A key element of SAI’s activity is to work with businesses in a multi-tiered approach to promote accountability and lasting improvements – from worker to supplier to brand to consumer – in the supply chain and in their own workplaces.
building alliances : W orking with business
Here are a range of reports from companies we work with:
SAI engages companies through our Advisory Board,
Coop It started with a little “panettone” – a Christmas
corporate commitment programs, projects, training, technical assistance, and multi-stakeholder initiatives. Building on the management systems approach of the SA8000 system, we encourage companies to take a holistic approach to social responsibility. Engaging and integrating multi-stakeholder perspectives, our corporate members can work effectively and strategically with diverse groups to facilitate meaningful, sustainable change.
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cake. The first Coop shop opened in 1854, and in 1896 the panettone made its way onto store shelves in Milan as the first cooperative brand product. Coop is now the biggest retailer in Italy, with a 17% market share and sales amounting to 26.8 billion dollars, 54,000 employees, and 1331 stores. Coop may be big business but it is first and foremost a Consumer Cooperative with 6,500,000 members – the primary values are “mutuality, democracy, social justice and solidarity”. The companies believe that CSR is a way of working and it is directly related to Coop’s mission. Coop has long led the field in implementing sustainability policies and management systems – in 1992 it published its first Social Report, in 1997 developed The Chart of Values and Rules, an ethics code to be signed by every cooperative associated, and in 1999, set its first Sustainability Budget. Coop has a long-standing cooperation with SAI. Since 1999, Legacoop, the association of cooperatives in Italy, has been represented on SAI’s Advisory Board. Since 2003, Coop Italia, in the person of Vice President Riccardo Bagni, has served as an active member of SAI’s Board of Directors.
• SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY INTERNATIONAL •