our hero supplier programme

We want to work with suppliers who care about doing business responsibly. It's important that they share our values and want to help us reduce the amount of energy, water and waste in our supply chain. We do this primarily through our Hero Supplier Programme. The programme sets a minimum standard for partnership with suppliers and helps us spot common areas of interest for future collaboration, so we can work together to have an even bigger impact. The programme looks into five areas:

sustainability management

• do they have environmental management systems in place?

• are they hitting targets?

• do they link the pay of their senior management to hitting environmental targets?

energy and greenhouse gasses

• do they have energy efficient targets?

• do they source renewable electricity?

• do they have science-based targets?

water

• do they have water reduction targets?

• are staff trained on how to hit those targets?

waste and resources

do they send anything to landfill?

do they have recycling targets?

are they embracing circular economy thinking?

an illustration of a book with a recycling symbol on it

human rights and social responsibility

• do they have a human rights or ethical trade policy?

• is someone directly responsible for employment practices and human rights in the business?

• do they report on their gender (or any other) pay gap?

a photo of a farmer tending to her crops

We’re constantly reviewing and monitoring the stuff we learn, sharing progress with our suppliers and championing best practice. We encourage our suppliers to collaborate with each other too, getting them together online to share their successes and the things they’ve learned from projects they’ve worked on. By joining forces, we can help make our supply chain and agriculture more sustainable.

Greenhouse gas emissions. Living wages. Environmental policies. It might sound a bit dry, but for us that's what true heroes are made from. No spandex suits needed.