Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) plans to make environmental, social and governance reporting mandatory for its members as it rolls out a dashboard covering 326 factories.

“We will make ESG reporting mandatory for all our member factories,” BGMEA President Mahmud Hasan Khan said at the dashboard’s Oct. 19 launch in Dhaka, The Business Standard reported. He did not give a start date for the requirement, according to the newspaper.

Khan also said BGMEA would work with the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association on reporting.

The platform’s initial 326 factories represent about 13 percent of BGMEA’s roughly 2,500 active registered members. Those facilities employ 584,371 workers, according to the portal, which puts women’s share of the surveyed workforce at 54.2 percent.

The data also carries an important qualification. BGMEA’s methodology says the ESG information was supplied by factories through a walk-through survey.

“The reported information has not been independently audited or verified by a third party,” the site states. It describes the disclosures as indicative rather than independently assured performance or certification.

The dashboard collects information on energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, waste management, workforce demographics and renewable-energy installations. It also presents indicators on factory safety, grievance policies, audits and sustainability reporting.

Users can filter the public dashboard by reporting year, region, factory structure and product or process type.

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