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Research Outline

Prepared for Zach S. | Delivered July 4, 2020

International Standards

Goals

Determine the most popular international standards in the following sector: food/water, production, mining, construction, manufacturing, utilities, financial services, hospitality and leisure, information technology, media, real estate, and retail. Obtain information also on the ethical gold standard that are currently in use for each of those sectors. Determine the reason why they are considered to set the highest ethical standard, who evaluated this, and to what extent there is consensus among the most relevant stakeholders. Determine also the business models of the organizations that make the most popular standards. Obtain information on how they generate revenue, who pays them, and why. Obtain also the names of clients of the standards bodies and case studies that describe the work that the standards bodies have done that generated revenue.

Early Findings

International Standards

Food

IFS Food - International Featured Standard Certification

  • The IFS Food - International Featured Standard is a "GFSI-recognized standard" for assuring that food items and production operations are safe and can meet target quality levels.
  •  According to Intertek, an accredited food certification body, the IFS Food certification standard is currently a broadly recognized standard that is "accepted for food businesses and retailers."
  • https://investors.intertek.com/assets/pdf/Intertek-AR-2019-full-WEB.pdf
  • Intertek's revenue for 2018 is £2.99 billion.
  • Intertek earns by providing a "a fully integrated portfolio of Assurance, Testing, Inspection and
  • Certification (‘ATIC’) services" to its clients.
  • https://www.intertek.com/about/clients/
  • Some of Intertek's clients in the food industry include Kraft Foods and Unilever.

Fair Trade

  • According to the list of the Ethical.net community, the Fair Trade Standards is considered to be one of the most ethical standard for consumer goods such as food.
  • The standard helps in ensuring that fair pricing practices are in place to enable producers to pay for their typical sustainable production costs.
  • Fairtrade International is the body issuing Fair Trade certifications.
  •  Flocert is the body that is providing global certifications for the Fairtrade Standards.
  • Some of their customers include Georges Helfer SA (Suisse) and Cooperativa Agraria Norandino Ltda.
Summary of Findings
Our one hour of research provided some of the standards that are being applied in the food industry.