Stone Federation are fast-approaching the official launch of the Ethical Stone Register, a unique resource created specifically for the natural stone industry, in response to The Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the issues of sourcing materials responsibly.
In the lead up to the launch, we will be interviewing the four pilot scheme members, namely Amarestone, Burlington Stone, Hutton Stone and Natural Paving Products to find out about their journey on the scheme. These interviews will provide majors contractors, architects, designers, clients and natural stone firms with an insight into the workings and systems of the Ethical Stone Register.
The first interview is with British quarry operator and supplier, Hutton Stone, and Stone Federation’s Chief Executive, Jane Buxey, asked Hutton Managing Director, Marcus Paine, about their Ethical Stone Register journey and achieving Verification Level. To read the full interview, please click here.
There are three tiers of membership of the Register, Declaration, Verification and Accreditation and the requirements of each level are explained below.
Declaration – At this tier, companies will have to complete a questionnaire looking at the responsible and ethical sourcing practices of their business. To achieve this level, a company will need to meet 100% of the criteria. The claims and assertions made by a firm at this level will be by means of self-declaration.
Verification – At this tier, the claims made by a company at the Declaration level will be externally verified. The initial verification will be for the company rather than each material they supply, however, they may choose to have some or all of their stones included at Verification level. This will involve an independent auditor assessing the journey of the material and ensuring that the responsible and ethical sourcing criteria are met the whole way along the supply chain. Only verified stones will appear on the Register itself.
Accreditation – At this tier, members will have met the requirements of the Declaration and Verification tiers, and will be further audited for this level. The aim is to have the scheme recognised and to gain credits within schemes such as BREEAM and LEED at this tier.
To find out more information about the Ethical Stone Register, or to register your interest in attending the launch event, please email matt@stonefed.org.uk.
