CSR COMMITTEE ECOVADIS SAFETY + SOCIAL COMPLIANCE POLICIES
FAIR LABOR ASSOCIATION
S OCIAL COMPLIANCE AUDITS
PRODUCT TESTING PROTOCOLS
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS
PLASTIC ELIMINATION
R ENEWABLE ENERGY
Formed in spring of 2022, Pop! Promos’ CSR Committee is a group of Pop! Promos team members who meet monthly to plan and discuss new opportunities to advance our goals to become a more sustainable and socially-conscious company.
In our initial meetings, we developed a mission statement that would help guide our conversations:
At Pop! Promos, we believe in doing the right thing. It’s our fundamental responsibility to do everything we can to support our local and global communities and to improve the ecological impact of our operations by eliminating single-use plastic from our operations by 2025, offsetting our CO2 emissions on all outbound domestic shipments, and supporting our local community through donation and volunteerism. As a company who strongly believes in its core values, we are committed to investing our time and resources in making a positive impact.
The following pages document our strides and successes as a company since developing this committee.
In summer of 2023, Pop! Promos set out to earn its ranking with EcoVadis, a globally recognized assessment platform that rates businesses’ sustainability based on four key categories: environmental impact, labor and human rights standards, ethics, and procurement practices.
By that November, we were awarded a Bronze EcoVadis Sustainability Rating. This status is difficult to achieve and we are proud to be a reliably sustainable business. The rating has only inspired us to continue expanding on ways we can positively impact our clients and community. Each year moving forward, we will resubmit to improve upon our EcoVadis score in hopes of strengthening our rating.
Companies begin by undertaking a comprehensive and in-depth self-assessment. The questions require the respondent to provide evidence of their sustainability performance for the different categories listed above.
The assessment is then externally verified by EcoVadis’ sustainability experts. Following this process, companies receive an EcoVadis score from zero to 100, which is used to create reliable industry rankings. These let companies compare their business’s sustainability position with that of industry peers.
Consumers and regulators are increasingly demanding higher standards of environmental stewardship. This means companies will be expected to provide verifiable evidence that all their environmental claims are accurate. This will ensure that “greenwashing” – the misleading use of environmental claims to influence purchase decisions – never plays a part in communications.
EcoVadis provides a reliable benchmark for ethical and environmental standards across many industries. These include chemicals, healthcare, beauty, consumer packaged goods, food, and transportation. Leading brands like Johnson & Johnson, L’Oréal, Nestlé, Schneider Electric, and Michelin are among its clients. EcoVadis also provides rated companies with a decarbonization toolkit to aid their transition to more responsible practices.
Pop! Promos has been a proud member of the Fair Labor Association since 2012. The FLA provides training tools to build expertise in companies ultimately improving working conditions and the lives of the workers who make the products we’re so proud to offer.
How does Pop! Promos approach social compliance?
We are dedicated to sourcing our products from manufacturers that are in compliance with local and national laws, respect the natural environment, treat their workers with fairness and respect, and keep their workers safe. We strive to be a socially responsible supplier that promotes the safety and wellbeing of those who work so hard to help manufacture the products that we are so very proud to sell!
How does Pop! know that its factories exemplify the above characteristics?
Pop! Promos physically audits each of our factories at least annually. We conduct our own evaluations and only work with factories with which we are comfortable placing our clients’ orders. During our evaluations, we look for things such as general fire safety, emergency preparedness, personal protective equipment, safe chemical storage, worker wage and attendance records, and more.
It’s great that Pop! is confident in its factory base, but have any of these factories been audited by a third party?
Yes, more than 85% of our product line can be sourced from factories that have passing third party audit reports from the past 12 months. Please ask your sales rep for this list of products!
Why is that above number 85% and not 100%?
Due to the nature of the promotional products industry, we work with factories that produce small quantities on short timelines. Because of this, these factories tend to be smaller family owned facilities that don’t have the documentation and management systems in place to pass third party audits. These factories are well maintained, safe and the workers are treated fairly. They just don’t have the documentation systems in place to meet the strict standards of a third-party audit.
To what standard have Pop!’s factories been audited? Facilities within our factory base have been audited to the following assortment of third-party standards: BSCI, SMETA 2-Pillar, and McDonalds.
Does Pop! Promos ever disclose copies of its factories’ third party audit reports?
Pop! Promos stands behind the ethics of our manufacturing partners and is willing to issue signed letters detailing the audits conducted at our factories to distributors upon request. To protect our intellectual property, all disclosure of factory-specific third-party audit information is at the sole discretion of the company President.
Pop! Promos tests bulk production samples of every product in our line both before introduction to the market and on a regular basis thereafter to ensure compliance with U.S. Federal and State Laws. In our experience, conformance with all U.S. federal and state (with a focus on California Prop 65 as the thought leader in this space) laws maintains compliance with most Canadian and Mexican laws.
If you are purchasing products for use outside the US market, please check to confirm that our compliance with the US laws below will meet the standards in the final market. We primarily seek conformance with the following US laws:
1. U.S. CPSIA Section 101
2. U.S. CPSIA Section 108
3. California Prop 65
We follow the advice of our 3rd party lab partners but primarily test our products for the following properties:
1. Lead in surface materials
2. Lead in accessible substrates
3. Phthalates (DBP, BBP, DEHP, DINP, DIDP, DnOP, DnHP)
4. Bisphenol-A (BPA)
5. Federal Hazardous Substances Act – Mechanical hazards (for children’s products)
6. Flammability (for children’s products)
Full product test reports are available, in complete form, on each product page of our website found at www.PopPromos.com.
We are happy to arrange further testing of our products as per client requirements at their expense. We do not pay for additional product testing outside our normal testing protocol. In general, we suggest allowing an extra 10-15 working days for orders that require further testing.
Only FDA registered Medical Device Importers may import sunglasses into the United States. Pop! Promos has been an FDA registered importer since 2011, so we are fully prepared to import your sunglasses for you. Because of the significant time and expense associated with registering with the Food and Drug Administration, we do not suggest trying to import sunglasses yourself. That’s what we’re here for.
All sunglasses imported into the United States must pass a “Drop Ball Test.” A ball bearing is dropped onto the lens of the glasses to ensure they won’t break in an accident. This ensures that the lenses are shatterproof. We can supply copies of past drop ball tests for your reference (over millions of pairs of sunglasses, we’ve never failed).
From product design to order shipment, we’ve made strides in working to eliminate 100% of single-use plastic from our line by 2025, minimize our carbon footprint, and develop more eco-friendly products.
In 2022, we eliminated 13,000 lbs of single-use plastic from our operations. By 2023, we doubled that, being able to significantly cut down on our use of single-use plastics by 26,000 lbs through maintaining a bulk packaging standard. By 2025, it is our goal to eliminate 100% of all single-use plastics from our line.
In 2023, we expanded our eco line, including a collection of Recycled Canvas bags all made from recycled plastic! This collection, in addition to fourteen other products, means about ¼ of our products in our line are now made from sustainable or recycled materials.
As Pop! continues to grow, our overall potential impact on our communities, environment, and society increases. Our CSR Committee is dedicated to making internal improvements that have a positive impact both locally and universally. For example, our US operations run on 100% renewable power!
At Pop! Promos, we are committed to making a positive impact on the environment. We proudly offset our carbon footprint on every UPS domestic package sent on our account. In doing so, we contribute to the below environmental initiatives. Please note that our offsets are audited by third party affiliate Carbon Neutral®.
Our CO2 offsets financially support projects similar to those below including the protection of Canadian forests, capturing methane, energy collection from wastewater, and protection of the Amazon rainforest. In 2023, we offset 25.999 metric tons of CO2.
Every quarter, Pop! is dedicated to hosting an event to give back to our local community. Below are just a few examples of the events we’ve held in the past:
• Volunteering events at Norris Square Neighborhood Project, a local community farm that helps educate the neighborhood about its immigrant origins and cooking practices
• School supply drives at the start of each new school year, benefiting hundreds of children at local public school Horatio B. Hackett Elementary
• Giveback program benefitting Street Tails Animal Rescue, a local nonprofit that rescues, rehabilitates, and rehomes dogs in need. The program resulted in a donation of hundreds of fleece blankets, collars, 75 weeks worth of dog food, and $5,000 to help out our furry friends
• Kitting products (umbrellas, blankets, gloves, hats, scarves) to be distributed to 150+ community members who experience homelessness in Philadelphia
• Donations of nearly $20,000 to Philabundance, a regional food bank feeding thousands of families every day
• Holding coat drives to distribute to 50+ locals in need during the cold months
We are deeply committed to serving our local and global communities through our sustainability and CSR practices.