Human Rights

Objectives & Performance

Our Objectives

Achieving supply chain transparency

Supply chain transparency is the foundation for all our sustainability measures. As every supply chain is different, ALDI needs to understand where our products started their journey in order to analyse risks, ensure compliance with our requirements, and implement projects on the ground. We will make our high-priority supply chains transparent, so that we have a better understanding about the products we sell.

Increasing traceability of six supply chains by 2025

Actions	Achievements	Status
We will implement new traceability systems to provide high levels of clarity on where and how our products are produced. We will focus our efforts on the following supply chains: Coffee, Nuts, Tropical fruit, Fish & Seafood, Cotton and Palm oil.	We introduced a traceability framework and defined traceability levels for six raw material supply chains (Coffee, Nuts - Cashews & Hazelnuts, Tropical fruit - Bananas & Pineapples Fish & Seafood, Cotton and Palm oil). We completed country of origin traceability for our international Cotton, Bananas and Pineapple supply chains.	In progress

Increasing transparency of six supply chains by 2026

Actions	Achievements	Status
We will work with our business partners to increase the transparency of our supply chains so that we have a better understanding concerning the origin of every product we sell and the raw materials we use for our products. In order to offer greater transparency to our stakeholders, we will publish information, such as the names and addresses of relevant suppliers and tiers, for all of our high-priority food supply chains. Due to technical reasons, the publication of the remaining food high-priority supply chains business partners has been postponed to 2023.	Since 2020, we have been transparent about the addresses and number of employees of all our main production facilities used for the manufacturing of Garment textiles and Shoes. In 2021, we published the names and addresses of our direct business partners (tier 1 suppliers) for Bananas, Pineapples, Coffee, and Fish & Seafood.	In progress

Conducting twelve human rights impact assessments by 2025

Actions	Achievements	Status
We will use human rights impact assessments to identify key potential impacts on human rights and their root causes.	By the end of 2021, we carried out human rights impact assessments for three high-priority raw materials - Brazil nuts, coffee and avocado to identify, understand and assess the potential and actual adverse effects of our business activities on workers and other affected rights-holders such as community members, smallholder farmers and women. The results of the assessments will support us to implement further measures mitigating negative impacts and enhancing positive impacts of our business activities on human rights.	In progress

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Partnering for change

We will support long-term partnerships and impact-led collaborations to improve the livelihoods and working conditions for producers’ rights along our high-priority supply chains.

Strengthening and establishing partnerships in our high-priority supply chains by 2025

Actions	Achievements	Status
We will strengthen existing partnerships and establish new partnerships in our high-priority supply chains. Our impact led approach will address critical human rights and environmental issues.	We are participating in the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Activator programme to promote gender equality along our supply chains. We published an ‘International Position Statement on Living Wages and Living Incomes’ to emphasise our commitments to a decent standard of living in global supply chains. In May 2021, we have become partners of the Global Tuna Alliance (GTA). This partnership will support the sustainable development of our supply chains and ensures that the tuna ultimately meets the highest standards of environmental performance and social responsibility. In September 2021, we joined the “Living Wage Lab” of the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles to strengthen our work to achieve living wages for workers in the garment textile supply chain.	In progress

More: Membership & Partnerships

Increasing public awareness for human rights

We will increase public awareness for the importance of human rights by being transparent about challenges and using our voice to advocate for change.

Being an advocate for human rights by 2025

Actions	Achievements	Status
As a global retailer, we will use our voice and influence to increase public awareness of human rights issues. We will communicate our success, but also the challenges we face in living up to our commitment of respecting human rights and improving living and working conditions throughout our supply chains.	We strive for impact-oriented mandatory human rights due diligence legislation with our “International Position Statement on Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence Legislation”. We expanded our commitment to respect human rights and updated our ”International Policy Statement for Human Rights”. In order to promote fair and safe workplaces, we published our ”International Policy on Forced Labour”.	In progress

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Upholding human rights for workers

We will work to ensure that the human rights of workers that contribute to our priority supply chains are respected and we strive towards improving their human rights if any issues are found.

Implementing capacity-building activities across our high-priority supply chains by 2025

Actions	Achievements	Status
We will establish capacity-building activities across our high-priority supply chains. These activities will address human rights and/or environmental risks where a systematic, industry-wide solution is missing.	From 2013 to 2021, the ALDI Factory Advancement Project placed factory workers and managers in Bangladesh at the centre of its activities to find sustainable solutions for improving workplaces. Its core principle was the promotion of dialogue and cooperation between workers and managers. We are regularly engaging with 45+ multi-stakeholder initiatives and are part of 10+ working groups, while also supporting 15+ projects on the ground for our high-priority supply chains.	In progress

Aligning our CR requirements and processes with the UNGP by 2025

Actions	Achievements	Status
For selected high-priority supply chains, we will align our CR requirements with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) Due Diligence framework. To support the implementation of our CR requirements by our business partners, we are working on consolidating key processes and provide additional guidance, for example through e-Learnings on critical issues such as child labour and forced labour.	We have developed our human rights due diligence processes in alignment with the UNGPs and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Our “International Policy Statement for Human Rights” describes how we are addressing actual and potential human rights risks by improving and strengthening its due diligence process	In progress

Providing workers in all high-priority supply chains access to a grievance mechanism by 2025 and remedy by 2030

Actions	Achievements	Status
For workers in all high-priority supply chains, we will establish or participate in effective operational-level grievance mechanisms for individuals and communities who may be adversely impacted (based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP). Building upon the establishment of grievance mechanisms, we aim to provide workers with access to remedy.	We recognise the need for workers to have access to grievance mechanisms compliant with the UN Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights. For this reason, we have created grievance mechanism processes for our own employees and business partners. We are a member of the ”International Accord of Fire and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry”. An essential part of the Accord is an accessible, rights-based and confidential grievance mechanism. In the case of grievances raised by workers through the Accord grievance mechanism, ALDI actively supports the investigation and remediation of findings. We are partnering with amfori to pilot their “Speak for Change” grievance mechanism in Vietnam. This project creates a trustworthy mechanism for workers in our supply chains to speak up and voice concerns and complaints. We have piloted a grievance mechanism with production facilities in Thailand to strengthen the voice of workers and ultimately improve their working conditions, supported by the human rights focused Issara Institute.	In progress

Integrating corporate responsibility into buying

We will use our buying power to respect and support human rights by making our buying practices more sustainable.

Presenting CR performance metrics for all high-priority supply chains in a Buyer’s Scorecard by 2026

Actions	Achievements	Status
We strive to further embed CR into core buying processes to maximise the positive impact of our international CR strategy on human rights. We will introduce a CR Scorecard that consistently reflects CR aspects in buying decisions and balances commercial and CR related metrics when measuring buying performance.	We developed a concept for the integration of a harmonised CR Scorecard in buying decisions and will launch a pilot with a focus on selected supply chains in 2022.	Started

Implementing responsible purchasing practices across selected high-priority supply chains by 2030

Actions	Achievements	Status
We will analyse our current purchasing practices and develop a pilot for more sustainable purchasing practices. Based on the pilot, we will implement responsible purchasing practices across selected high-priority supply chains.	We conducted a responsible purchasing practices assessment with selected textiles and shoes business partners and factories and identified critical improvement measures. We systematically implemented key aspects of responsible purchasing practices in several buying processes. We carried-out responsible purchasing practices pilots in selected food supply chains (grapes and bananas). We worked with the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles and created a training for member brands and retailers that highlights the impact purchasing practices have on working conditions in the supply chain and lays out practical ways for improvement.	Started

Integrating all high-priority supply chains into our CR Supplier Evaluation by 2027

Actions	Achievements	Status
The results of our Corporate Responsibility Supplier Evaluation (CRSE) influence our buying decisions and provide guidance to our business partners for improving their social and environmental supply chain performance. The CRSE will also support long-term relationships with those business partners who demonstrate a strong sustainability record. Our aim is that all business partners in high-priority supply chains are integrated into the CRSE and undergo a regular review to evaluate their compliance with our CR requirements. This will eventually improve our business partners’ CR knowledge and monitoring skills regarding their CR performance. We will continue to support and empower our business partners to improve their CR performance along the supply chain.	The evaluation of garment textile business partners is now in its fifth year. We have integrated shoe business partners into our CRSE programme in 2020 and onboarded houseware business partners in 2021. We successfully piloted our CRSE approach with our banana suppliers in 2019, and further expanded the evaluation to include pineapple suppliers in 2020. In 2021, we integrated our ALDI Producer Assessments (APA) into the CRSE, which allows us to consider production-level compliance with our corporate responsibility requirements and expectations as part of the CRSE. A CRSE pilot was conducted with tuna suppliers in 2021. We will extend the CRSE programme to include additional non-food and food business partners in the future. For 2022, we are preparing a further roll-out to other high-risk tropical fruit products.	In progress

Sourcing 80% of buying volume from responsible suppliers by 2030

Actions	Achievements	Status
We will establish long-term relationships with strategic business partners who perform well in regard to CR. We will consider our suppliers’ CR performance during buying decisions. In our high-priority supply chains, our aim is to source more than 80% from those business partners who achieved the highest scores in our Corporate Responsibility Supplier Evaluation (CRSE).	More than 80% of our garment textiles buying volume is sourced from business partners who received the highest scores (A or B rating) in our Corporate Responsibility Supplier Evaluation (CRSE). 100% of our bananas and pineapples business partners for our European & US stores are integrated into the CRSE.	In progress

Our Performance

3 of 12 Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIAs)

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263 ALDI Social Assessments (ASAs) and 62 ALDI Producer Assessments (APAs)

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100% CR Supplier Evaluation: Garment textiles, household textiles, shoes, bananas, pineapples

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We have developed and implemented our Social Monitoring Programme (SMP) so that we are able to monitor compliance with our social standards. On-site audits performed by independent experts are a key component of the programme.

Our Goals:

All high-risk non-food supply chains are integrated into the Social Monitoring Programme.
All high-priority food supply chains are integrated within the Social Monitoring Programme.
All main production facilities used for non-food and food items, which have been integrated within the Social Monitoring Programme, are to possess a valid social audit report or certificate accepted by the ALDI SOUTH Group.

Our Performance:

Since 2018, all high-risk non-food supply chains of the ALDI SOUTH Group, including garment and household textiles, are integrated into our Social Monitoring Programme.
Since 2020, additionally all high-priority food supply chain of the ALDI SOUTH Group, including fish and seafood, oils and condiments and processed produce are covered by the ALDI Social Monitoring Programme.

ALDI Social Assessments (ASA) are assessments of main production facilities that are carried out by ALDI employees together with external auditors and business partner representatives. These ASAs mainly take place in amfori BSCI risk countries.

Our Goals:

Assess the situation in the production facilities to complement third party audits.
Assess and collect information on the business partners responsible for the production facility.

The number of ASAs conducted decreased since 2019 due to challenges related to COVID-19.

Filter:

ALDI SOUTH Group	2019	2020	2021
ALDI Social Assessments (ASAs) conducted in garment textiles, shoes, toys and household textiles production facilities	343	304	263

ALDI Producer Assessments (APAs)

ALDI Producer Assessments (APA) are audits on food farms and plantations in countries of origin. The audits are conducted by external service providers and enable us to carry out spot checks to identify human rights abuses and working conditions in our supply chains and how our requirements, in particular the ALDI “Social Standards in Production”, are being implemented.

Our Goals:

Verify social & environmental compliance with ALDI requirements at the farm and packing facility
Assess our business partners’ relationship with farms and evaluate their processes to support farms in fulfilling our CR requirements and in remediating social and environmental issues

Filter:

ALDI SOUTH Group	2019	2020	2021
ALDI Producer Assessments (APAs) conducted on fruit and vegetable farms and plantations	44	20	62

ALDI Social Standards in Production

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Corporate Responsibility Supplier Evaluation (CRSE)

The CR Supplier Evaluation (CRSE) is a comparable and transparent evaluation, which focuses on our business partners’ social and environmental compliance management systems and compliance with our international ALDI CR requirements. These requirements form part of every contract.

Our Goals:

All business partners in high-priority commodity groups will undergo a yearly review to evaluate their compliance with the ALDI CR requirements in the future.
Improve our business partners’ CR knowledge and monitoring skills and empower them to comply with our CR requirements along the supply chain.
Establish long-term relationships with strategic business partners who perform well in regard to CR and increasingly source more from those business partners.

Filter:

ALDI SOUTH Group	2019	2020	2021
100% of non-food business partners integrated into CRSE	Garment textiles	Garment textiles Shoes	Garment textiles Shoes Household textiles
100% of food business partners for our European and US stores integrated into CRSE	Bananas	Bananas Pineapples	Bananas Pineapples