Retailers and Brands

Stakeholder

Retailers and Brands

While retailers and brands are often multiple steps removed from the initial point of harvest, their commitments and actions significantly impact the whole supply chain. Because they are consumer-facing, retailers and brands also face the most significant reputational risk when human rights violations occur. Thus, retailers and brands have an important leadership and norm-setting role that benefits their own business and cascades responsible practices throughout the supply chain.

What are retailers and brands?

A retailer is an entity that sells goods, such as groceries, directly to consumers through various distribution channels, including stores and online platforms (e.g., Walmart, Target, Safeway).
A brand is the name seafood products may be sold under (e.g., canned tuna brands such as Chicken of the Sea, Bumblebee, and Starkist). Retailers may also have their own brands, often referred to as private label products.

Roadmap Steps

Commit

Set ambitious, time-bound commitments, even if they’re challenging to achieve.

Work directly with suppliers to understand exactly what is needed to achieve the commitment.
- Notify suppliers of new commitments and expectations with adequate time to meet the requirements of the commitment.
- See Build Capacity for more information and ideas.
Inform consumers of commitments and progress through public reporting on company websites, media outreach, and product information at the point of sale.

Learn

Engage senior leadership to build the culture and processes needed for social responsibility.

Use RISE to learn how to take a human rights due diligence approach to improving supply chains.
Participate in pre-competitive efforts and multi-stakeholder initiatives that support industry-wide adoption of aligned goals and practices, reducing the likelihood of divergent human rights objectives.
Consider hiring third-party experts to conduct training or identify due diligence improvements.
Join a growing community to support industry-wide adoption of improved social responsibility practices.

Assess

Assessing and managing risks starts by identifying the many businesses in your company’s supply chains.

To start, focus on practices for gathering data, publicly available risk information, and due diligence practices across the many suppliers that contribute to your company’s sourcing.
- Work with key suppliers (i.e., high volume, long-term) while assessing specific high-risk supply chains.
- If sourcing from importers, collect additional data to understand the requirements importers have with their own sourcing companies.
- Ask importers to share sourcing practices of vessels, farms, other producers, and processors from which they source to establish transparency and traceability.
Collaborate with other retailers or brands that source from similar regions or suppliers for in-person assessments if possible.
If your company sources and sells multiple commodities, understand the human rights risks unique to seafood (e.g., at-sea work).

Build Capacity

Support suppliers and supply chain actors in implementing social responsibility commitments and other best practices.

Establish frequent, transparent, and supportive dialogue with supply chains regarding social responsibility progress, corrective actions, and other improvements.
- Engage with suppliers to implement improvements before cutting business ties.
Require suppliers to uphold seafood workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Leverage market power to advocate for policies that support freedom of association and collective bargaining for seafood workers.
- Join multi-stakeholder initiatives to maximize leverage.
Invest in high-risk or high-volume sourcing regions through pilots.
Implement long-term sourcing agreements or other sourcing strategies to reinforce and strengthen supply chains.

Collaborate

Amplify your company’s impact by collaborating inside and outside your supply chain.

Work with pre-competitive and collaborative initiatives that align multiple companies’ seafood goals and improve supply chain practices.
Engage with governments to promote the adoption of regulations, conventions, and other legal frameworks that protect human and labor rights.
Partner with organizations supporting and advocating for labor rights, ensuring that workers’ voices are centered in policy-making, advocacy, and other decision-making.
- For multinational brands and retailers, work with international trade unions to develop Global Framework Agreements.

Remediate

The responsibility to remediate includes issues happening in your company’s supply chains, not just your direct company.

Require that companies within your supply chain document and promptly respond to human and labor rights grievances raised by seafood workers.
Work collaboratively with suppliers to develop corrective action plans, addressing immediate issues and root causes. Establish a timeline and process to verify improvements. See Build Capacity Action 4.
Commit funding to support improvements and provide remedy to seafood workers for verified claims.
Contribute to the development of processes that remediate worker grievances regardless of whether your company owns the facilities.
- Collaborate with corporate peers sourcing from similar regions or suppliers.
- Support suppliers, processors, and producers to implement grievance mechanisms and consider developing joint mechanisms.
- Develop processes to verify grievance claims.
- Ensure mechanisms for remedy are included.

Iterate

Regularly review progress and make continuous improvements over time.

Continue to review, understand, and improve the efficacy of current policies, commitments, and practices, including:
- A need to reassess salient human rights risks, taking into consideration newly available public or supply chain data, legislation on human rights, or global initiatives.
- Any additional actions your company might take given its size and resources.
- Any ineffective measures your company can cease to implement.
- Actions that your company may undertake alone versus with other stakeholders, especially if new collaborations have formed.
Create a schedule and cycles for review to ensure consistency and progress.
Use RISE to explore resources and guidance and implement best practice.

Communicate

Be transparent with all stakeholders, including consumers.

Communicate publicly through a company website, social media channels, and point of sale materials.
Report on progress towards company commitments and goals annually.
Share learnings and challenges along the way.

Stakeholder