Responsible Purchasing Practices: A Cornerstone of HRDD

Purchasing practices are one of the most powerful levers brands have to address the systemic power imbalances embedded in global garment supply chains. Across the industry, it is well established that when brands adopt responsible purchasing practices, suppliers gain the ability to plan production effectively, manage working hours, pay workers fairly, and invest in improving labour conditions. Crucially, responsible purchasing practices are a prerequisite for meaningful implementation of human rights due diligence (HRDD).

Despite this, brands often fall short in addressing the negative social impacts of their operations, while suppliers are expected to improve working conditions without the necessary support. Although brands may not directly control production sites, they retain a clear responsibility to facilitate decent working conditions. This responsibility is becoming increasingly codified through legislative developments such as the European Union Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (EU CSDDD), which makes HRDD mandatory. As such, responsible purchasing practices and HRDD must be understood as mutually reinforcing.

A Shared Responsibility Approach

The Working Group on Responsible Purchasing Practices (RPP WG) brings together leading multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs), industry platforms, and civil society organisations—including Fair Wear, FLA and ETI—to promote a shared responsibility model between brands and suppliers. This approach moves away from ‘risk shifting’—where brands offload risk and liability onto suppliers—and toward ‘risk sharing’ and genuine collaboration to uphold human rights.

Responsible sourcing dialogue and responsible contracting are foundational to this shift. These practices enable brands and suppliers to jointly define the terms of doing business responsibly and to commit to preventing and mitigating human rights risks. The RPP WG has developed a suite of guidance tools to support this transition, including:

• Common Framework for RPP

• RPP Resource Hub for brands

• Purchasing Practices HRDD Framework

The Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices (CFRPP)

The CFRPP serves as a benchmark for companies seeking to improve their purchasing practices. Developed by the RPP WG, it synthesises existing standards and best practices into five core principles:

1. Integration and Reporting

2. Equal Partnership

3. Collaborative Production Planning

4. Fair Payment Terms

5. Sustainable Costing

These principles provide a roadmap for brands to align their commercial practices with their human rights commitments.

Learning and Implementation Community (LIC)

From 2022 to 2024, the RPP WG facilitated the Learning and Implementation Community (LIC), a peer-learning initiative involving 35 garment brands and retailers. The LIC focused on practical implementation of the CFRPP, with a strong emphasis on including manufacturers in the dialogue to ensure solutions are feasible and mutually beneficial. The Sustainable Terms of Trade Initiative (STTI) played a key role in ensuring supplier voices were central to the process. Lessons learned from the LIC are publicly available on the RPP Resouce Hub.

The RPP Resource Hub

To support companies in improving their purchasing practices, the RPP Working Group has developed a comprehensive Resource Hub—a flexible, user-friendly library of tools, video clips, and interactive exercises. This hub is designed to help professionals at all levels make more informed, ethical, and strategic decisions throughout the buying process. Whether you're reviewing payment terms, refining forecasting methods, or navigating supplier relationships, the Resource Hub offers practical guidance tailored to real-world challenges. It’s not a linear training program, but a modular toolkit you can dip into as needed—making it easy to integrate responsible purchasing into your daily work and long-term strategy.