Each of the ALDI SOUTH Group’s national organisations sources products from Asia. To minimise the risks relating to working conditions and ensure compliance with our high standards, the ALDI SOUTH Group, together with ALDI Nord, has been operating its own CR office in Hong Kong since 2012 and established a second CR office in Bangladesh in 2017.

The focus of these CR offices is to monitor our business partner’ production facilities and the performance of our business partners with regard to social compliance. For this purpose, the CR offices conduct ALDI Social Assessments in the production facilities on behalf of the ALDI SOUTH Group and provide support to business partners on how to implement them.

ALDI is committed to promoting human rights in the garment industry. With the ALDI Factory Advancement (AFA) Project, the ALDI SOUTH Group, together with ALDI Nord, has introduced a programme which delivers change in factories that produce our garments in Bangladesh.

Launched in 2013, the AFA Project places factory workers and managers at the centre of its activities to find sustainable solutions for improved workplaces. Its core principle is the promotion of dialogue and cooperation between workers and managers. To date, approximately 85,000 workers and their managers of 40 participating factories have benefitted from the project and experienced positive changes in their day-to-day working environment.

From 2016 until 2019, the AFA Project PLUS addressed the critical need for quality childcare for the children of working parents in factories that produce our textile goods in Bangladesh. ALDI supported selected factories participating in the AFA Project in improving their internal day-care services.

Many workers are reliant on these services due to financial constraints and a lack of alternative care options. Together with local non-governmental organisations, we trained caregivers, childcare centre supervisors, nurses and parents working at the factory. 

As an international retailer, we trade considerable quantities of meat, dairy, and other animal-based food and non-food products. Irrespective of the high complexity resulting from the variety of products we sell and the markets we operate in, we strive to continuously improve animal welfare standards throughout our supply chains.

Our approach to animal welfare is guided by the globally recognised 'Five Freedoms' proposed by the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC).

Our International Position Statement serves as the foundation for our commitment and efforts in the area of animal welfare, and demonstrates the extent to which the individual countries of the ALDI SOUTH Group have aligned their measures within this area.

PRO PLANTEURS project in Côte d'Ivoire

Since 2015, as a member of the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (GISCO) we have worked in partnership with the German government and the government of Côte d'Ivoire in a joint project. PRO-PLANTEURS works together with 25,000 cocoa farmers, including female farmers, their families, and their cooperatives. Successes of the first project phase were

• Professionalisation of cooperatives
• Increase in farmers’ cocoa yields
• Farmer training in Good Agricultural Practices and professional business management
• Diversification of agricultural production and nutrition.

In June 2020 PRO-PLANTEURS started its second project phase with a focus on contributing to better living and working conditions of about 30,000 cocoa farmers.

German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (GISCO)

ALDI has been an active member of the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (GISCO) since 2015 and works with other members to achieve the initiative’s objectives.  This multi-stakeholder initiative aims to improve the livelihood of cocoa farmers and their families, to contribute to a secure living, to conserve and protect natural resources and biodiversity in cocoa producing countries, as well as to increase cultivation and commercialisation of sustainably produced cocoa. ALDI is actively engaged in the sustainability and PRO-PLANTEURS working groups, which focus on the implementation of GISCO’s goals and monitoring the PRO-PLANTEURS project.

Retailer Cocoa Collaboration

In September 2019, the ALDI SOUTH Group joined the newly-formed Retailer Cocoa Collaboration (RCC) which commits to support the Cocoa and Forests Initiative. This initiative will drive change by protecting and restoring forests in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Colombia. The RCC will also map collective cocoa supply chains to gain a greater understanding of the social and environmental risks found in production countries. The trader assessment conducted by RCC will also provide us with greater transparency and insight into lower supply chain tiers.

Fairtrade cocoa project in Côte d'Ivoire

Since 2020, the ALDI SOUTH Group and Fairtrade  have been collaborating on a project in Côte d’Ivoire to improve working conditions and livelihoods for local cocoa farmers. The project analyses the impact of ALDI’s business operations on the community and environment, increases traceability of our cocoa products and provides a basis for further projects together with Fairtrade. As part of the project, ALDI’s business partner will source cocoa beans which are 100% traceable from the selected cooperative for our cocoa-based products.

Fairtrade coffee project in Honduras

Since 2016, the ALDI SOUTH Group, together with TransFair e. V., has supported 22 Fairtrade certified coffee cooperatives in Honduras, directly benefitting over 4,600 farmers, including over 1,000 female farmers, and their families. Farmers receive assistance in improving the quality and quantity of their coffee harvests and learn how to optimise the sale of their products. This project also helps the cooperatives to improve their organisational and financial structures, increases the involvement of women and young people in coffee-growing activities, and supports the implementation of environmental and climate adaptation measures in the coffee-growing sector.

Working towards the payment of a living income and wage are an important part of a sustainable supply chain. They contribute towards the fight against poverty and child labour and the realisation of other human rights.

German Initiative for International Cooperation (GIZ)

As a participant of the “Working Group on Living Income and Living Wages” established by the German Society for International Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit - GIZ), we want to support and promote the establishment of an income and wage standard that meets the cost of living in the global agricultural supply chains. By joining forces and aligning our approach with others, we aim to increase leverage to maximise our impact and ensure that farmers and workers in global supply chains have a decent standard of living.

Sustainable Trade Initiative IDH

The Sustainable Trade Initiative ‘IDH’ created a 'Living Wage Steering Committee' together with the ALDI SOUTH Group, and many other businesses. The participating companies in the committee will monitor the implementation of the IDH Roadmap, including the development of tools to measure the living wage gap and approaches to close it.

FAO World Banana Forum’s Living Wage Advocacy Initiative (LIWIN)

We support the FAO World Banana Forum’s Living Wage Advocacy Initiative (LIWIN), which works towards the establishment of living income and wage benchmarks in several banana exporting countries and living income/wage advocacy activities with government, private sector and civil society actors in major European importing countries.

International goal

Together with our business partners, we are committed to standards that achieve long-term sustainable improvements in the cultivation of cotton. We will ensure to use 100% sustainable cotton for our ALDI-exclusive garments and household textiles by 2025.

We prohibit our business partners from using cotton sourced from countries where cultivation and harvesting are systematically associated with human rights violations, such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Fairtrade project on cottonseed

Since 2018, ALDI SOUTH Germany has been supporting the Fairtrade project in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The project aims to empower smallholder farmers and to improve the quality and supply of cotton from Central Asia.

To reach the project goal the following measures are implemented:

• Training for farmers on seed production and multiplication
• Actions to combat GMO-contamination
• Enlargement of cultivable acreage for organic cotton and yield
• Knowledge management and sharing

Cotton made in Africa recycling project

In 2019, Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) and the local cotton company SAN-JFS developed a recycling project in Mozambique. This project supports women from local farming communities who operate eco-collection points. Over 72,000 empty pesticide containers were collected and sent for recycling in the first year and benefitted up to 20,000 farmers. With the exclusive support of ALDI, the project is able to continue into a second phase and benefit even more farmers.

In 2015, the ALDI SOUTH Group joined 80 other international fashion retailers in committing to the goals of Greenpeace’s Detox campaign. Since then we have reduced the negative impacts of chemical-based production processes used in the textile and footwear industry on workers, local communities and the environment.

We have empowered our suppliers to work with their business partners in order to deliver our requirements and verify their implementation within the scope of our sourcing activities. Our ALDI Detox Reports summarise the positive progress we have made over the past five years.

We will continue to increase the scope of our work to address further environmental impacts, ranging from strengthening our commitment to more sustainable material sourcing to raising awareness of opportunities to buy more sustainably. This means that we will promote more sustainable production processes and sustainable products to enable our customers to consume sustainably

Fishery improvement project in Morocco

The project aims to sustainably improve fishery management in order to ensure fishing practices, which comply with the MSC criteria in the long term. Since 2014, the ALDI SOUTH Group initiated project concerning the active improvement of the sustainability of sardine fishing in Morocco.

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP)

Since 2012, we have worked in collaboration with the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), a leading non-governmental organisation.  Their focus is to improve the sustainability of wild fisheries as well as aquaculture. The SFP acts as our independent adviser on fish sustainability and rates the sustainability of the fish and seafood used in our own label products and provide recommendations to drive continuous improvement of fisheries. Through our partnership, we can gain better insight into how to source more sustainable seafood products. 

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

Since 2010, we are collaborating with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in the field of sustainable fishing and aquaculture farming. The WWF acts as an independent adviser on fish sustainability and rates the sustainability of the fish and seafood used in our private label products. The WWF also provides us with recommendations to drive continuous improvement of fisheries and aquacultures.

Seafood Task Force

Since 2017, the ALDI SOUTH Group is a member of the Seafood Task Force, a multi-stakeholder initiative seeking to address illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in an effort to address human rights issues and marine conservational problems, which are believed to be closely interlinked.

The Seafood Task Force uses the combined knowledge and experience of its membership to address complex supply chain issues that cannot be solved individually. The aim is to achieve clean seafood supply chains from vessel to retailer through driving oversight and continuous improvement across people, product, process and policy.

Project in Western Kenya

In 2016, ALDI UK became the first UK supermarket to team up with international development charity Farm Africa in a three-year partnership to support young farmers in Kenya. ALDI funds the Growing Futures project to educate and improve the lives of more than 450 young people in Kitale, Western Kenya.

The project trains young people how to grow high-quality crops, like green beans, tomatoes and kale, as well as how to run their farms as businesses. As well as assisting young farmers to improve the quality and amount of food they produce, the project will help ensure they are growing the most valuable crops, support them in finding the best contracts, and enable them to sell crops at higher value markets so they can find a lasting way out of poverty.

Producer assessment

ALDI SOUTH Germany is systematically introducing its own producer assessments for its range of fresh produce. The products and countries of origin in which ALDI SOUTH conducts the producer assessments are selected based on a risk analysis. Besides tropical fruits from Central and South America, assessments of the quality of fresh produce have also already been conducted in Southern Europe.

Working group

In line with our responsible sourcing strategy to prevent and mitigate adverse human rights impacts of our business activity, the ALDI SOUTH Group has been an active member of the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) Italian Produce Working Group since 2018. ETI is a global alliance of companies, trade unions and NGOs that promotes respect for workers' rights and the Italian Produce Working Group aims to create a trusting, collaborative space, within which open dialogue can be held to share and discuss challenges and practical solutions for human rights issues with the Italian produce sector.

Project in Vietnam

ALDI seeks to respect human rights and prevent violations in our Vietnamese cashew nut supply chain by supporting the Ethical Trade Norway’s Cashew project. The project strengthens labour standards while having a focus on women and vulnerable groups as well as improves environmental management.

Together with our cashew suppliers, ALDI encouraged processors in the Vietnamese cashew supply chain to participate in social dialogue training during September and November 2019. This training was designed to improve worker and management dialogue, grievance handling and knowledge of trade union rights. The project also trained farmers on labour standards, good agricultural and environmental practices. The project will continue to support farmers, workers and processors over the next year via further training and knowledge-sharing.

Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil: Smallholder Standing Committee

A significant share of the globally traded palm oil is produced by smallholders. In order to account for these smallholders within the scope of our commitment to using only sustainable palm oil, we purchase RSPO Independent Smallholder Credits to support their work and participate in the RSPO Smallholder Standing Committee in order to further support and integrate smallholders.

Palm oil smallholder project in Côte d'Ivoire (2017-2020)

Since 2017, the ALDI SOUTH Group, together with ALDI Nord have been supporting a smallholder project in Côte d'Ivoire in order to pave the way for sustainable cultivation of palm. In close cooperation with our NGO partner Solidaridad, we have developed a project focussing on the protection of natural forests and environmentally friendly cultivation methods. Solidaridad offers training for 2,100 smallholders on forest protection as well as resource and environmentally friendly cultivation methods, which are compatible with resource conservation requirements.

Palm Oil Transparency Coalition (POTC)

As part of the Palm Oil Transparency Coalition, we engage and review the major international importers of palm oil to determine how they are tackling deforestation and exploitation in their palm oil supply chains. Our approach aims to promote transparency and encourage progress beyond certification.

Retailer Palm Oil Group (RPOG)

As a Retailers' Palm Oil Group (RPOG) member, we engage in a non-competitive coalition of companies who have the common aim of making the use of sustainable palm oil across all relevant supply chains the norm.

Retail Soy Group RSG

As member of the Retail Soy Group, we collaborate pre-competitively with other retailers in order to increase the availability of sustainable soy feed and remove deforestation from our soy supply chain.  We collaborate to find industry-wide solutions for soy for their animal feed and human food supply chains. The RSG focuses on four major topics:

• identify and support clean suppliers
• implement regional approaches
• enhance the credibility of certification standards
• unlock transparent supply chains

Collective Soy Reporting (CSR)

Since 2018, we participate in the Collective Soy Reporting together with a group of other retailers to

• quantify the amount of soymeal present in animal feed used in 2018
• Identify where the soy was produced
• determine whether any of the soymeal carried a recognised deforestation free production certification

Overall, more than 230 livestock producers, packers, and manufacturing suppliers fed into the report.

Based on the results, we engage with relevant stakeholders and develop appropriate measures to increase the share of deforestation-free soy in our supply chain.

It is important to us that garment and household textiles, which are a regular component of our weekly special buys, are produced in an environmentally and socially sound way. Our goal for the future is to further expand our range of sustainable textiles and create even greater transparency in ALDI’s supply chain.

Since 2018, we have been annually evaluating the CR performance of all our international garment textiles business partners.

The Corporate Responsibility Supplier Evaluation (CRSE) is a comparable and transparent evaluation based on quantitative and qualitative indicators. The indicators focussing on our business partners’ social and environmental compliance management systems as well as their production facilities’ CR performance are derived from our CR Requirements, which form part of every contract.

The results of this evaluation increasingly influence our buying decisions. The CRSE supports long-term relationships with those business partners, who demonstrate a strong CR record and provides incentives for continuous improvement.

Cost of sustainable production in the banana sector

As a member of the World Banana Forum, we are involved in the working group ‘Cost of Sustainable Production’. Its aim is to create transparency about living income and wages in the producing countries. On this basis, governments are supported in the assumption of their responsibility that minimum wages meet living wages and also their enforcement is controlled. In this context, we support the FAO World Banana Forum’s Living Wage Advocacy Initiative (LIWIN), which works towards the establishment of living income and wage benchmarks in several banana exporting countries and living income/wage advocacy activities with government, private sector and civil society organisations in major European importing countries.

Human rights assessment

In 2018, we comprehensively examined the human rights risks within our food and agriculture supply chains. We identified tropical fruit as a raw material with a high risk of human rights violations and consider it to be very important to us in terms of leverage.

In 2020, we will carry out detailed human rights impact assessments for avocados to identify, understand and assess the effects of our business activities on workers and other affected rights-holders.