Best practices

In this section you can find some examples of 'good practices' in international CSR. These companies have made significant efforts to reduce or prevent one or more CSR risks in their supply chains. Get inspired! If you know a company that should be in this list, please let us know by using the contact form.

Best fresh group

Product: fruit and vegetables

Country: multiple

Best Fresh Group is a group of companies active in fruit and vegetables. Exotic fruit in particular is often obtained from far away. Best Fresh Group has been working on sustainability for a long time and has solid company procedures around risk management, in which steps are still being taken every day. The CSR Risk Check is used in two ways: as extra information when importing from a new country. For the assessment of new suppliers Best Fresh Group has strict requirements. Amongst others information from the CSR Risk Check report is used. It helps with the overview of subjects concerning honest business, human rights and ethics, labour rights and environment and surroundings.

In addition,  CSR Risk Check reports are used when a Best Fresh Group employee travels to a supplier abroad. In this way it is quickly clear which subjects deserve extra attention in the visit and in the talks with the supplier. It makes a difference that the companies of Best Fresh Group do business directly with suppliers, so the chain is short. As a result they can quickly and adequately switch with their suppliers and thus together limit and prevent CSR risks.

 

Fairphone

Product: Mobile telephones (tin)

Country: Democratic Republic of Congo

Parts of a mobile telephone come from all over the world. The minerals needed as raw materials often come from developing countries. An example is tin, which is used to 'glue' parts together in a telephone. With the help of the CSR Risk Check it became clear that the working conditions of small, artisanal miners who obtain these minerals on the surface can be improved. They seldom earn a living wage and there sometimes occur conflicts around obtaining minerals (themes in the Risk Check: wage & remuneration, conflict & security). Fairphone wanted to know more about this in the Democratic Republic of Congo and conducted research with the central question: 'How much does a miner earn? The results showed that miners in this chain indeed did not earn enough to cover their basic costs. The solutions appeared to lie in an improved model of distributing cooperative profits, better access to financial resources, reducing gender inequality and focusing on reducing corruption. Moreover, to address conflict in the country Fairphone is working with the Conflict-Free Tin Initiative to ensure that the tin in their mobile phones is conflict-free.

Kinti coffee

Product: Coffee

Country: Colombia

Kinti Coffee is a social coffee company that wants to shake up the traditional coffee industry. Traditional coffee chains often consist of many intermediaries, so it is not always possible to know where coffee comes from and under what conditions it is grown. The Risk Check shows that this is one of the reasons why coffee producers in Colombia still do not earn a living wage (theme Risk Check: wage & remuneration). Kinti does something about this in several ways. Their chain is short and therefore transparent. Kinti works with one cooperative of 200 farmers in Nariño, Colombia and has a good relationship with them. Kinti has discussed several risks from the Risk Check with the farmers and has created a joint code of conduct. Kinti's Shared Value model is one of the ways in which a living income is sought for the coffee producers. This means that the coffee producers receive a share of the commercial profit from Kinti's coffee sales.

Star Sock

Product: Socks (Textile)

Country: China

With the help of the CSR Risk Check it became clear that in the production of textiles (from which socks are made) in China there can be discrimination, overtime and under pay for employees of the textile factories (themes in the CSR Risk Check are working conditions, wage & remuneration, discrimination & gender). Star Sock wanted to do something about this. They contacted the factory owners who produced their socks. At first it seemed difficult: there was a cultural difference and the manufacturers pointed to local legislation in which they did nothing wrong. Star Sock entered into a long-term relationship with the manufacturers based on trust. As a result, positive changes have been made in terms of discrimination, overtime and pay for the factory's employees. Star Sock emphasizes the importance of knowing your chain: know where your products come from and with whom you have a relationship. Only on the basis of trust can it be explained which company values are important and how they should be reflected in the production chain.

Page last updated: June 2021