ABSTRACT
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a journey, and codes and standards serve as a map to guide companies towards greater transparency and accountability. Holcim management viewed the development of a code of conduct to implement its CSR policy as an opportunity to build bridges between its far-flung operations at a time when the company was re-branding from Holderbank to Holcim. The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) seeks to improve the lives of workers in global supply chains by creating a forum to identify and promote good practice in the implementation of codes of conduct. The ETI is interested in sharing the lessons learned from various different approaches to monitoring, verification and other aspects of code implementation. SA8000 applies to companies around the world and across industries, serving as a common benchmark to ensure that basic rights are respected within the supply chains of those companies and industries.
