We undertake independent, high-quality, original research on key issues and challenges in responsible supply chain sourcing. We leverage our grassroots access to provide unique, bottom-up, objective view of CSR compliance conditions at the commodity, product, sector and country levels. Our research provides necessary information for different stakeholders to understand the complexity of issues in global supply chain, aiming to bring positive social change.
We use qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze and study the labor laws and regulations of nearly 30 emerging market countries in the world and their implementation as well as the risks.
According to the requirements of customers and investors, we comprehensively analyze and sort out the labor risks in different industries in the international supply chain.
According to the needs of customers, we study the labor risks in the production process of different raw materials / commodities. At present, there are about 20 kinds of products, including coffee beans, sugar, cotton, tea, tobacco, cocoa, palm oil, fish, diamonds, gold, etc.
Our consultants, our senior researchers, can help stakeholders to organize related discussions and to help implementing targeted solutions to specific problems.
According to the needs of customers and investors, we can apply rapid assessment method to study special problems, and provide high-quality information that customers need in a timely and economical way.
The research method combines field investigation and desk analysis to provide customers and investors with information and suggestions for decision-making.
We provide services to analyze and interpret labor laws and regulations in more than 70 countries around the world.
Keurig Green Mountain
With generous support from Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. and other funders, Verité implemented a project to “Improve Supply Chain Transparency, Monitoring, and Accountability in Guatemala’s Coffee Sector” in partnership with REACH (Research-Education-Action-Change) during 2014-2016. The project included:
- A baseline assessment of recruitment and labor conditions in the coffee sector, along with workers’ needs and preferred means of gaining information
- Trainings for workers, suppliers, and coffee producers, traders and brands
- Development of a Grievance Reporting and Information Dissemination (GRID) system to improve transparency regarding labor broker practices. The GRID system operates via a toll-free hotline as well as in-person locations. Our aim is that companies in the Guatemalan coffee supply chain will use the information collected through this project to ensure that their supply chains are free from exploitative labor broker practices that can expose them to legal and reputational risk.
Emerging Markets
Since 2000, Verité’s Emerging Markets Research Program has offered a ranking of 26 emerging markets countries that employs 42 indicators of labor standards compliance – the first such framework of its kind to be used for investment purposes. To provide information not generally available, we utilize our overseas networks of labor researchers to explore local sources and to conduct interviews with representatives of business community. Comparing our findings from primary and secondary research with our own experiences of labor auditing, we create a deep, locally-oriented assessment of risk.