Given that Rare Orchid.London is about the listings based on your own business’s environmental and community self-audit, there will be some aspects as part of the process which we will consider.
As Rare Orchid.London establishes its business, we will hone in on the most important aspects that each business would like to explore in the self-audit process regarding environmental and community issues.
We will communicate with most of our sellers to ask what you think about the audit that we are setting in place and ask for your feedback.
These are part of the initial aspects of the audit, but certainly not limited to or exclusive:
Environment
Transportation
- Do you car pool?
- What is your overall company fuel consumption?
- How do you and your colleagues get to and from work?
- Do you use public transportation?
- How many miles do you and your colleagues drive to and from work? Could you reduce that?
- How do you distribute/ post your products?
- Do you need to look at your courier service/ are there better (cheaper/ environmentally more sensitive) alternatives?
- Is your distribution part of a Just In Time system?
- How do you receive your product/s from the supplier (air/ sea/ road)?
- What type of car/ van do you drive/ what year was it made?
- How efficient is your car/ van? How is it fueled? Electric/ petrol/ diesel/ hybrid/ methane?
Business (Premises)
- Who is your stationary supplier?
- Do you have a recycling system?
- Do you use recycled products?
- Do you reuse, recycle or repurpose stationary such as paperclips, sleeves, folders, etc?
- What is your annual energy use (including gas and electricity)?
- Could you implement a better use of energy, including better insulation, double/ triple glazed windows/ use energy efficient light bulbs/ have more efficient/ cost effective heating?
- Are your paper products FSC certified?
- Is your paper recycled?
- Do you double side print rather than single paper use?
Waste Streams / Packaging
- Are there ways which you could use less packaging?
- What materials are used in you packaging? Are the recycled/ reused/ repurposed? Are they recyclable?
- What percentage of plastic (non-biodegradable) is used in your packaging?
- Is your paper based (eg. cardboard) packaging reused/ recycled/ repurposed?
- Is your packaging from a certified source (eg. FSC)?
- What are your waste streams (eg. recycled/ general/ commercial waste)?
- Are you compliant with relevant (environmental) legislation?
Community
Immediate Community
- Do you regularly attend chocolate conventions?
- How transparent are you with other retailers?
- Are you part of a larger chocolate community collective?
- Do you share ideas with other sellers?
- How connected are you with other sellers?
- Have you established partnerships/ relationships with NGOs and/ or charities?
International Community
- How much do you know about your cocoa farmers?
- Are your chocolate suppliers certified as in with Rainforest Alliance/ Fairtrade/ other?
- Are the cocoa farmers carrying out sustainable agriculture practices?
- Do you know if they are increasing the biodiversity of their small holding cocoa farm?
- Do you know the size their cocoa farm?
- Are they part of a coop or other collective as part of their farming community?
- Do you know anything about the farming communities? (eg. sugar cane and/ or cocoa farmers)?
- Do you know if the farmers get a fair price for their cocoa beans (are they at risk of being exploited)?
- Do the cocoa farmer communities have immediate access to acceptable education facilities?
- Do the cocoa farmer communities have immediate access to acceptable health care facilities?
- Do the cocoa farmer communities have immediate access to potable water?
- Do the cocoa farmers employ under 15 year-olds?
- Are the cocoa farmers compliant with regional employment laws?
- How much money is the daily wage for the famers? Is there scope they could earn more?
- What kinds of risks do the farmers face? Eg. competition for land with larger palm oil plantations?
Other Aspects
- What kind of communication do you have with the farmers?
- Do you know anything about the sugar cane producers? Please explain.
- Do you know anything about the dairy farms which are part of making chocolate? Please explain.
- What kind of relationship do you have with the chocolate making ingredient producers?
- Are you in touch with the cocoa/ sugar cane/ dairy farmers?
- Do the farmers have access to IT facilities to communicate with? Ie. internet/ email/ access to actual market values?
- Are you as a retailer doing anything to support those communities as part of the wider collective?
- It should be noted that this is a fluid document and will continue to be developed and amended as we receive feedback from various sellers we contact.