A localised version of BRE’s pioneering Ethical Labour Sourcing Standard and associated assessment process for Australia is to be developed through partnership with Global GreenTag International ahead of the anticipated enactment of the Commonwealth of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act and in light of the enactment of the New South Wales Government’s Modern Slavery Act 2018. The ELS has been created to recognise those who wish to seek third party assurance of their responsible and ethical business practices and provide a maturity pathway for continuous improvement. The Standard specifies the requirements for organisational management to demonstrate an on-going commitment to the principles of ethical labour sourcing as part of a holistic framework. The framework comprises criteria for evaluating the maturity of the performance of the organisation under twelve issues. The overall verification is not based on an aggregation of the levels of maturity in these issues, but is based on a commitment to improve through an agreed set of objectives. Participation in the standard can be achieved through self-assessment or to a more robust level using third party verification through the easy-to-use online ELS platform. Nigel Jones, Team Leader – Sustainable Products at BRE said “The Ethical Labour Sourcing Standard for Australia will enable any organisation to demonstrate to customers, partners and other stakeholders, their commitment to eliminating any possibility of trafficking or slavery in their supply chain. It will enable companies to go beyond compliance with the outlined reporting requirements of the Modern Slavery Bill 2018 which was introduced to the Australian Parliament at the end of June”. David Baggs, CEO and Program Director for Global GreenTag said, “Global GreenTag is partnering with BRE to bring a mature ELS tool to Australia at a time when Modern Slavery legislation has been enacted in NSW and is likely to be introduced federally later this year or next year. We have been engaging with BRE from the time that we formally supported the Australian Human Rights Commission’s call for Modern Slavery legislation in late 2017. It is already something Global GreenTag does at a product level and we want to be able to support companies, verifiers and the industry in general to engage with the new legislation in as cost efficient a manner possible. This collaboration will certainly do that.” For further information please contact Linda McKeown, BRE, email linda.mckeown@bregroup.com NOTES TO EDITOR *Global GreenTag International Pty Ltd is an internationally recognised, multi-award-winning Type 1 (Third Party) Ecolabelling, Product Certification, Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and Product health Declaration (PhD) program operator based in Australia, but with offices and representation also in South Africa, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan and Malaysia. GreenTag programs are formally recognised in WELL™, BREEAM International, EarthCheck®, Green Star®, LOTUS® and the Malaysian Government’s MyHIJAU program and compliant with credit requirements in LEED® (PhDs and EPDs), and BREEAM® (EPDs). www.globalgreentag.com