Accord Sustainability Charter

Designing products that are fit for purpose

Accord resources promoting best practice delivery of industry products:

• Accord Industry Quality Commitment (2005) – Outlines commitments in four key quality areas: Public and Occupational Health & Safety, Environmental Values, Compliance and Continuous Improvement, and Business Ethics/ Commercial Practices.
• Accord Guideline for Cleaners & Sanitisers that may have Contact with Food (2019) – Assists manufacturers and distributors of cleaners and sanitisers in ensuring and demonstrating that their products are suitable for food use.
• Accord Code of Practice for Household & Commercial Cleaning Products Claiming Antibacterial Action (2002) – Provides standards for advertising, labelling and performance to manufacturers and importers of cleaning products making claims of antibacterial action.

External resources and programs:

• Global Reporting Initiative Standards – Help organisations understand and communicate their impacts on key social issues, including relating to health and safety:
  • GRI 416: Customer Health and Safety 2016

Promoting the safe use of products

Accord resources promoting industry-wide best practice in ensuring the safe use of products:

• Children and Safe Storage of Household Products – Helps protect young children from accidental contact with industry household products.
• Industry Guideline for Labelling & Packaging of Liquid Laundry Capsules – Helps keep kids and liquid laundry capsules separate.
• Sunsible – Helps guarantee effective sun protection through correct use of sunscreen and other sun-protection measures.
• WipeSmart – Promotes the safe disposal of wet wipes.

Implementing community health, wellbeing and economic programs

Accord programs promoting health and wellbeing of communities:

Look Good Feel Better – The cosmetic industry’s valued cancer patient support program.

Accord Member Company Programs (examples):

• Amway: Amway One By One Foundation – Partners with children’s charity organisations to provide goods and financial assistance.
• GSK: PULSE Volunteer Partnership – Employees spend 3-6 months at a non-profit organisation to help solve healthcare challenges at home and abroad.
• Keune: The Keune Foundation – Provides financial assistance to Australian families when one of their children is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.
• L’OCCITANE: Program for Women’s Leadership – Provides literacy, educational, micro-credit and leadership programs to women in Burkina Faso.
• L’Oréal Australia: L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science – Supports and recognises accomplished women researchers; encourages more young women to enter the sciences and assists them as they progress.
• Muk Hair Care: Supports the Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation through product sales–based donations, which aims to improve the survival rates of Pancreatic Cancer patients through awareness-raising and investment in medical research; and, partners with youth support and mentoring programme, Ladder, by hosting and facilitating makeovers for disadvantaged youth.
• NowChem: Inspire Youth Australia Foundation – Provides leadership training and problem solving to regional youth including local change programs based around the UN sustainability goals.

Implementing ethical labour practices

Accord resources promoting best-practice labour practices:

• Ethical Sourcing Information Paper and Guidance Document – Summarise the ethical and social issues associated with labour.

Accord Member company programs (examples):

• Coty: We Stand For You – A program focusing on employee inclusion and diversity.
• LVMH: WeCareForModels.com – Provides models with information and advice from professionals concerning well-being; and Charter on Working Relations With Fashion Models and Their Well-Being – introduces rules relating to working conditions, health and models who are minors.

External resources and programs:

• ETI Base Code – Internationally recognised code of labour practice.
• Global Reporting Initiative Standards – Help organisations understand and communicate their impacts on key social issues, including relating to labour:
  • GRI 405: Diversity and Equal Opportunity 2016
  • GRI 407: Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining 2016
  • GRI 408: Child Labor 2016
  • GRI 409: Forced or Compulsory Labor 2016
  • GRI 412: Human Rights Assessment 2016
• ISO 26000:2010 Guidance on social responsibility – Provides guidance on social responsibility, including relating to its principles and practices, core subjects and issues, implementation, stakeholder engagement, and communication
• Modern slavery Act 2018: Draft Guidance for Reporting Entities – Plain language guidance on how to comply with reporting requirements, prepared by the Department of Home Affairs.
• Social Traders – Linking organisations with social enterprises to create jobs for disadvantaged Australians.

External resources:

• Global Reporting Initiative Standards – Help organisations understand and communicate their impacts on key social issues, including relating to employee health and safety:
  • GRI 403: Occupational Health and Safety 2018

Accord training and education programs (contact coh@accord.asn.au):

• Regulatory Basics
• Storage and Handling of Dangerous Goods
• Chemical Scheduling

External resources and programs:

• Global Reporting Initiative Standards – Help organisations understand and communicate their impacts on key social issues, including relating to employee health and safety:
  • GRI Standard 404: Training and Education 2016
• Sustainability Advantage NSW – A program to help NSW organisations achieve increased competitiveness through better environmental practices, including module Employee Engagement.
• The Flexible Framework – A self-assessment mechanism that helps organisations measure and monitor their sustainable procurement progress. One aspect is ‘People’, assisting in training and capacity-building via mechanisms to identify and address staff training needs.

Designing and executing an ethical sourcing strategy

Accord resources promoting best-practice trading:

• Ethical Sourcing Information Paper and Guidance Document – Describe social considerations in ethical sourcing and some business principles and practices to consider.
• Responsible Suppliers checklist – Lists important considerations to consider in relation to suppliers.

Accord Member company programs (examples):

• A S Harrison / Concentrated Ale Corporation: A partnership for fair trade sourcing of Aloe Vera from Guatemala.
• Estée Lauder: Partnership with the Kutkabubba Aboriginal Community of Western Australia via Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils (DSO) for ethical and sustainable wild harvest of Australian sandalwood trees for essential oil production.
• L’OCCITANE: Fair Trade shea butter sourcing from Burkina Faso.
• Responsible Mica Initiative – Cross-industry ‘do-tank’, in which a number of Accord Members are involved, working for a sustainable mica industry in India.

External resources and programs:

• AIM-PROGRESS – A membership organisation for FMCG supply chain manufacturers and suppliers, promoting responsible and sustainable supply chains.
• A.I.S.E Social Responsibility Guidance and Self-evaluation Tool – Provides guidance on sustainable
  company management relating to Human Rights, Labour Practices, Fair Operating Practices and Community Involvement & Development to assist companies to prioritise and assign internal resources.
• Fairtrade Australia – Independent third-party certification providing ‘a robust and transparent audit of the supply chain process from farmer, to exporter or trader’.
• GRI Sustainable Reporting Standards – Helps organisations understand and communicate their impacts on key social issues, including relating to key social supply chain impacts:
  • GRI 411: Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2016
  • GRI 413: Local Communities 2016
  • GRI 414: Supplier Social Assessment 2016
• Informed 365 – Australian supply chain mapping & reporting company.
• ITC Standards Map – An online tool providing comprehensive, verified and transparent information on over 240 existing standards, codes and audit protocols.
• ITC Sustainability Map – Supports sustainable practices in global supply chains by increasing understanding of the sustainability initiatives landscape and by facilitating connections with business partners.
• SEDEX (Suppliers’ Ethical Data Exchange) – A membership organisation sharing ethical sourcing information with the aim of empowering responsible supply chains.
• The Flexible Framework – A self-assessment mechanism that helps organisations measure and monitor their sustainable procurement progress, including sections on ‘Procurement’ and ‘Engaging suppliers’, that include embedding sustainability into the procurement process and engaging with suppliers with openness and transparency.
• Union for Ethical Biotrade (UEBT) Certified Sourcing – Natural ingredient sourcing with a focus on people (and biodiversity).

Accord resources promoting the consumer’s ‘right to know’:

• ‘What’s in it?’ – A voluntary ingredient disclosure initiative for household cleaning products.

Accord Member Company initiatives (examples):

• SC Johnson & Son: What’s Inside – Ingredient disclosure, including of fragrance components

 External resources and programs:

• GRI Sustainable Reporting Standards – Helps organisations understand and communicate their impacts on key social issues:
  • GRI 417: Marketing and Labeling 2016
• Vision Australia Accessibility Toolkit – Provides an introduction to digital inclusion in Australia.

Accord resources promoting best practice on factual claims:

• Code of Practice for Household & Commercial Cleaning Products Claiming Antibacterial Action – Standards for advertising, labelling and performance of cleaning products making antibacterial claims.

External resources and programs:

• Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Making Environmental Claims – a guide for Business; and False or Misleading Claims guidance (based on Section 18(1) of Australian Consumer Law)

Accord resources communicating the indispensable contribution of the hygiene, personal care and specialty chemical industry and its products to daily life:

• Accord Website – Summarises the many benefits our industry provides across all sectors.
• Hygiene for Health – Provides information on the benefits of hygiene for personal care, in the home, out and about and in industry.

Accord Member Company Programs (examples):

• Colgate-Palmolive – Bright Smiles, Bright Futures™ school program promoting good oral care.

External organisations:

• Food Safety Information Council – Health promotion charity and the national voice for science-based, consumer-focused food safety information in Australia.

Accord resources clarifying misconceptions about industry products:

• Furphies.org.au – A global leading web initiative identifying common product and ingredient myths relating to human health.

Implementing environmentally sustainable sourcing practices

Accord resources promoting best-practice sustainable sourcing:

• Ethical Sourcing Information Paper and Guidance Document – Describe environmental considerations in ethical sourcing and some business principles and practices to consider.
• Palm oil Information Paper – Provides general information on palm oil, concerns relating to its potential environmental & social impacts and some approaches to address these. There is a specific focus on palm oil as a feedstock and ingredient for hygiene, cosmetic and specialty chemical applications.

External resources and programs:

• Ecolabel Index – Contains an extensive listing of certifications.
• GRI Sustainable Reporting Standards – Helps organisations understand and communicate their impacts, including on key environmental issues:
  • GRI 308: Supplier Environmental Assessment 2016
• ISO 20400:2017 Sustainable Procurement Guidance – Provides guidance to organisations on integrating sustainability within procurement.
• ITC Sustainability Map – Supports sustainability practices in global supply chains by increasing understanding of the sustainability initiatives landscape and by facilitating connections with business partners.
• ITC Standards Map – An online tool providing comprehensive, verified and transparent information on over 240 existing standards, codes and audit protocols.
• Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – Unites stakeholders from the palm oil industry to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.
• Sustainability Advantage NSW – a program to help NSW organisations achieve increased competitiveness through better environmental practices, including a module on supply chain management.
• The Flexible Framework – A self-assessment mechanism that helps organisations measure and monitor their sustainable procurement progress, including sections on ‘Procurement’ and ‘Engaging suppliers’, that include embedding sustainability into the procurement process and engaging with suppliers with openness and transparency.
• UN Global Compact Sustainable Supply Chains website – Provides information about supply chain sustainability, and includes a ‘chemicals’ section.

Australian organisations offering lifecycle analysis/design services (for example):

• Edge Environment
• Lifecycles
• start2see
• thinkstep Australasia

Accord Member company programs (examples):

• Weleda – Bee B&B Hotel program and UEBT sourcing of raw ingredients.
• L’Oréal  – Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program, including investment and collaboration with leading Australian science organisations to restore the coral of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef through innovative methods.

External resources promoting protection of biodiversity:

• GRI Sustainable Reporting Standards – Helps organisations understand and communicate their impacts, including on key environmental issues:
  • GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016
• Pur Projet – An ecosystem regeneration program in partnership with companies.
• Union for Ethical Biotrade (UEBT) Certified Sourcing – Natural ingredient sourcing with a focus on biodiversity (and people).

Implementing and encouraging best water practice

Accord programs promoting best practice in water quality and usage:

• BeadRecede – The campaign that drove Australia’s voluntary industry phase out of plastic microbeads in ‘rinse-off’ cosmetics, personal care and cleaning products.
• Phosphorus Standard – The campaign driving industry-wide reformulation to no- or low-phosphorus household laundry detergents.
• Recognised® Scheme – A third-party assessed ecolabel identifying environmentally preferable commercial cleaning products.
• WashWise – Provides comprehensive advice on sustainable laundry practices, and includes WashWise Lower Sodium Products, a regularly-updated listing of lower-sodium laundry detergents in the Australian marketplace.
• WipeSmart – Provides information on wet wipes with a focus of reminding consumers that most wet wipes need to be binned, not flushed.

Accord Member company programs (examples):

• Colgate-Palmolive: EveryDropCounts – A in initiative to conserve water by promoting behavioural change, including via an online pledge.
• Ecolab: Smart Water Navigator – A practical roadmap to help organisations implement sustainable water practices based on a simple 13-question assessment; and Water Risk Monetizer – A financial modelling tool helping organisations to factor water scarcity into decisions that support business growth and help ensure the availability of fresh water for future generations.

External resources and programs:

• Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard – A globally consistent and locally adaptable framework to inform decisions and encourage collective action to promote sustainable freshwater use.
• GRI Sustainable Reporting Standards – Help organisations understand and communicate their impacts on key environmental issues:
  • GRI 303: Water and Effluents 2018
  • GRI 306: Effluents and Waste 2016

Optimising energy efficiency, reducing emissions and increasing renewable energy inputs

External resources and programs:

• Carbon Footprint – UK-based organisation that provides some free online carbon calculators and other resources for small business.
• CarbonNeutral – Helps organisations across Australia, and beyond, minimise their impact on the environment by working with them to measure, reduce and offset greenhouse gas emissions.
• Energetics – Australian business providing a range of energy services relating to energy accounting, energy efficiency, energy risk and clean energy opportunities.
• GRI Sustainable Reporting Standards – Helps organisations understand and communicate their impacts on key environmental issues:
  • GRI 302: Energy 2016
  • GRI 305: Emissions 2016
• International Standards:
  • ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems – A practical guide to help SMEs understand the requirements of an environmental management system and successfully implement ISO 14001.
  • ISO 50001:2018 Energy Management Systems – Specifies requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and improving an energy management system, promoting a systematic approach to achieving continual improvement of energy performance.
  • ISO 14064-1 Greenhouse Gases – Specifies principles and requirements at the organisational level for the quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removal.
• NSW Government information – Provides business energy management information and offers.
• VIC Government information – Provides business energy advice.

Accord resources:

• Plastics: Overview of the International and Local Landscape – an information resource covering packaging-related initiatives in Australia and abroad.

Accord Member company programs (examples):

• Colgate-Palmolive: Colgate Community Garden Challenge – Oral care waste recycling competition for schools (in partnership with TerraCycle).
• Estée Lauder: Back to M·A·C – Primary packaging take-back program for MAC cosmetics.
• L’Oréal and L’OCCITANE TerraCycle partnerships – Packaging take-back programs.
• 100% post-consumer recycled packaging initiatives e.g. by Muk Hair Care (from 2020)
• Sustainable Packaging Initiative for Cosmetics (SPICE) – Co-founded by L’Oréal and including Accord Members Avon, Chanel, Clarins, Coty, Estée Lauder, L’OCCITANE, LVMH and Shiseido, SPICE informs businesses on environmental performance throughout the entire packaging value chain.

External resources and programs:

• A.I.S.E. Guiding Principles on ‘Sustainable Plastic Packaging Design’ – Set out generic principles to consider when developing new/improving existing plastic packaging for detergent and maintenance products.
• Alliance to End Plastic Waste – A NFP organisation spanning the plastics value chain that aims to address plastic waste in the environment through collaboration on infrastructure, education & engagement and innovation.
• Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) – An industry membership organisation committed to reducing the harmful impact of packaging on the Australian environment.
• Australasian Recycling Label – Guides consumers on how to dispose of product packaging correctly for recycling.
• Bin Trim – A NSW Government program supporting NSW businesses to maximise recycling and minimise waste to landfill, including through free assessment and rebates for recycling equipment.
• www.businessrecycling.com.au – A comprehensive business recycling database, locating local recyclers of different kinds of materials.
• Design for Recycled Content Guide – Provides guidance on how to design for recyclability, published by the US-based membership organisation the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.
• DrumMUSTER – A program that provides a recycling pathway for empty agricultural and veterinary chemical containers.
• GRI Sustainable Reporting Standards – Help organisations understand and communicate their impacts on key environmental issues:
  • GRI 301: Materials 2016
• Recycle Mate – Free consumer app identifying where packaging and other items can be disposed of, providing location-specific and up-to-date information.
• TerraCycle – Recycling company that partners with manufacturing facilities to recycle large quantities of difficult-to-recycle waste as well as small, unusual waste streams.

Minimising wastage

External resources and programs:

• Alliance to End Plastic Waste – A NFP organisation spanning the plastics value chain that aims to address plastic waste in the environment through collaboration on infrastructure, education & engagement and innovation.
• ChemClear – A program for chemical disposal, with 98% of chemicals collected used as an alternate fuel source.
• Circulytics – A free online circularity measurement tool for businesses, developed by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation.
• Good360 – A charity that redistributes excess goods to NFP organisations.
• ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems – A standard designed to enhance environmental performance of environmental management systems.
• Plastic Bank – A NFP organisation that pays people for collecting plastic waste, which is then recycled into Social Plastic® as an auditable and traceable supply chain of recovered plastic feedstock. Plastic Bank also has a Plastic Positive program to offset plastic usage through Social Plastic Collection Credits.
• Sustainability Advantage NSW – A program to help NSW organisations achieve increased competitiveness through better environmental practices, including modules Resource Efficiency and Green Lean.
• Sustainable Salons – A resource recovery service for the salon environment.
• Business Council for Sustainable Development Australia Circular Economy Work Group – A platform for companies to reinvent how they find, use and dispose of materials and create scalable solutions.

Australian organisations specialising in circular economy / cradle to cradle solutions (for example):

• Close the Loop
• Cradle to Cradle Certified
• Circular Economy Australia
• Circular Economy Alliance Australia (CEAA)
• LOOP Circular Economy Platform

Accord surveys/reports on our industry’s environmental impact:

• VOC Emissions from Household Products – Survey and report on the contribution of our industry to VOC emissions.
• Quantitative survey on the extent of microbead usage in cosmetic, personal care and industrial handwash products.
• Quantitative surveys on sodium in laundry detergent (see WashWise Lower Sodium Products pop-up)

Accord voluntary industry initiatives, which have driven measurable industry-wide change:

• BeadRecede – The campaign that drove Australia’s voluntary industry phase out of plastic microbeads in ‘rinse-off’ cosmetics, personal care and cleaning products.
• Phosphorus Standard – The campaign driving industry-wide reformulation to no- or low-phosphorus household laundry detergents.

Accord initiatives:

• WipeSmart – A consumer education initiative to promote better use and disposal of wet wipes to prevent sewer blockages.