Campaign Demands

We demand tangible actions from supermarkets, national governments and the European Union to improve working conditions, and to decrease environmental impact along supply chains. Supermarkets need to take responsibility for the circumstances under which their private label (‘store brand’) products are produced. Governments both in producing and consuming countries need to adopt legislation that obliges supermarkets to respect human and workers’ rights along their supply chains, and act in an environmentally responsible manner .

 

We demand that European supermarkets:

·         In order to meet their responsibility to respect human rights, and to improve working conditions along the whole of their supply chain, implement

I. United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011);

II. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (revised in 2011); and

III. International Labour Organization Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (2006 ).

·         Make proactive and continuous efforts to decrease environmental impacts along their supply chains, including to

I. Measure and disclose the environmental impact of products following transparent and internationally accepted methods;

II. Make proactive and continuous efforts to decrease the environmental impact of all store brand products in all stages of the product life cycle;

III. Implement sustainable product portfolio management; and

IV. Develop and implement a long term strategy to reduce the overall environmental footprint of products.

·         Adopt and work to improve social and sustainability verification schemes.

·         Set retail prices in a responsible manner.

·         Make production conditions transparent to the consumer.

 

We demand that the European Union:

·         renews the European competition policy framework

·         passes the necessary legislative measures to end Unfair Trading Practices

·         adopts the FAO-OECD Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains

 

We demand that national governments in the European Union:

·         put into place legal frameworks that hold retailers accountable for human rights violations and environmental destruction throughout supply chains.

·         ensure that the non-financial reporting requirements are extended to the supply chains of the companies in the transposition of the European directive on the disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large undertakings and groups (aka NFR; 2014/95/EU2).

 

Read the full list of demands