Responsible Business Alliance VAP audit
About Responsible Business Alliance (RBA)
The Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) is a coalition of the world’s leading companies working together to improve efficiency and social, ethical, and environmental responsibility in the global supply chain. Formerly known as the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), RBA now hosts more than 400 members which account for over 7.7 trillion usd of annual revenue in total.
Across its initiatives, RBA support its members in electronics, retail, auto and toy industries to becoming more socially and ethically responsible along their complex supply chains.
The Validated Assessment Process (VAP)
The Validated Assessment Process (VAP) is designed by RBA to investigate risks identification and improvement around corporate social responsibility in supply chains.
VAP is a robust management system that assesses five key areas of the suppliers and factories, which are Labor, Ethics, Health, Safety and Environmental Conditions. The audit criteria of VAP is developed from RBA Code of Conduct Version 7.0, that clearly outlines the standards around the five areas above and serves as the backbone of RBA’s works.
Eurofins Assurance is one of the approved audit firms by RBA to carry out VAP audit worldwide against VAP Audit Protocol V7.0:
- Labour – recognition of employees’ human rights, dignity and respect around wages, benefits, working hours, non-discrimination, etc.
- Health and safety – commitment to provide a healthy and safe working environment around emergency preparedness, occupational injury, industrial hygiene, food, sanitation and housing, etc.
- Environmental – minimisation of adverse impacts in any form to environment during manufacturing process around pollution prevention, hazardous substances, solid waste, air emissions, water management, etc.
- Ethics – respect of diligence around business integrity, intellectual property, responsible sourcing of minerals, privacy, etc.
- Management system – establishment and implementation of management system that ensures compliance to relevant mandatory or regulatory requirements, identifies risks and facilitates continuous improvement.
RBA VAP audit process and recognition
Applicants will undergo four stages for RBA VAP audit that will require proper engagement of representatives from the applying companies in providing high level of transparency in data.
Stage 1: Capability building
Representatives from applying companies can make use of the interactive learning modules developed by RBA to build up their knowledge if they are not familiar with the requirements and expectations.
Stage 2: Self-assessment
Applying companies should complete the self assessment questionnaire by RBA to benchmark their performance against all the scoring criteria. Results will be shared through RBA online platform to drive visibility.
Stage 3: On-site VAP audit
Applying companies will appoint approved audit firms like Eurofins Assurance to conduct on-site audits at the facilities. Depending on the company sizes, the on-site audit could take two to five or more man-days. Audit costs are also dependent on the company sizes.
Stage 4: Corrective action plan
Similar to other audit programmes, corrective action plans (CAPs) will be issued to highlight the under-performing areas and provide recommendations. Applying companies will be required to complete CAPs as agreed before final reports are submitted to for final review.
In order to recognise companies that demonstrate commitment, RBA currently awards three levels of recognition to companies who complete the VAP audit successfully:
- Platinum: for companies with 200 or higher VAP scores, plus all Priority, Major and Minor findings in CAPs closed
- Gold: for companies with 180 or higher VAP scores, plus all Priority and Major findings in CAPs closed
- Silver: for companies with 160 or higher VAP scores, plus all Priority findings in CAPs closed
Why choose us to conduct your RBA VAP audit?
To meet the requirements of hectic sourcing schedules, we offer short booking windows and reporting time to best fit your operations' needs.
We have secured various industry-standard memberships and accreditations to ensure we are fully certified to carry out social audits for brands and retailers. We are a Full Member Firm of the Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors (APSCA), demonstrating expertise in quality social compliance audits.
We uphold stringent quality, process and ethics management systems. Our independent quality and ethics team ensures every aspect of quality in the production process is well monitored, and any potential ethical issues are analysed and resolved. Our customers can expect the highest levels of consistency and integrity in everything we do.