First for ethical labour
BRE Global, the certification arm of BRE, has announced Marshalls – UK manufacturer of hard landscaping products – as the first organisation to be verified against its new Ethical Labour Sourcing (ELS) standard.
The ELS standard provides organisations with a framework to verify their systems and processes in relation to the Modern Slavery Act and continuously improve their ethical labour sourcing practices.
Dr Shamir Ghumra, BRE’s director of sustainable products, said: “The requirements of the Modern Slavery Act are underscored by the findings of the 2016 Global Slavery Index, which estimates that some 46 million people are in some form of slavery world wide. This puts the onus on businesses to demonstrate exactly how they are taking positive action to eliminate modern slavery within their operations and global supply chains.
“While the number of people affected in the UK is a relatively low 13,000, the figure doesn’t reflect the complex supply chains of most sectors, and none more so than the construction sector. It is a credit to Marshalls that the organisation is leading the field in terms of ethical labour standards.”
The ELS standard certificate was presented to Marshalls at Ecobuild 2017.