ACM: collaboration in natural stone sector helps companies make production chain more sustainable

Summary

Natural stone companies have made joint arrangements to counter the negative impact on people, animals, and the environment throughout their entire production and supply chains.
ACM concludes that the collaboration has no adverse effects on customers of the companies involved, such as higher prices.
If companies strike collaborations, it can help make their production chains more sustainable sooner.

The collaboration in the natural stone sector shows that, by making arrangements, businesses are able to make their production chain more sustainable in a faster and more economical way. Natural stone companies have jointly made arrangements in a covenant (the TruStone Initiative) to counter the negative impact on people, animals, and the environment throughout their entire production and supply chains, including outside the Netherlands. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has informally assessed whether the collaboration is allowed under competition rules, and sees no objections.

Martijn Snoep, Chairman of the Board of ACM, explains: “Companies increasingly have to justify that their entire supply chains, too, meet sustainability requirements. If companies and civil society organizations seek collaborations with each other, such collaborations can help accelerate sustainability in the chain and reduce the costs for companies. The collaboration in the natural stone sector is a good example of this. Competition rules offers scope for such collaborations. Companies that want to know whether they are allowed to collaborate can also take our collaboration check (in Dutch). If in doubt, they can have their plans informally assessed by ACM.”

Corporate social responsibility in the natural stone sector

Natural stone companies specialize in importing and processing natural stone or products based on natural stone, such as countertops, gravestones, monuments, tiles, façades, and curbs. With this initiative, companies, sector organizations, civil society organizations and contracting authorities in the Netherlands and Flanders agree, among other things, on improving working conditions in natural stone quarries, a living wage for employees, and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Companies participating in the initiative agree to investigate risks to humans, animals and the environment in their own chains and to tackle any identified risks. They publish reports on this, and have their plans to address such risks tested by the collaboration initiative.

The TruStone Initiative has asked ACM on behalf of the participants whether this initiative is allowed. ACM concludes that the covenant has no adverse effects on customers of the companies involved, such as higher prices. The participants in the initiative agree to make their own production and supply chains more sustainable. This is mandatory under the initiative, but each company ultimately does this for itself and for its own chain. Covenant participants can, however, initiate joint projects around certain themes, such as a living wage or child labor, in order to bundle knowledge and experience. Joint actions within these projects could, for example, consist of attending workshops or conducting research in a region, in order to tackle identified problems more effectively. Participants are free to take additional sustainability steps if they wish.

The initiative is based on the international guidelines of the United Nations (UN) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Working together can help companies comply with European sustainability rules as well.

ACM and sustainability

ACM ensures that markets work well for all people and businesses, now and in the future. More sustainable products and consumption are important in the transition to a more sustainable society. ACM wishes to create the right conditions for promoting the transition to a more sustainable economy. ACM eliminates impediments, and offers opportunities where possible, for example when companies make sustainability agreements with each other. ACM regularly checks how these sustainability agreements work out in practice, such as recently in the garden retail sector. ACM also takes action against businesses if they use misleading sustainability claims on their products.

Collaboration check

If you wish to collaborate with another business and you wish to assess whether that is allowed under the competition rules, take our collaboration check (in Dutch). With the collaboration test, businesses can assess anonymously whether or not a collaboration is allowed according

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