ITRI wins edie Sustainable Supply Chains Leader 2017

St. Albans - ITRI's dedicated work and success in bringing positive change in the tin supply chain has been recognised with the award of the prestigious edie Sustainability Leaders Award 2017 for Sustainable Supply Chains.  The winners were announced at an awards ceremony at the Hilton Hotel, Park Lane in London attended by the great and the good of the sustainability sphere.

Opening the Awards, edie editor Luke Nicholls said: 'The past year has shown us numerous examples of organisations going to great lengths to drive the green industrial revolution through new collaborations and sector-wide commitments. Nowhere is this revolutionary ethos more evident than on the shortlist of edie's 2017 Sustainability Leaders Awards. All of this year's winners, and finalists, have shifted from talking about ambitious sustainability initiatives to delivering them at scale and at pace.  A huge congratulations to all.'

In noting the achievements of ITRI, the judging panel said: 'In just a few years, ITRI's innovative and wide-reaching Tin Supply Chain Initiative (iTSCI) has delivered fantastic results, and it has tremendous potential to go even further, tackling a range of social and environmental issues in supply chains across the world.'

ITRI's Manager of Sustainability Kay Nimmo commented: 'We are delighted that the hard work of ITRI has been recognised in such a way, with the award of one of the highest accolades for sustainability in the corporate sector.  Of course we could not achieve such a dramatic change in supply chains alone and need to thank our supporters - ITRI members for their vision, iTSCi members for their participation, and other organisations such as T.I.C., Pact and Synergy Global Consulting for their important contributions to this success.'

Edie also published information about the award explaining that 'for sustainability and CSR professionals, supply chains can be highly complex beasts filled with risk, so enhancing the transparency of supply links that commonly appear hand-in-hand with human rights discrepancies and the financing of war is no small feat. Yet this is precisely what ITRI has been able to achieve.'

ITRI designed and instigated iTSCI, enabling artisanal and small scale tin miners in Democratic Republic of Congo and other central African countries to break links between mineral production and funding armed groups. This support ensured local miners access to 'conflict-free' international markets and brought about significant social and economic benefits for hundreds of thousands of individuals, their communities and the region as a whole.

ITRI is continuing to go further through work to address issues beyond conflict on a more global basis by supporting all leading tin producers in the design and implementation of a global industry Code of Conduct standard. This will address all consumer expectations for responsible supply chains, including environmental, safety, human rights and labour issues, and will be implemented in complex commercial and political environments, drawing on the lessons learned in the iTSCi Programme. 

Edie is a UK-based sustainability information and resources platform, set up by media group Faversham House to support sustainability professionals and has run its Awards annually since 2007.