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OUR HIGHLIGHTS

• 100% FSC-certified garden furniture achieved by 2010 season.
• Collaboration between our Partners in Sport programme and Waitrose Foundation to provide qualified football coaching to our farms in South Africa.
• Being granted a Fairtrade licence to produce and import John Lewis own-brand clothing products.
• Winning customer satisfaction awards from Which?, Verdict Research and the Institute for Customer Service.

OUR CHALLENGES

• Progressing the sourcing of certified sustainable palm oil and soy.
• Understanding the provenance of our cotton and the complexities of its supply chain.
• Understanding and reducing the embedded carbon and water in our products.

Suppliers registered on Sedex

John Lewis

1,237 (76%)

57% of registered sites completing self assessments

Waitrose

914 (96.1%)

92% of registered sites completing self assessments

(Diagram of SUPPLIERS REGISTERED ON SEDEX)


MORE INFORMATION

On www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk:

Our Responsible Sourcing Code of Practice


RESPONSIBLE SOURCING

Working in partnership with our 5,600 suppliers, we treat all those in our supply chain honestly and fairly, and support them in obeying the law and respecting their employees and the environment. All our own-brand suppliers are obliged to commit to the terms of our Responsible Sourcing Code of Practice, which addresses standards on workers’ rights, covering issues such as child and forced labour, health and safety, working hours and wages.

In both John Lewis and Waitrose, all our own-brand suppliers are required to register on Sedex – a web-based database that enables the management of ethical and responsible practices within global supply chains. These suppliers must complete relevant self-assessment questionnaires on Sedex so that we can assess labour standards and working practices at their sites; high-priority sites are also independently audited. In John Lewis, all our own-brand, high-spend suppliers and 76% of the total own-brand supplier sites are registered. In Waitrose, 96% of own-brand suppliers are registered and all high-priority sites were audited.

In 2010, John Lewis will continue to develop its Responsible Sourcing programme through Sedex and its new audit and compliance partner. We will use any audit non-compliance information to devise continuous improvement programmes and we also plan to issue a John Lewis Responsible Sourcing Handbook to suppliers.

Following its establishment 10 years ago, the Waitrose Responsible Sourcing programme was independently reviewed in 2009. Many of the recommendations from the review will be built into the Waitrose business plan; in particular, we will aim to ensure that the programme continues to effectively monitor and support suppliers and will also strengthen internal awareness.

Our efforts to improve working conditions throughout our supply chain saw us support the launch of the Supermarkets and Suppliers’ Protocol with the Gangmasters Licensing Authority in March 2010. We also contributed to and continue to be involved in the work of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, following its inquiry into recruitment and employment in the UK meat and poultry processing sector.

Ethical Handbook for UK Growers

Waitrose, along with other leading food retailers and ethical trade organisation Impactt, has commissioned an online Ethical Handbook for UK Growers. The handbook sets out ways for smaller operations in the UK agriculture and horticulture sectors, for which risk assessments and third-party audits may be inappropriate or unaffordable, to improve labour practices on their farms. The handbook will help growers to tackle employment standards and better understand the requirements of UK employment law so they can meet both their legal and ethical obligations. For example, the handbook provides advice on wages, working hours, young workers and collective bargaining.


2,151

Partnership own-brand supplier sites are registered on Sedex, a global database for ethical and responsible practices within supply chains