From our factories to our customers’ doors, ecobrands® is committed to an ethical supply chain, consisting of the highest social and operational standards. This includes protecting human rights, human health, wildlife and the environment, ensuring the health and safety of our employees and customers, and operating with the utmost integrity along our entire supply chain. Therefore, we will only work with Suppliers who are committed to the same ethical standards. These standards constitute our Supply Chain Code of Conduct or “CoC”. We refer to “Suppliers” as any third party that provides goods or services to ecobrands® for compensation, such as farms, factories, suppliers and storage and fulfillment providers. As such, all of our Suppliers are required to:

• Conduct all business activities with honesty, transparency and fairness.
• Comply with all applicable national, state, and local laws and regulations in the markets where they operate.  However, where local laws or standards differ from this CoC, we expect our Suppliers to comply with the more stringent standards and principles.
• Comply with competition and anti-trust laws in the countries where they operate or sell product. Suppliers must not coordinate market conduct with competitors or their own Suppliers in a way that improperly restricts competition.
• Not be involved in any act of corruption, extortion or embezzlement, nor in any form of bribery, including but not limited to, the promising, offering, giving or accepting of any improper monetary or other incentive. Furthermore, gifts and entertainment should never create a feeling of obligation or the impression of an obligation, which could be perceived as a bribe.
• Act in accordance with human rights and labor standards, including:
• No Child Labor (i.e. any person under the local legal minimum working age). Suppliers employing young workers (above the minimum age of employment but under the age of 18) must comply with applicable laws and regulations regarding hours and compensation, and must avoid conditions or restrictions that could be harmful to their morals, health, safety and development. Suppliers may use legitimate workplace apprenticeship programs for the educational benefit of younger people.
• No Forced Labor. Suppliers shall not use or benefit from any form of human trafficking, or forced, compulsory, bonded, indentured or prison labor in its operations under any circumstances. Suppliers must ensure that each employee is a voluntary worker with the freedom to leave the workplace outside of work hours and terminate employment at any time without penalty after notice of reasonable length. No employee shall be subject to any form of harsh or inhumane treatment, corporal punishment, threats of physical or sexual violence, or any other forms of psychological or physical harassment, intimidation, abuse, coercion, or sanctions that result in wage deductions, reductions in benefits or compulsory labor. No part of an employee’s salary, benefits, property, or documents shall be withheld to force such personnel to continue working.
• No Discrimination. Suppliers must not make employment-related decisions based on personal characteristics such as age, race, religion, color, ethnicity, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, marital status or any other characteristic protected by local law. Employment related decisions include, but are not limited to, hiring, promotion, lay-off and relocation of workers, training, skills development, health and safety, and any policy related to working conditions like working hours and remuneration.
• No Abuse or Harassment. Suppliers must strictly prohibit any kind of abuse or harassment, intimidation, or bullying of any employee, including verbal, physical, sexual, racial, or psychological.
• Fair Wages. Suppliers must ensure employees are paid a fair wage according to at least the living wage standard for their region or their industry standard, whichever is higher.
• Encourage diversity in their workplaces, including, but not limited to, employment of ethnic or racial minority groups (e.g., Asian, African-American, Latino), the LGBTQ community, women (of any race or ethnicity), veterans or service-disabled veterans, and persons with disabilities.
• Not be involved with any falsification of information or misrepresentation.
• Adhere to all relevant OECD guidelines, found here: https://mneguidelines.oecd.org/mneguidelines/.
• Disclose in full any potential conflicts of interest as soon as they have been identified, so that they can be properly considered, and the right action taken.
• Keep accurate information regarding their activities, structure and performance, and disclose these in accordance with applicable regulations and industry benchmark practices.
• Collect, use and otherwise process any personal information (including that from workers, business partners, customers and consumers in their sphere of influence) with reasonable care and with compliance to privacy and information security laws and regulatory requirements.
• Have an anonymous non-discriminatory whistle-blower mechanism, assuring easy access and effective measures to protect whistle-blowers and ensuring that any information received regarding corruption or non-compliance is followed up and necessary actions taken.
• Maintain safe, healthy and secure working conditions for employees and contract workers.
• Have a clear health and safety policy in place, be committed to developing and applying appropriate health and safety management systems (including clear assignment of management responsibility for health and safety), and monitor and report corrective actions.
• Provide training on integrity regulations and inform about sanctions for noncompliance.
• Conduct routine risk assessments, reflecting existing and emerging issues and good practice, understand health and safety issues both generally and specifically for their sector, and take appropriate action to mitigate identified risks.
• Manage risks pertaining to health and safety, social responsibility, and the environment in their supply chain.
• Safeguard ecobrands® confidential information and meet the requirements of applicable data privacy laws and regulations to ensure there is no disclosure of our confidential information to third parties without our prior authorization. We also expect our Suppliers to inform ecobrands® immediately in the event of a potential or actual data breach, or if our information is released without authorization.
• Handle and process data only for the purposes for which it was collected or otherwise made available. Suppliers shall demonstrate appropriate industry standard and best practice data security controls to ensure that all information is protected and secure from damage and unauthorized use. In addition to the above minimum requirements, Suppliers shall also follow any data security policies and requirements specified in contractual agreements with ecobrands®. Suppliers must respect and maintain the confidentiality of all non-public information about ecobrands® or its activities and all non-public information obtained in the performance of the Supplier’s duties about ecobrands®’ customers, clients or applicable third parties.
• Strive to reduce their environmental impacts and manage their natural resources efficiently. This includes implementing measures to prevent pollution, minimize the use of energy and production of waste and manage water responsibly.
• Communicate all of these expectations throughout their own supply chains.

In the spirit of continuous improvement, we are committed to working with and supporting our Suppliers to meet and exceed the requirements in this Supply Chain Code of Conduct.

We are entitled to request information from our Suppliers to confirm their compliance with these standards and, where we consider it necessary, may require a supplier to provide evidence of compliance through a third-party audit. We reserve the right to undertake unannounced audits where we determine it is necessary.

Knowing about potential breaches early means we can deal with them quickly and appropriately. We take every report seriously and we will not tolerate any reprisal by an ecobrands® employee against a Supplier who has reported a concern in good faith or assisted us with an investigation. Suppliers are encouraged to raise any concerns about our business conduct, or a potential breach of this Supply Chain CoC.

We sincerely appreciate all of our Suppliers’ support and commitment to our Supply Chain CoC. If you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us here.