Marke Creative Human Rights Policy

Marke Creative Merchandise is a large promotional merchandise company and is part of the Staples Inc. Group. We produce quality, sustainable products on behalf of our numerous customers and manufacture products around the world with ethical sourcing at the heart of what we do.

Marke Creative is committed to respecting internationally recognised human rights in line with the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Our Human Rights Policy is informed by the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the International Bill of Human Rights and the UN Global Compact.

Marke Creative respects human rights. It is committed to the identification, prevention, mitigation and remedy of human rights impacts within its supply chain, resulting from or caused by our business activities. As part of this commitment Marke Creative does not tolerate threats, intimidation, physical or legal attacks against human rights defenders.

Where appropriate we are committed to engaging in dialogue with stakeholders and communities on human rights issues related to our business. We believe that local issues are most appropriately addressed at the local level.

We are committed to collaborating with suppliers, civil society, governments and other businesses on human rights to inform our approach, share experiences and address root causes.

We will not tolerate or condone abuse of human rights within any part of our business or supply webs and we will take seriously any allegations of human rights abuses. We aim to effectively remedy, through the use of collaborative forums and company grievance mechanisms, any negative human rights impacts.

Marke Creative – Modern Slavery Statement

William Wilberforce, the English politician, philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish slavery in the 19th century, said about the slave trade: “You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know”. That is as true today as it was back then. Within our business we are choosing not to look the other way but to work proactively within our industry to empower those within our supply web and ensure decent working conditions and fundamental human rights.

Policies

At Marke Creative we have built our Human Rights Policy in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

Our commitment to tackling Modern Slavery is set out in our Human Rights Policy and our Supplier Code of Conduct.

Our Supplier Code of Conduct is based on the Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code and sets out the minimum requirement for Marke Creative suppliers.

We require our suppliers to require the same level of compliance from their suppliers.

Due Diligence

In line with the UNGPs we have taken a strategic approach to addressing issues on Human Rights.

Marke Creative Strategic Approach

To date the focus of our due diligence programme has been requiring suppliers to undertake ethical audits, however we are developing and implementing a multifaceted due diligence programme designed to identify and effectively remedy issues within our supply web. The programme will include:

• Ethical audit
• Supplier engagement and awareness raising
• Intelligence gathering and horizon scanning
• Capacity building
• Worker and community assessment and voice

Given the scale of our supply chain, we have chosen to concentrate on the areas we know to be the highest risk of Human Rights abuses. We have gained our intelligence about these risk sources from credible sources and indices, such as the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Index, the International Trade Union Congress’s Global Rights Network, and the Walkfree Foundation’s Global Slavery Index.

We understand that tackling Modern Slavery is not a quick or easy fix but one that will require ongoing effort and continuous investment and improvement. Our programme prioritises the highest risk countries and supply webs first.

To date our focus has been on audit and our in-scope highest risk suppliers are required to register their sites on the supplier ethical data exchange platform SEDEX and undertake annual ethical audits, using the Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA) format, which measures compliance to the ETI Base Code.

Prior to a full ethical audit, we use our own team, based in China, to approve supplier sites before we agree to progress with them. Outside of China we engage with accredited audit companies to facilitate this role.

In 2018, we appointed an ethical Manger in China to assist in our supplier engagement and beyond audit programme. We have been able to measure improvements within the supply chain from the direct engagement with our supply chain.

Our Commitment

At Marke Creative we are passionate about human rights and the environment; our vision is to have.

“Best in class global sourcing and compliance systems that ensures our clients of products that honour their brands and social and environmental commitments anywhere in the world”

We passionately believe in human and environmental rights, and we seek to proactively manage the social and environmental impacts of our global supply web, prevent worker exploitation and protect the planet from adverse effects. We believe transparency keeps us accountable, enabling us and our suppliers to honour not only ours but also our customers’ commitments.

Ian Hodgson

Managing Director