Have you ever wondered how we decide what brands to stock here at Flora & Fauna? We're letting you in on our strict criteria that covers 5 major components — Ownership, Ethics & Conduct, Products, Environmental & Waste Management and Human Rights.
Ensuring our stockists align with our purpose and values, is of upmost importance. By doing so, we can be confident letting you shop 100% vegan, cruelty-free, low waste and ethical companies that are doing good for the planet. Read along!
Image: F&F
Ownership
First up, is ownership! We ask questions about a brand's ownership, as this helps us understand the parent company's goals too.
Some of the questions we ask are things like:
- Who owns the company?
- Are there additional investors? Are they private individuals or a company?
Image: F&F
Ethics & Conduct
We have our own purpose that we like to align with a supplier's, so we ask about their values and if they've ever had any breaches in consumer law.
Some of the questions we ask are things like:
- An explanation on the businesses purpose and values.
- Have you ever had any breaches of consumer law.
- Have you ever been engaged in fraudulent, corrupt, exploitative or collusive activities.
Image: Green + Kind
Products
Here at F&F we stock 100% vegan and cruelty-free products, so we make sure to check this with our suppliers.
Some of the questions we ask are things like:
- Are all your products vegan and cruelty free?
- Are your ingredients traceable to source?
- Do you have a parent company.
- Do you sell in mainland China or any other country that requires animal testing by law?
- Do your products contain palm oil?
- Are your products certified organic?
- What kind of packaging do your products come in?
Image: F&F
Environmental & Waste Management
We value our environment strongly and love to see when our suppliers do the same. We ask how they ship their orders and what packaging they use. If required, we often ask our suppliers not to ship with plastic. We also inquire whether they offset carbon emissions or have any environmental targets or initiatives in place.
Some of the questions we ask are things like:
- How do you ship your orders?
- Do you offset some your carbon emissions?
- Do you have any environmental targets or initiatives in place eg. water, energy, waste disposal?
Image: Canva
Human Rights
We have a strong emphasis on creating an inclusive workplace and sourcing products ethically. We ask our brands about the diversity and wage of their team, contractors, and factories and if they have any certificates for ethical sourcing.
Some of the questions we ask are things like:
- How inclusive and diverse is your workplace?
- Do you employ contractors in Australia or elsewhere?
- Is your entire team paid the local minimum wage and provided the minimum benefits as required by legislation?
- Do you source products from overseas?
- Do you have certificates for ethical sourcing with these factories?
As you can see, Flora & Fauna is truly committed to ethical, sustainable and socially responsible procurement and we expect the same high standards of our suppliers. We view our suppliers as partners and we care about the way they do business when providing goods or services.
To become an F&F supplier we need to understand more about each business, which involves the 5 key focal areas discussed above. We hope you enjoyed learning about the process we go through to onboard new brands and products.
We like to do all the hard thinking, so you don't have to. Enjoy your entire shopping experience, knowing all these important areas have received the tick of approval! Shop here. Leave us a comment if there's anything you would like to see added to our list.
Learn more about key F&F events in the blogs below:
