Last week, the UK Government officially acknowledged the Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) as a tool to help implement its amendment to the GB Energy Bill addressing forced labour in solar supply chains.
Rachel Owens, CEO of the Solar Stewardship Initiative, (she/her), commented:
“We welcome the UK Government’s recognition of the SSI as a key assurance mechanism to support the fight against forced labour in solar supply chains by helping the implementation of the GB Energy Bill amendment.
This is precisely what the SSI was created for: to provide a credible, independent assurance system to verify production sites’ environmental, social, and governance practices (SSI ESG Standard) and traceability in solar manufacturing.
At the heart of the SSI’s model is robust traceability, a key priority rightly emphasised by the UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband.
In December 2024, the SSI published its Supply Chain Traceability Standard which was developed by human rights experts, industry, international financial institutions and civil society.
This Standard verifies the origin of key materials (e.g. polysilicon) using a Chain of Custody model, ensuring traceability and segregation from non-compliant inputs. The first audits against the Traceability Standard will take place by mid-2025.
Today, we work with over 50 companies representing the lion’s share of global solar supply and demand, as well as with civil society representatives, institutional stakeholders, international financial institutions and human rights experts ensuring an operationally independent and balanced governance.
With over 100 GW of production capacity in our ESG assessment pipeline – more than the UK and EU’s combined annual demand – we are already having an impact. The SSI stands ready to support the UK Government’s next steps in implementing the GB Energy Bill amendment and scaling accountability across the sector.”