Our policies reflect our commitment to people, the environment, and the communities we serve. Whether it’s through responsible sourcing, safe and quality products, or fair and sustainable practices, we believe that Action can help making sustainability accessible to consumers everywhere.
Our commitment to ethical business practices is founded on the principles outlined in the OECD guidelines. These international standards serve as the bedrock of our commitment to ethical business practices, ensuring that every aspect of our operations aligns with the standards of human rights and environmental responsibility. The Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence Policy reflects our approach, commitments and governance. Explore how we integrate social responsibility and environmental sustainability into every aspect of our work.
Click here for our Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence Policy
All suppliers are required to comply with our Ethical Sourcing Policy. The key elements of our Ethical Sourcing Policy relate to the International Labour Organisation conventions, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Business Social Compliance Initiative Code of Conduct.
As a retailer with global supply chains and sourcing goods from countries where there is an increased risk of child labour, we recognize our responsibility to identify and protect children from any form of child labour within our supply chain. Action suppliers are therefore required to comply with our Child Labour Policy, which specifies clear commitments and responsibilities if child labour is identified.
Action wants to sell more textiles and clothes in its stores with sustainably sourced cotton. That is why we developed a responsible cotton policy. This policy addresses direct suppliers and importers and includes commitments to critical topics, such as human rights, transparency, water management, pesticides and herbicides, just to mention a few. Action is also working on partnerships with strategic expert partners and relevant institutions. In 2020, Action sourced 76% of its cotton through the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI).
To strengthen our ambitions and development of purchasing increasingly more cotton from sustainable sources, Action proudly became a member of the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) in 2018. BCI is the largest cotton sustainability program in the world, providing training and support for farmers worldwide to develop environmentally friendlier and socially and economically more sustainable farming methods. Better Cotton is not physically traceable to end products. However, BCI Farmers benefit from the demand for Better Cotton in equivalent volumes to those we ‘source’. Please find more information about BCI here.
Timber is a sensitive resource that affects the environment and communities. Action developed a timber policy that aims to achieve a higher level of transparency, sets goals and defines procedures to ensure that products imported directly or via importers fulfill or exceed the requirements of the EU timber regulations. With this policy, Action focuses on non-commercial goods, permanently available products in the categories household, stationery & hobby, and decoration, as well as cardboard transit packaging materials. Part of this policy is the agreement with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) we signed in 2017. In the long-term, Action envisions that all timber products procured by Action are self-evidently certified by a sustainable source such as FSC. By the end of 2020, 50% of all timber products sold at Action shall come from a third party certified origin.
Plastic as a material plays a major role in modern society, as can be seen within Action’s product range. From household goods to multimedia and decoration, plastic can be found throughout our assortment.
Unfortunately, the benefits brought by innovative, lightweight, durable plastic products that help reduce carbon emission have recently been overshadowed by realisation on how extensive the negative effects of plastic (waste) pollution on the (marine) environment and society actually are when not recycled properly.
Therefore, it is necessary to address the challenges of plastics use by reducing the diversity of materials used for the same applications, scaling up effective collection and recycling of plastic products and increasing the use of recycled content. Only then can plastics deliver added value to a more sustainable, new circular economy and help in realisation of the UN Sustainable Development goals.
As a fast growing European retailer we recognise our responsibility to ensure that the cocoa used for chocolate products originate from responsible sources. Action envisions that in the near future all Action own brand chocolate products are self-evidently sustainably sourced through recognized and verified sources. Providing cocoa farmers with a better income, dignified working conditions and the possibility to invest into their communities. At the same time we want to ensure good farming practices which mitigate any harmful effects on soil and biodiversity.
Action commits to convert all our own brand chocolate products to Fairtrade cocoa before the end of 2023 including products that might already be certified to other third party sustainability initiatives. This allows us to have measurable insights to impact for cocoa farmers in West Africa based on our growing sourcing volumes.
Action aims at the reduction of negative social and environmental impacts of packaging by reducing the amount of packaging waste and assuring circularity of all packaging used within its supply chains. To achieve this, Action has introduced its Responsible Packaging Policy in 2021. This policy refers to all packaging within Action supply chains to which Action has a legal title, to product packaging and transport packaging at the Distribution Centre (DC) and on store level as well as for food packaging, where additional requirements of Food Contact Materials legislation apply. The policy states clear goals, measures, and standard criteria for packaging, one of these being the clear commitment to 100% recyclable packaging for products sourced through Direct Import, wholesalers, and our Private Label products by 2025.
Chemicals may be one of the most critical product components. They pose a risk to workers in the production process, to the product safety for our customers and to the environment. At Action, we aim for responsibly produced products that are safe and fulfill all legal obligations. But we want even more: We want to go beyond legal compliance and support new technological, chemical and manufacturing processes when these are available. With its chemicals policy, Action provides an action plan for a safe and responsible approach with chemicals. Amongst those are for example measures that increase transparency in the production process. Furthermore, testing programs, partnerships with respective industry partners and plans to list and define restricted substances, are part of this policy. The policy explains Action’s expectations towards suppliers and puts suppliers clearly under responsibility.
At Action we have products in various categories containing palm oil or palm derivatives. As part of our sustainable sourcing commitments it is important to us that the palm in our products is sourced sustainably.
Therefore we have become a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). This policy sets out our direction and commitments for the coming years.