Increasing number of products with traceability certification
Certification and the accompanying claims are a great way to encourage conscious purchasing. These certifications represent better, more responsible socio-environmental conditions in supply chains. They are key to achieving real positive change, which is what we care about. Here’s how!
XD Connects is certified according to the Recycled Claim Standard (RCS); the Global Recycled Standard (GRS); and the Forest Stewardship Council Chain of Custody Standard (FSC). This enables us to sell certified products whose material has been verified and traced. GRS and RCS relate to recycled material while FSC relates to forest products.
Increasing demand for responsible materials
The purchasing of certified goods – by consumers or businesses – increases the demand for the responsible materials compared to their conventional alternatives. This way, more funds are channeled towards responsible supply chains processing lower-impact materials, rather than supply chain with less or no consideration for ESG topics such as responsible sourcing, chemical usage, or human rights.
Socio-environmental conditions in the supply chain
Although our ESG certifications focus on materials, GRS and FSC have additional requirements related to working conditions. GRS-certified organisations are also audited on social and environmental processing requirements and chemical restrictions exist. FSC requires all certified organisations to uphold the FSC Core Labour Requirements which are based on the principles of the International Labour organization core conventions.
Note that (1) producers are often certified according to multiple standards and (2) XD Connects runs a dedicated track for social audit compliance among our suppliers (BSCI, Smeta, SA8000). This way producers with an RCS certification, for example, are also addressing social topics, even when this is not required under that standard.
Traceability and accountability
At XD Connects we value transparency. We think this is the key to our engagement with customers on ESG topics and it drives us to reach our ambitious goals. Sharing our goals means we can be held accountable if we do not reach them. Certifications are all about traceability which implies transparency in your supply chain. For our certified products we can map the entire supply chain.