Online Form Enables Supplier Partners to Testify to Their CSR

Primary contacts of TRSA supplier partner member companies can complete a checklist to support linen, uniform and facility services operators in presenting their customers with evidence of their suppliers’ commitments to corporate social responsibility (CSR). A weblink to the form was emailed to these contacts on Nov. 18, thus enabling them to attest to their companies’ adherence to principles of the United Nations’ Global Compact.

Linen and uniform service customers, such as Fortune 500 companies, ask TRSA member operators to sign documents that attest to their CSR practices. Failure to properly execute such an agreement may result in service contract termination. In such a buyer-seller interchange, a seller is more credible when it testifies on such a document that it has earned a CSR certification.

TRSA’s Industrial, Uniform & Workwear Committee observed that when TRSA operators are in the seller role, they would be strengthened if they could show evidence that their suppliers, particularly those who benefit from labor in developing countries, are at least CSR-conscious. Some such suppliers currently present certifications for this purpose.

With the approval of the TRSA Supplier Partner Council Executive Committee, the Industrial Committee distributed the checklist, aligned with the Compact. Launched in 2000, the Compact is a policy platform and a practical framework for companies committed to CSR. With more than 8,000 signatories in more than 135 countries, it is the world’s largest voluntary CSR initiative. The Compact aligns business operations and strategies with universally accepted principles in:

• Human Rights. Support and respect protection of internationally proclaimed human rights and ensure no complicity in human rights abuses.
• Labor. Uphold freedom of association and recognize right to collective bargaining, eliminate all forced and compulsory labor, abolish child labor, eliminate discrimination in employment and occupation.
• Environment. Take precautionary approach to environmental challenges, undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility, encourage development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.
• Anti-Corruption. Work against corruption in all forms, including extortion and bribery.

In years to come, the Industrial Committee envisions TRSA developing a more complex document, such as one that enables supplier partners to list any CSR certifications or other proof of third-party CSR compliance.

View the checklist here. Contact Ken Koepper, 540-613-5110.