Nutwork

Nutwork Handelsgesellschaft mbH imports nuts and dried fruit from more than 60 countries and over 150 suppliers and markets them via German and European food retailers. As the sustainability of the products is largely defined by the upstream supply chain, it is the company’s declared aim to involve all suppliers in the development of human rights due diligence.

Nutwork published a Supplier Code of Conduct at the beginning of 2023. In order to answer questions about the SCoC and to support its suppliers in setting up their own sustainability management, the company has organized a series of webinars. The “webinar” format was chosen in order to reach all suppliers in different countries at a low cost. Each webinar was held as a live event and was repeated once to cover different time zones.  Both webinars were recorded and are available online for existing suppliers who were unable to attend as well as for new suppliers. The webinar recordings are also an integral part of the newly developed onboarding process for new suppliers.

The webinars covered the following topics, among others:

1. The importance of human rights due diligence and sustainability for Nutwork and its customers;
2. The impact of the German Supply Chain Act (LkSG) and the future EU regulation (CSDDD) on imports to Germany and the EU;
3. Sustainability audits such as SMETA and BSCI, and
4. Child labor.

The webinar series was supported by speakers from Save the Children, the Helpdesk on Business & Human Rights, amfori and Sedex. Following the webinar, all suppliers were provided with a Child Labor Checklist developed by the Centre for Child Rights and Business. Immediately after the webinars, participants were able to rate the webinars anonymously. The participants rated the webinars exclusively as “very useful” or “useful”. No participant rated the webinars as “not useful”. Participants were also asked which topics they would like to see covered in future webinars. The most relevant topics identified were “How to reduce GHG emissions at factory level” and “How to assure health & safety at work”.

The webinar series represented the kickoff to the goal of making all suppliers aware of the importance of sustainable production and human rights due diligence. An important topic in the second webinar was sustainability audits for producing companies, such as SMETA or BSCI. The further advancement of supplier management focuses on increasing the number of direct suppliers with an audited production facility.