The Challenge: Finding Safe and Socially Compliant Products

The supply chain that is used to bring to bring branded products to you can span the globe and involve many different factories. We sort through the industry's over 3,000 suppliers and millions of products to find supply chains that have best in class sourcing policies and procedures. Our goal is to provide safe and socially compliant products that you can comfortably brand with your name on it.

The primary benefit of shifting supply chains to low wage countries has been lower prices. The costs of this globalization vary depending on how it’s impacted you. In our industry it has sparked emerging challenges including knowing that the products printed with your brand are safe and protecting workers rights during the production of these products. Because the business of manufacturing is very fluid, we cannot guarantee against abuses in product safety and social compliance. What we are doing is building an infrastructure of best practices that severely limit your risk in these areas.

The Solution: The I.D. Me College 3-P Initiative

Our central guidelines to achieve compliant products are the I.D. Me College "3-P Initiative" surrounding the – Products, People and Planet. Our 3-P initiatives are the foundation that we continually improve upon, or as we say, "social compliance is a journey and not a final destination". The 3-P's drive every decision in order to provide:

• Safe products (see our product safety page)
• Made by workers whose rights are respected (see our social compliance page)
• With minimal harm to the environment

Products on the I.D. Me College website are pre-qualified in two major areas:

Product Safety – Each product has been reviewed for possible hazards, and testing has been performed by third party laboratories (as necessary). We engage with our suppliers to provide documented proof of compliance to all regulations and make it easy to navigate the regulatory environment.

Social Compliance – We work with each supplier to ensure that all factories follow a strict Code of Conduct. We work with supply chains that aspire to verify their Code of Conduct with audits by an independent third party, corrective action plans and related follow through. We strive to get you products that you can feel confident are made by companies that provide a safe and respectful working environment for their workers.

We are often asked – How can I help?

The answer is brand protection and responsible sourcing starts with you! You are the beginning of the supply chain and the most important link in it. When you make a decision where to buy your promotional items, you start a chain of events that can impact product safety and workers’ rights. Your decision ultimately determines if the products you’re willing to put your brand on are compliant. By choosing I.D. Me College you help push to significantly limit risk in distributing dangerous products. And for the people making your products, no matter where in the world, you are doing something to know they are being treated fairly. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, comments, or ideas.