Scheme Measures

Choosing to act more environmentally responsible is about making deliberate and educated decisions. The Responsible Sourcing Scheme scoring system allows the consumer to make these choices, fully confident that any product with the scheme rating score displayed has been independently assessed against the 7 criteria listed below:

• Energy Use – This assesses the energy used to create the raw material. Renewable energy such as solar power will generate a better rating than a non-renewable energy, such as coal.
• Water Use – This refers to how much water is used in the process of creating the raw material. Water is a finite resource, so we need to use it carefully.
• Social Compliance – This is all about people – making sure that people employed to provide the raw material are working in acceptable conditions, that their health and safety is considered, and no child labour or bonded workers are used.
• Habitat & Biodiversity – We want to make sure that the area where the raw material is produced minimises the impact to wildlife and creation of biodiverse habitats.
• Pollution – It is important to minimise the amount of pollution to the environment through the manufacturing process.
• Resource Use Efficiency – This assesses the amount of waste generated and what efforts are taken to minimise waste. If the raw material can be used as a by-product from other industries, then this will gain a better rating.
• Renewability – This assesses the amount of time it takes to replace the resource used.

It does not consider fertilisers or any other ingredients used in small quantities.