Your step by step guide
Year 1 Communication Guide
for Buyers
Introduction
In 2018 the fresh produce industry came together to publish the Ethical Charter on Responsible Labor Practices, a broad commitment to reducing the risk of labor abuse in produce supply chains. The Charter identifies thirteen principles that are key to effective labor management, but many industry stakeholders recognized the need for a scalable capacity-building program to help suppliers and growers strengthen the management systems necessary to uphold those principles. They also sought a tool to measure their suppliers’ progress along a continuous improvement journey toward more responsible labor practices. Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) and The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) have partnered to meet both these needs through the Ethical Charter Implementation Program (ECIP).
In our work helping companies to generate and collect actionable data, EFI and TSC have learned that proactive preparation is key to maximizing performance on supply chain assessments. Whether measuring social or environmental performance, strategies that integrate assessments into ongoing operations help companies achieve better results and set them on a path to improving their scores year-over-year. Based on this insight and our unique perspectives, EFI and TSC have co-created this guide to help buyers prepare for and optimize ECIP’s performance assessment process.
As a buyer, you are seeking credible information about the degree to which the produce growers in your supply chain are abiding by the principles of the Ethical Charter. You can strengthen your suppliers’ capacity and collect actionable data on their performance by inviting them and their growers to participate in the Ethical Charter Implementation Program (ECIP) on TSC’s THESIS assessment platform. This communications kit provides email templates that you can adapt to explain the importance of ECIP to your suppliers and their growers, and to invite them to engage with the program.
The key to a successful supplier engagement campaign includes sending firm, clear and direct messaging that communicates your goals, expectations, and deadlines around their participation. Communications should also explain the benefits your suppliers and their growers will gain from participation in the program. This guide focuses on supplier commitment to becoming early adopters of ECIP. A later guide will contain instructions on how suppliers can enter their performance data on THESIS. View Homepage | View TSC | View EFI
The more of your suppliers that participate, the more valuable their ECIP engagement data will be for you and your suppliers. As a buyer, you can use the system to inform your procurement decisions and to incentivize supplier and grower engagement, allowing them to self-segment into performance categories based on their supply chain labor practices:
those who use credible third-party programs to certify labor practices at field level;
those who improve their field labor management systems over time, as demonstrated by ECIP’s self-assessment and worker survey data; and
those who do not meaningfully engage this system.
Your Step by Step Guide Year 1 Communication Guide for Buyers
STEP
Establishing Context – Communicate a Preview to
Your Suppliers on What’s Coming and Turn Them Into
Early Adopters
For most buyers, responsible sourcing involves audits of packing and processing facilities, but they rarely gain access to data at the field level, where most of their supply chain labor risk resides.
ECIP is designed to analyze the implementation of labor management systems at field level in order to drive continuous improvement, Buyers need to communicate to their suppliers that responsible labor practices are a condition for doing business, and that engagement with ECIP is an opportunity for suppliers to demonstrate that they take labor practices seriously. Buyers should therefore start by inviting the first cohort of their suppliers to voluntarily participate in ECIP.
STEP
Help Suppliers Communicate to Their Growers
EFI and TSC have developed a separate guide for suppliers that can be included in the buyer invitation.
This will include guidance on identifying all the growers from whom the supplier is sourcing produce, messaging they can use with growers to highlight the importance of ECIP as a capacity-building tool, and help in determining which grower employee is best positioned to access and update ECIP’s self-assessment platform.
STEP
Help Suppliers Organize Data Collection Needs
Once the supplier has identified the ECIP point of contact for each of their growers, they should send clear guidance and timelines for when and how each grower should engage the ECIP system.
EFI and TSC have developed a separate guide for growers that will explain the origin of ECIP and introduce them to the self-assessment platform so that begin to engage the system and identify priority areas for improvement.
STEP
Create Resources and Guides
TSC and EFI will provide many resources to help your suppliers complete the ECIP assessments including calculation tools and KPI guidance documents.
Consider holding informative webinars or Q&As in addition to these resources to have a place for your suppliers to ask questions and get additional information.
STEP
Communicate With Your Suppliers
Message to your suppliers that you need their early commitment to gather data from all of their growers. Provide them with:
— Dates when they should inCIP engagement scores into THESIS
— Contact information for help (email preferred)
— Any available resources
— Context for why and how they can complete the ECIP THESIS assessment
STEP
Supplement Communications with Webinars
We suggest holding Q&A webinars in collaboration with EFI and TSC at least once a month to offer a place for suppliers to ask questions.
STEP
Monitor Supplier Responses
If supplier responses start to wane while asking for early commitments, we suggest including
the following tactics:
— Increase your email communication frequency to weekly
— Add additional incentives for committing early
— Add additional webinars or videos
— Add signed letters from individual merchants to their particular product category suppliers