Ever wonder if there’s a simple action your company can take to combat child labor, modern day slavery and other workplace human rights abuses in developing countries? Good news! There is.

You can shift your corporate purchasing to products are certified to be free of human rights abuses by third parties. These certifications provide independent verification that products have been produced in compliance with certain social and environmental standards. By purchasing certified products you will move from perpetuating existing human rights abuses to combatting them. Following are the principal bodies that certify products:

• Fairtrade International: Fairtrade certification ensures that workers are paid a fair wage, have safe working conditions, and are not subject to discrimination or forced labor.
  
• Rain Forest Alliance: Rain Forest Alliance certification ensures that products are produced in a way that protects the environment and supports the communities where they are grown.
  
• B Corporation: B Corporation certification is awarded to companies that meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. B Corporations are committed to using business as a force for good and creating value for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.
  
• Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS): GOTS is a certification program that sets standards for organic textiles, including cotton, wool and silk. GOTS certification ensures that textiles are made in an environmentally and socially responsible way, from the growing of the raw materials to the final product.
  
• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC): FSC is a certification program that promotes responsible forest management and ensures that products made from wood and paper come from sustainable and responsibly managed forests.
  
• Social Accountability International (SAI): SAI is a certification program that focuses on improving working conditions and promoting social responsibility in the workplace. SAI certification covers a wide range of industries, including apparel, electronics, and food and beverage.

Of course, all certification schemes have limitations. They may not cover all aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and will sometimes fail to ensure full compliance, for example. Nevertheless, there’s little doubt that purchasing CSR certified products is step in the right direction toward creating a just and sustainable global economy.

Pro bono service – also known as pro bono work, pro bono volunteering or skill-based volunteering – is the provision of professional or technical services to social-purpose organizations or individuals free of charge. The best-known model of pro bono service is offering the professional services a company sells, such as legal counsel, free of charge. There are, however, many other pro bono models, including:

Project-based team engagement
In project-based team engagement, teams of employees deliver a standard deliverable to nonprofit partners, such as a website redesign or strategic plan development, over a few weeks or months. For example, SAP has a program in which teams of employees spend a week working full time with a Black-owned business on business development and related topics and five weeks working at part time.

Serve-a-thons
In serva-a-thons, programmers, designers or other specialists collaborate intensively during one or several days to create solutions for nonprofit organizations or charitable causes, such as a new app or refreshed website. Cisco’s “Hack for Good,” for example, develops apps, products or other innovative solutions for nonprofits over a period of time lasting no more than a few days.

Board service
Board service involves employees serving on the board of directors of a nonprofit. For example, Unilever’s "The Compass" program invites all employees to serve on nonprofit boards, either individually or in teams, and trains and provides other support to those who sign up.

Service sabbaticals
A service sabbatical is when an employee takes a leave of absence from their job to serve full time at a nonprofit, typically for one to twelve months. Patagonia, for example, offers employees a two-month paid sabbatical to support an environmental nonprofit.

In summary, whatever your company is, there’s likely a suitable way for it to engage in pro bono service. To learn more, contact us!