An interview with:

 

Annette Piperidis, UEBT Head of Membership and Due Diligence

 

  1. How long have you been working at UEBT, what is your role and who is part of your team? 

    I am with UEBT since June 2022 - so not even one year yet. My role is to lead the membership and due diligence team, look at processes within that workstream and improve them if needed.  I am also the UEBT contact for German organisations. In my team, Larysa is responsible for the UEBT due diligence platform, Amandine is the membership coordinator and Solen is handling local membership assessments. 

  2. With 162 members as of May 2023, UEBT's membership has more than doubled last year alone. Why do you think more and more companies including many brands are willing to join UEBT? 

    I think there are several reasons for this: 

    One is, that given the international context with climate crisis, biodiversity loss and change in consumers’ expectations, more companies want to act in a more sustainable way. Another reason is the growing legislation on due diligence and biodiversity. For companies which have not taken steps yet in this direction, they will need to adjust their practices and an experienced partner can help them with this. But I also think that the great work UEBT has been doing over the past 15 years with its members, results now in a chain reaction - be it suppliers of UEBT members who now wish to also join UEBT or brands joining because there are so many of their suppliers already on the UEBT path. 

  3. Before joining UEBT you had been working for 14 years with Weleda, a UEBT member. How does that help you in your new position of Head of Membership at UEBT to have been on the other side i.e., a UEBT member?  

    This helps in various ways. As I worked on UEBT membership requirements and implementation of the Ethical Sourcing System (ESS) at a brand level, I know some of the obstacles an organisation may face, but I also notice that there is a lot more that is new to me. At the same time, I can bring my industry experience into the day-to-day work at UEBT. 

  4. UEBT member companies commit to managing risks for people and biodiversity including due diligence on cultivation and wild collection practices for ingredients from biodiversity. Can you explain what due diligence is, why it is increasingly important and what tools does UEBT develop to identify and manage natural raw material supply chain risks? 

    Due diligence is managing risks i.e., identifying them and taking measures to mitigate them. An easy and understandable comparison would be this: You live in a house with steep stairs, and you love to have candles around, but you live with your 3-year old child. As your child is curious and full of energy, you would see the risks that they could fall down the stairs or would try to touch the lighted candles. This means, your measures would be to install stair gates and not to leave your child unattended in a room where candles are burning plus you would try to teach/educate your child so when they grow up, they know how to manage things without hurting themself. 

    Companies must take this responsibility along their supply chains for people and biodiversity. This becomes increasingly important as the speed and number of species extinction is accelerating because of human activities, and it is therefore our responsibility to turn things around. We all are depending on biodiversity and people working along supply chains. Local people need to be treated fairly and respectfully. If voluntary actions do not sufficiently reduce negative impacts on the environment and people, we will see increased regulations on this, effectively forcing action. 

    UEBT offers tools to identify such risks along supply chains. They are available for members and non-members. There is the due diligence platform which will be launched soon and will allow companies to assess their supply chains against the UEBT standard and identify risks. There is also the UEBT responsible sourcing risk database, which provides information on risks (human rights and biodiversity) on a country level as well as on a sectoral (ingredient) level. And UEBT offers the Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) due diligence database, with which companies can identify the requirements for ABS on country, ingredient, or activity level. These tools are for risk identification. To manage these identified risks, UEBT offers verification and certification programmes that support continuous improvements towards meeting the UEBT standard that is internationally recognized. 

  5. UEBT has recently introduced a new requirement in UEBT Membership conditions and obligations. UEBT now requires that within one year after membership is granted, a member shall be able to demonstrate, through UEBT verification or certification, that at least one natural raw material supply chain complies with UEBT critical requirements. Can you explain briefly why you decided to add that new specification? 

    UEBT members have committed to continuous improvement and to positive impact. With this new rule we think members can better see how this happens in practice. They get a better idea as well on due diligence and why it is important to engage with suppliers or in supply chains. 

 

 
 

Annette Piperidis, UEBT Head of Membership and Due Diligence

Yuchen Lin