What is a social compliance audit?

A social compliance audit is the examination by an independent auditor of working conditions, occupational health and safety and business ethics at a production site against a code of conduct.

The audit is usually requested by the buyer: major brands and retailers expect their suppliers to have been audited against a particular program. The three programs Turkish exporters encounter most often are amfori BSCI, Sedex’s SMETA and WRAP. What the three have in common is that they are audits; how they differ is what the result is and how it can be shown.

Is an audit result a certificate?

Mostly not. amfori BSCI’s own help page says it is not a certification; the result is an audit rating from A to E, and the full report is open only to amfori members and the audited supplier. According to Sedex, neither membership nor a SMETA audit is a certification; nor is there a pass or fail result. WRAP, on the other hand, gives the facility that passes the audit an annual “Certification of Compliance”; since March 1, 2026, the levels have been removed.

How is an audit mentioned on the site?

As an audit, not a certificate: the program’s name and version, the audited facility, the audit date and the form of the result. The programs' names and logos require permission: amfori’s name and logo require prior written permission, and the Sedex and SMETA trademarks may not be displayed without a contract or written approval. WRAP’s “Certified Facility” logo, by contrast, may be used on a website only while the certificate is valid. The verification route also differs: the WRAP facility map is public, while for the other two programs the buyer asks the supplier for the report.

• Do not write “BSCI certificate” or “SMETA certified”; neither program has a certificate.
• List audits under a heading separate from the certificate record: “Audits”, not “Certificates”.
• The audit of a contract manufacturer’s facility is not your audit; write whose facility it is.

An audit also has a time limit. In amfori BSCI, at ratings A and B the full audit is renewed within two years at the latest; at ratings C, D and E a follow-up audit comes within 2 to 12 months. The current version of SMETA is SMETA 7 (2024). The WRAP certificate is annual, and existing old Platinum certificates remain valid until their own expiry dates. If an audit is mentioned on the site, its date is written too and updated at the next audit.

A detailed comparison of the three programs and the phrases to write on the site are in the social compliance audits guide.

For a site that shows your certificates as a record buyers can verify, B2B website builds and measures the certificate page, the product scope and the path to a quote together.