 countries and geographies.
I’ve had the privilege of leading our growing organization on this journey. And what I’ve come to understand is that we’ve built more than a database. Open Supply Hub is a true network, linking many disparate organizations that all made a conscious choice to contribute their data to a broader ecosystem. In making that choice, they’ve placed their trust in OS Hub. We strive to earn that trust by consistently upholding our values of openness, collaboration, determination, and equity, working toward every stakeholder having an equitable seat at the supply chain data table.
As our users amassed data on the OS Hub platform, it quickly became clear that in addition to data, we needed the ability to connect the dots. Right now, if you want more data about your supply chain, like emissions data, labor assessments, living wage data, audits, and certifications, you have to go on a data scavenger hunt to figure out who has what information, and if that data applies to the suppliers or supply chain you care about.
My hope is that now, that starts to change, with the launch of OS Hub Spotlight.
OS Hub Spotlight connects our platform to 10 founding data partners:
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amfori
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Climate TRACE
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International Accord
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Labor Solutions
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Living Wage Institute
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Social and Labor Convergence Program (SLCP)
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Ulula
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WageIndicator Foundation
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Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP)
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Worldly
Each organization has contributed data that is discoverable right on OS Hub facility profiles and anchored to the OS ID.
OS Hub Spotlight is a powerful multiplier of what we’ve already built. Our open data platform, and the community of thousands of organizations that built it together, now has a layer of connected partner data on top of it. For the first time on the OS Hub platform, you can understand not just where a facility is and who’s connected to it, but what additional data exists about it (like environmental, social and assessment datasets) and where to find it.
Why we built it this way
There’s something really important about how we built this.
OS Hub Spotlight does not host our partners’ data, unless they want us to or it’s helpful to them. Our primary intent is to serve as the link, pointing users to where the data they need lives. This distinction matters because the supply chain data ecosystem is full of organizations doing extraordinary work, each with its own valuable trove of data. Spotlight’s true value is in linking those data sets together in context, and unlocking the knowledge of where they are.
This way, our partners receive something real in return: their data reaches new users, from suppliers to compliance leads to sourcing directors to program managers to union leaders, and their facility records come back cleaned, deduplicated, and matched to OS IDs, making it easier to use and connect with others.
That value doesn’t stop with our Spotlight Partners. For OS Hub users ready to go deeper, we’ve built premium tools to further leverage what OS Hub Spotlight makes possible. Some of our partners need facility-level data at scale, continuous updates, or Spotlight data integrated directly into their programs, and we can support that. But the foundational Spotlight data on OS Hub profiles remains open and accessible.
Built for the whole ecosystem
One of the most meaningful elements of OS Hub Spotlight is that it levels up the platform for all of our stakeholders.
Yes, brands benefit enormously — accessing labor, environmental, assessment, and certification data from across our founding Spotlight Partner network in a single integration.
But suppliers benefit too, in ways that go beyond the well-documented reporting burden. One of the most under-appreciated realities of this ecosystem is that suppliers frequently have no visibility into the data about or affecting their own facility. OS Hub Spotlight begins to change that, as suppliers move from being subjects of data collection to informed, proactive participants in their own due diligence. A facility assessed by SLCP or inspected through the International Accord doesn’t have to separately prove that status to every brand searching our platform, when the connection is right there for all to see.
For civil society organizations, unions, researchers, and journalists, an open and connected data ecosystem is the infrastructure for accountability. When data about facility conditions, wages, environmental performance, and labor assessments is centralized in one place, it becomes actionable. And no matter what you use OS Hub for, the upgrades we’ve made to the platform as part of this launch include a new design for production location profiles: a cleaner, more intuitive experience built to make important details easier to navigate. Everyone who uses the platform will see the difference.
The future we’re building toward
Ten founding Spotlight Partners is the starting point.
Imagine being able to see, on a single OS Hub profile, a consolidated list of every identifier that facility holds across major supply chain systems.
A complete picture of every available audit, assessment, and certification, without needing to know which platform to check.
Facility-level data on wages, environmental conditions, collective bargaining agreements, and community indicators that help ground what’s happening inside a location in relation to the world around it, and the people that work there and live nearby.
Alongside our current partnerships, we envision ever more data, painting a rich, detailed picture of the supply chain: flood risk and heat stress exposure, disaggregated gender data, circular economy information to bolster re-use of materials… The list goes on.
That future is absolutely possible. We are actively connecting with new Spotlight Partners across all corners of the supply chain ecosystem. Every new partner that connects to OS Hub Spotlight makes the platform more impactful for every existing user. Every new user creates more value for every partner. The network effect builds on itself and grows ever stronger over time.
For years, the dominant model in supply chain data has been closed: proprietary platforms, locked identifiers, data that only flows in directions that benefit the platform owner. OS Hub Spotlight is a proof point for a different model, one where data is connected carefully, transparently, and with genuine mutual benefit in mind.
We haven’t just been building a platform for the better part of a decade. We’ve been building a network of trust, linking arms with so many extraordinary colleagues, all of us mobilized towards making better conditions for the people and communities in global supply chains a reality. I hope you’ll join us in this next chapter.
→ Join our webinar on May 12: Meet the founding OS Hub Spotlight Partners and see Spotlight in action.
→ Become a Spotlight Partner: If your organization holds supply chain data, we’d love to talk.
→ Get started on Open Supply Hub
