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Today's is : Thursday, 17 May 2012
Organico Ethical Policy

 ORGANICO REALFOODS LIMITED

Company Number: 2610753 

 

 

Ethical and Environmental Policy

 Summary
We commit ourselves to i) promoting organic and natural produce, ii) to supporting SME (small and medium enterprises), iii) to working openly and transparently with all our partners, suppliers and customers at all levels and iv) to opting for more ethical and environmental options in the pursuit of our business. 
 Accreditation
The Ethical Company Organisation who publish the Ethical Shopping Directory rates companies in a wide array of consumer shopping categories based on an individual and independently prepared ethical audit across a wide range of ethical headings.  Organico has consistently scored at the top allowing us to use the ethical award logo.http://www.ethical-company-organisation.org  

Organic Food Products (The products we buy and sell):

  Policy Rating Comment
  We will promote and prefer organic and/or sustainable products. 100% Products all either organic or wild sustainably sourced fish.
  Our company will be a conduit for like-minded small specialist and dedicated food suppliers.  90% The vast majority of our suppliers are SME’s – either co-ops or family businesses.
  We will only sell animal products if the animal are either reared organically or reared or caught by sustainable methods.  100%  
  We will not sell products that contain artificial additives, colouring or preservatives (with the exception of the harmless additives allowed under organic regulations).  100% All our products are organic therefore ingredients and processes are natural and exclude harmful additives or procedures.
 

The Environment

Policy Rating Comment
 We will not sell any product with genetically modified (GM) ingredients or GM derivatives.  100% Organic regulations oppose GM and we are mostly in lower risk; if there is risk (eg soya) we seek enhanced guarantees.
 We do not and will not use air freight for any products we import into the UK - or export elsewhere.  100% We avoid fresh/frozen foods where air freight applies and understand this applies generally to our suppliers of ingredients
 We will maximise our transport effectiveness to ensure full load carriage and avoid empty haulage miles – by using groupage, shared freights, bigger loads and regular routes.   70% We need to look into the possibility of switching more freight from lorries to train or containers.  We do not question our road freight transporters on what they are doing to reduce their footprint. In general the vehicles we use maximise the efficiency of their load.
 We will cut down on office waste, recycle or re-use paper and boxes.  60% We still rely on printing a fair amount of paper both internally and externally for publicity.  We have too much waste in terms of unusued pulbicity material.  We do print on recycled paper and choose recycled stationary products. 
 We will cut down on car usage and flying and encourage alternative methods of transport.   60% Most the employees have efficient low emission cars, walk or cycle to work and we do not take on a lot of car mileage in terms of UK visits.  Many trips are done by train.  There is a fair amount of flying to visit suppliers that we find difficult to cut down on.  We encourage home working. 

 

Pay and Work

Policy Rating Comment
We will not import products from any company that does not respect employee/workers rights or does not ensure fair pay and treatment to employees/workers.  100%  
We will respect EU and UK employee legislation in the UK. 100%  
We will be open to flexible working times and easier working practises to support a healthy live-work balance and encourage a 35-hour week. 100%  
The biggest pay discrepancy allowed will be by a factor of 1:6 from the lowest to the highest paid employee. 100% This is a little bit market determined and most of us can said to be underpaid compared to salaries in large companies!
 

Supplier Relations (Our Products)

Policy Rating Comment
We will not demand 'unfair' prices from suppliers that can result in them being forced to sell at below cost.  100% We negotiate but do not play suppliers off against each other nor do we have the buyer power to impose unfair terms
We will be transparent, clear and honest in providing customer feedback and in developing sales and marketing questions cooperatively with our suppliers.  We will not make any unexpected or hidden charges or insist on an obligation by suppliers to support our sales or any other initiatives.   100% We work co-operatively with our suppliers and share more information than is usual.  We do not make unexpected request support although such are practises have mosty been associated with the supermarkets
We will respect payment terms of suppliers and pay them in a timely fashion taking into account their own finance needs in negotiating terms, never withholding payment in the event of credit notes pending or other accounting disputes and resolving any such issue as speedily as possible.  We will not unilaterally impose long payment delays.    100% We are generally good payers.  We are generally again in no position to impose buying terms but we do endeavour to be fair.  We will extend terms slightly but do not engage in endless delay tactics.  When we hit problems in cashflow, we tried to fix them quickly and informed our suppliers rather than invent excuses.
 We will work with our suppliers and encourage them in a meaningful and co-operative fashion to reduce their own carbon footprint and use of resources, taking into account the total lifecycle of a product and any embedded carbon or water footprint.    50% We’ve just not done this and with the myriad number of things going on and so many other issues and problems cannot see how this can be taken on.  Many of our suppliers by themselves however are ecologically-conscientious and follow best/better practises (for example our pasta factory is 100% powered by renewable).

  Supplier Relations (General Supplies)

Policy Rating Comment
 We will follow a "better purchasing" policy, taking into account a company's ethical standards or record in any given category of purchase.   70% Our bank and electrictiy provider are both the top ethically rated providers in their sector: Triodos and Ecotricity.  We have just switched our phone provider to the Phone co-Op.  Our office supplies are environmental (organic and eco-products).   We don’t do anything special when sourcing stand fittings, choosing hotels or for our ISP provider and our equipment is old and probably not most energy-efficient.
 We believe the limited concentration of media power is an offence to the principle of free speech. We will endeavour to commit any advertising we do to progressive and independent publications, particularly those that campaign for the environment.   100% We don’t have much of an advertising budget anyhow but we were advised to dump this principle but thought “hell no!”  We do a lot to promote ethical options and arguments in our newsletter, doing events around certain films and support campaigning organisations. 
 

Customer Relations

Policy Rating Comment
We will deal with any inquiry promptly, openly and in the detail required.  Requests for technical information will always be answered, we will follow through quality control issues, using the services of an outside and independent auditing laboratory as and when required.   100% We pride oursleves in responding fully and quickly to customer questions, concerns and any product problems.  We will always attempt to solve issues and give customers the benefit of the doubt.  We do not run complicated barrier-type systems and deal with problems directly, fairly and honestly (so far…).
We keep a book of complaints and consumer correspondence and will act on any problem areas.  100% This is a base QC requirement and nor really of much use, it’s rather empty in fact…
We will use technology to ensure the efficiency of our operation but will always provide easy and clear access to a human being at the other end of the line or to return calls as requested.  100%   We do run an automatic answering system to scare away unwanted calls but are available broadly 9 to 5
We will endeavour to supply customers within the agreed times levels, ensuring a high level of service, stock availability and communication with proper explanations and remedial action in dealing with out of stocks and any other problems.  70% There are times when our stock supply have been below par.  It is not always easy to plan and we can be let down by our own suppliers.  Also we cannot over-stock.  Current performance over the last 12 months has been good but not perfect.