How Marks & Spencer is building support for ethical trade among its suppliers

Marks & Spencer has introduced a range of initiatives designed to build supplier support for ethical trade, including conferences and other events, a dedicated website and awareness-raising DVDs.

The challenges of getting suppliers to buy in to ethical trade include limitations on their resources and time and scepticism about the business benefits. Marks & Spencer has undertaken a series of initiatives designed to increase supplier buy-in for ethical trade. These include:

A dedicated website and monthly newsletter. One of the difficulties of communicating down the supply chain is how to get the message to the right people - for example, suppliers' human resources managers. Buyers do not usually communicate directly with HR managers, even if they are first tier suppliers. The supplier intranet and newsletter have therefore been set up to reach these important audiences. The focus is on sharing learning and celebrating success among a wide audience.

Supplier conferences. M&S has run conferences in seven key sourcing countries over the past year, designed to help suppliers network, share experiences and debate to reach common understanding. According to Louise Nicholls, head of responsible sourcing for food at Marks & Spencer, the conferences are also an opportunity for the company to understand what the labour issues are in different countries.

Supplier exchange. M&S supplier exchanges are forums that aim to encourage peer-to-peer learning among suppliers. The forum decides what theme they want to focus on each year, with the emphasis always on issues that the suppliers are struggling with as businesses. Freeloading is not an option - if suppliers want to be involved, they also have to contribute. According to Louise, this is key to getting buy-in. Concrete outputs have emerged from the supplier exchange, including a workbook for UK growers. There are two M&S supplier exchanges in the UK - one for food and one for general merchandise, and one in Morocco, Thailand and Turkey respectively.

DVDs. M&S has produced a DVD which helps explain ethical trade to suppliers in a quick, simple and interactive manner. The DVD is shown to suppliers at visits to worksites and explains why ethical trade is important, how suppliers can benefit as a business from improving labour standards, and what they can do.

Says Louise, "it's not about swooping in and preaching to your suppliers, it's about us enabling our suppliers to solve problems themselves by learning from each other."