India 1aWith the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and the lawful requirement in section 54 for business to report on ‘ethical transparency’ during the coming financial year and the reality that the Ethical Trading Initiative had set a March date for a multi-stakeholder roundtable event in Delhi on the subject of the ‘UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in India: Dialogue for Change’ we felt it opportune for members of ETI and other guest’s from Government to be invited to review our process yards in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The visit began on Sunday 6th March through to Thursday 10th March and took all participating on a road journey of 914km through the sandstone quarry regions of Gwalior and Bijolia. There, Hardscape evidenced our strong commercial relationships and commitments with the various stakeholders, to all tiers of our supply chain.

India 6Having moved beyond paper CSR, Hardscape can demonstrate where and how we deliver the Respect/Protect/Remedy framework of the UN Guiding Principles via our ‘ground truth’ practical action plans at the source of our materials.

These action plans are cemented in the 9 Base Code Principles of the ETI, thus collaborating to improve our Working Masons lives by sustainably eradicating human & labour rights abuse.

Finishing in Delhi, guests participated in the UN Guiding Principles event where speakers ranged from organisations that included UK FCO, National Human Rights Commission, IICA, Global Compact Network India, Cividep, UNICEF, and Mines, Minerals and People (mm&P).