As a business in the twenty first century, we have a responsibility to do things the right way and improve where we can. We owe it to suppliers, wholesale customers, end consumers and ourselves to operate with a degree of integrity, responsibility and quality that we can be proud of.

ENVIRONMENT

Albi understands the importance of reducing our environmental impact. We are working on increasing the sustainability of our business in a few key areas.

Albi is signatory to the Australian Packaging Covenant (APCO). This is a regulatory, not-for-profit organisation that partners with government and industry to reduce the impact of packaging on the Australian environment. Albi has an APCO Action Plan that helps us work towards the Covenant’s goal of making 100% of packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Our APCO action plan will be posted online in the near future. We report back to the Covenant annually to monitor our progress.

As many of our products are timber, we are working to use more wood from Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forests. FSC certification means forests are managed to take care of animals, plants, workers and communities connected to forests. You will see the FSC logo on new products that use wood from FSC-certified sources. 

As ‘change starts at home’, our Melbourne head office migrated to a new waste management system in mid-2018. This has greatly increased our everyday recycling while reducing the landfill we generate at work.

ETHICAL SOURCING

Albi’s Melbourne-based buyers foster strong relationships with suppliers around the globe including in China, India, Vietnam, Turkey and Portugal. We place high importance on ethical sourcing and the wellbeing of workers across our supply chain.

Albi continually monitors the performance of its suppliers against the ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative) Base Code. This code is founded on the conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and is an internationally recognised code of labour practice.

The ETI Base Code presents the following core standards:

• Employment is freely chosen
• Freedom of association and the right to receive collective bargaining are respected
• Working conditions are safe and hygienic
• Child labour shall not be used
• Living wages are paid
• Working hours are not excessive
• No discrimination is practiced
• Regular employment is provided
• No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed

*The full ETI Base code contains sub-points that provide detail to each of the above areas. To read these and learn more about the code, visit www.ethicaltrade.org/eti-base-code.