Ethical Supply Chain & Labor
Pillars assessed in a full SMETA audit
Sedex members across 180 countries
Maximum audit report validity under SMETA 7.0
Regulation Overview
SMETA is the world's most widely used social audit methodology, developed by Sedex to assess labour standards, health and safety, environmental performance, and business ethics across global supply chains. For supply chain compliance teams, SMETA is the dominant framework through which customers evaluate ethical sourcing and supplier risk scoring.
SMETA 7.0, released in 2024, introduced a Management Systems Assessment (MSA), Collaborative Action Required (CAR) findings for complex issues, and standardized workplace requirements. Audit reports older than 24 months are no longer considered robust. Buyers increasingly require 4-pillar audits—covering environment and business ethics alongside the mandatory labour and health and safety pillars.
SMETA compliance requires site-level evidence—policies, procedures, training records, worker interviews, and corrective action documentation—from every audited supplier. When customers request SMETA audit data, your team must provide complete visibility through the Sedex platform or equivalent documentation.
Key Components / Sub-Frameworks
Suppliers requested by buyers to complete SMETA audits via Sedex membership
Manufacturers and production sites supplying to Sedex buyer members
Companies in global supply chains where customers require ethical trade evidence
Non-EU suppliers exporting to European retailers and brands
Companies preparing for CSDDD, LkSG, or UK Modern Slavery Act with SMETA as evidence
Any Sedex member site subject to 2-pillar or 4-pillar audit scope
Key Thresholds
You supply to 15 brands across the EU and UK. Seven require SMETA 4-pillar audits. Three accept SMETA 2-pillar. Two request amfori BSCI instead. Each buyer wants audit visibility through Sedex, but their specific requirements differ—some demand semi-announced audits, others require CAR resolution evidence. Your compliance team manages parallel audit preparation for the same site with no centralized system of record.
Your SMETA audit surfaces 23 non-conformances across 8 supplier sites. Corrective action plans are tracked in spreadsheets, email chains, and the Sedex platform—but not in one place. Follow-up evidence is scattered. Three suppliers haven't responded. Two submitted evidence in formats the original auditor can't verify. Buyers request CAP status. You can't provide a real-time answer.
SMETA 7.0 now evaluates management system maturity—policies, procedures, training, and root cause analysis capability. This is no longer a file-readiness exercise. Suppliers with robust documentation but weak systems will receive non-conformances. Without continuous evidence of systemic improvement, your suppliers fail the new standard.
Buyers increasingly want not just SMETA audit results but aggregated supplier risk scoring across their supply chain. You need to report on audit coverage, non-conformance rates by category, corrective action closure rates, and overdue items—across hundreds of supplier sites. Compiling this from Sedex data, audit PDFs, and email evidence takes weeks. Manual ethical trade compliance management at this scale is unsustainable.
Certivo In Action
Certivo in Action — SMETA Workflow
Consumer Goods
Your Pain Point
High SKU counts; hundreds of production sites; multiple buyer SMETA requirements
Electronics Manufacturing
Your Pain Point
Multi-tier supply chains; conflict minerals overlap; forced labour risk in raw materials
Automotive Manufacturing
Your Pain Point
OEM flowdown requirements; global supplier networks; IATF + SMETA overlap
Industrial & Heavy Equipment
Your Pain Point
Legacy supplier relationships; diverse geographies; limited audit history
Pharmaceuticals & Biotech
Your Pain Point
API sourcing from high-risk regions; regulatory overlap with GMP and ethical sourcing
Construction Materials
Your Pain Point
Migrant labour exposure; raw material extraction risks; project-level requirements
Chemical Manufacturing
Your Pain Point
Hazardous materials handling; worker safety requirements; environmental compliance overlap
Aerospace & Defense
Your Pain Point
Prime contractor flowdown; sub-tier visibility requirements; defence-specific ethical sourcing
From Manual Evidence Assembly to AI-Native Compliance Automation
CORA collects, parses, and validates supplier SMETA evidence automatically. Your team focuses on risk decisions and remediation—not chasing audit PDFs and compiling corrective action spreadsheets.
SMETA Compliance Reporting Acceleration
Generate complete, buyer-ready supplier compliance packages in hours—not the weeks of manual compilation across audit reports, CAP logs, and Sedex exports.
Proactive SMETA Risk Management
When audits expire, corrective action deadlines approach, or buyer requirements change, Certivo alerts you instantly. Know your supplier risk posture before buyers ask—not after.
Key Statistics
Frequently Asked Questions
Who needs to comply with SMETA audit requirements?
SMETA audits apply to any supplier site where a Sedex buyer member requests an audit. There is no universal size threshold—compliance is driven by customer requirements. Sedex has over 55,000 members in 180 countries across 35 industry sectors. With CSDDD, LkSG, and UK Modern Slavery Act enforcement increasing, more buyers are mandating SMETA audits as their primary supplier due diligence evidence. Certivo tracks which of your suppliers require SMETA audits and monitors audit validity automatically.
What happens if a supplier fails a SMETA audit?
SMETA does not have a formal pass/fail system. Instead, audits identify non-conformances (NCs) and observations that require corrective action plans (CAPs). SMETA 7.0 introduced Collaborative Action Required (CAR) findings for systemic issues needing long-term remediation. Buyers may suspend or terminate suppliers with unresolved critical NCs. CORA tracks all NCs and CAPs across your supplier base, alerts on overdue items, and generates closure evidence reports for buyer review.
How does Certivo handle SMETA evidence management at scale?
Certivo collects SMETA audit reports, SAQ data, corrective action evidence, and policy documentation from hundreds of suppliers simultaneously. CORA extracts non-conformances by pillar, categorizes findings against the ETI Base Code, tracks corrective actions to closure, and generates buyer-specific compliance packages. One centralized compliance data backbone replaces scattered PDFs, spreadsheets, and email chains.
Does Certivo support both SMETA 2-pillar and 4-pillar audit evidence?
Yes. Certivo manages evidence for both 2-pillar (Labour + H&S) and 4-pillar (Labour + H&S + Environment + Business Ethics) SMETA audits. CORA extracts and categorizes non-conformances by pillar regardless of audit scope. When buyers upgrade requirements from 2-pillar to 4-pillar, Certivo identifies the evidence gaps and launches targeted collection campaigns for the additional pillars.
How does SMETA evidence support compliance with CSDDD, LkSG, and other due diligence regulations?
SMETA audit findings map directly to regulatory due diligence requirements. Labour pillar data supports CSDDD and LkSG human rights risk analysis. H&S pillar data feeds environmental and occupational safety obligations. Business ethics data aligns with anti-corruption due diligence. Certivo validates one set of SMETA supplier evidence against multiple regulatory frameworks simultaneously—eliminating duplicate collection campaigns and supporting multi-jurisdiction ESG management.