About the Code
The Code of Conduct is a statement of principles that serves as a tangible demonstration of what you are doing to meet end buyers’ expectations for product responsibility, social, and environmental assurances. The Code is what suppliers would present to distributors and what distributors would present to end buyers when they express those expectations.
The Code is a statement of your commitment to maintaining responsible business practices.
Many end buyers, particularly larger businesses, have already adopted their own Code of Conduct.
To show your support and adoption of this Code of Conduct, feel free to copy and paste the below information onto your website and/or include this information in your business communications.
Our Company’s Commitment To Ethical And Responsible Conduct
Our company seeks to meet the high expectations of our customers and consumers. In that pursuit, we have adopted standards to achieve appropriate safety and quality standards for our products and to deter wrongdoing. These company standards also promote honest and ethical conduct and help ensure that our business is conducted in a consistently legal and ethical manner. We are dedicated to ensuring that our supply chain processes and expectations meet the needs of consumers, uphold the rights of individual workers, and advance protections for the environment.
With deliberate attention, we strive to comply with all laws applicable to our business, and our business practices will adhere to our established standards of ethics and corporate and social responsibility. We encourage and expect that similar standards will be maintained by companies that provide our products, including primary manufacturers, decorators, and others throughout our product supply chain. We also expect our suppliers to implement procedures to promote continuous compliance with applicable legal and safety requirements, and upon mutual agreement, to open their factories and records for audits by our company’s staff or qualified third-party agents or contractors.
Where a business practice contrary to these standards is discovered within our company or our supply chain business partners, we are committed to taking appropriate action to bring the business practice within acceptable standards.
Forced Labor & Human Trafficking: We prohibit the use of all forms of forced labor, including indentured, prison, servitude, and bonded labor, slavery of any kind and any form of human trafficking. We, together with all facilities within our organization and all subcontractors, will maintain employment strictly on a voluntary basis.
Child Labor: We will comply with the minimum ages of workers as prescribed by local law and international standards applicable to our Company and operations. We prohibit the employment of any child at any stage of manufacturing in the supply chain under the age of 15 (or 14 where local law allows), or where the age for completion of compulsory education, whichever is higher.
Humane Treatment of Labor: We honor the human spirit and societal expectations by demanding and maintaining a work environment that is dignified in all respects and free from violence, inhumane treatment of workers and any form of actual or threatened harassment or verbal, physical, sexual or psychological abuse.
No Discrimination: We value diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace and in our business operations. We prohibit discrimination in all business activities on the basis of age, nationality, race, religion, social status, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, marital status, disability, or other protected classes as determined by local law.
We adopt and adhere to rules and conditions of employment that respect workers and their rights under national and international labor and social security laws and regulations. We expect our business partners, at a minimum, will safeguard their workers’ rights under similar laws and regulations.
Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining: We respect the right of all workers, in conformance with local law, to form or join trade unions of their own choosing, to bargain collectively and to engage in peaceful assembly without unlawful interference, discrimination, retaliation, intimidation or harassment.
Workplace Environment Health & Safety: We will provide a safe, secure, and hygienic workplace in compliance with applicable local laws and regulations. Adequate due diligence shall be taken to prevent accidents and injury to health by minimizing hazards inherent in the working environment.
Hours of Work: We honor labor by maintaining work schedules in compliance with the maximum hours of permitted work set by local law where workers are employed. Except in emergency or unusual business circumstances or where restricted otherwise by local law, regular working hours are expected to be limited to 48 hours or less per week, and the total hours worked in any 7-day period should not exceed 60 hours. Workers shall be provided with at least one day off in every 7-day period. All overtime shall be consensual and compensated according to applicable law.
Wages and Benefits: We comply with all applicable local wage and hour laws and regulations, including those relating to minimum wages, overtime hours and wage rates and legally mandated labor benefits. We will also promote, where feasible, a wage and benefits regime that meets or exceeds industry benchmark standards so as to provide labor an ability to meet basic needs based on locality and to provide discretionary income for improvement of life.
We are committed to perform all aspects of our business with high standards of ethical conduct. We require compliance with all antitrust laws applicable to our business, as well as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and all similar international, federal, state or local laws. We prohibit the provision of any benefit upon any domestic or foreign government official or agent, or any employee of a private company for the purpose of improperly influencing any action by such individual. We encourage the prompt disclosure and proper management of any conflicts of interest that may arise within our business operations or transactions so that these core business ethics philosophies are honored.
We are committed to a role of environmental leadership in our industry. We promote environmental responsibility as a core value for our business and our industry partners. We are vigilant to identify ways to proactively address environmental impacts of our operations. At a minimum, our business practices and activities will comply with applicable environmental laws and company policies that impact environmental sustainability.
Adopt the Code
Only the Primary Contact for your company can verify the acceptance of the PPAI Code of Conduct. If you are the Primary Contact, you can log into your My PPAI profile to accept the code.
Promote the Code
Thank you for taking the important step of adopting the PPAI Code of Conduct.
Adoption of the Code offers distributors an extra level of confidence when doing business with a supplier who posts this code of conduct on their website or in their catalog. It offers end-buyers that same confidence when selecting a distributor sales partner.
Click to download a logo you can use on your website, marketing materials or catalogs to visually demonstrate your commitment to social and environmental responsibility
You can also link this image to a copy of the Code of Conduct online.
Once you submit the adoption web form to PPAI, your membership records will be updated to reflect your adoption of the Code. PPAI will update your SAGE records, as well. The Code of Conduct logo will be added to all participating supplier company profiles, so your company’s name will appear when a distributor performs a search of all companies that have adopted the PPAI Code of Conduct.
Questions? Please contact Anne Stone, Director of Advocacy & Member Engagement for PPAI.
FAQs
It is the tangible presentation of what you are doing to meet the expectations of the end buyer for product safety, social and environmental assurances. It is a document a supplier can hand a distributor, and what a distributor can hand to an end buyer as a public statement of the company’s environmental, safety and quality commitments.
PPAI recommends that all members—suppliers, distributors and business services companies—adopt this voluntary Code of Conduct. Many of the largest and most well-respected companies in the industry have already adopted the Code. See the list of current adopters at the bottom of this page.
The consumer products market is becoming increasingly regulated and subject to scrutiny by many government agencies and consumer groups. The Code of Conduct is one way in which industry companies can publicly demonstrate their commitment to responsible business practices. Many end buyers, particularly larger businesses, have already adopted their own Code of Product Responsibility Conduct and often look for their business partners to adopt a code of conduct as well.
We ask that you review the Code carefully and thoughtfully before adopting it. The Code is entirely voluntary and no audits or inspections of your company are required. However, it is important that this commitment reflect a conscientious effort on the part of the signer to aspire to be in compliance with all elements of the Code.
PPAI has created a web form that will allow you to electronically sign the Code. Once you complete the form, PPAI will update your membership records to reflect your adoption of the Code.
PPAI has developed a Code of Conduct logo that you will be able to post on your website. This logo will link to a copy of the Code itself. Additionally, PPAI will add your company to its list of early adopters.
No. All industry professionals are encouraged to adopt the Code at no charge.
No. The Code is entirely voluntary.
Yes. All industry professionals, members and nonmembers, are encouraged to adopt the Code.
Nonmembers are encouraged to print a hard copy of the Code to adopt as their own; however, it will not be reflected in the member adopter list on the PPAI website. To become a member click here.
Members are to complete a web form that will allow you to electronically sign the Code. Once you complete the form, PPAI will update your membership records to reflect your adoption of the Code and include you on the adopter list (coming soon).
The Code is voluntary and operates on the honor system. There are no inspections, audits or penalties associated with violation of the Code. However, the statements included in the Code are already required by U.S. law and violation of those laws could result in penalties and/or fines regardless of whether or not a company adopted the Code.
The Code is not intended to limit or in any way control your selection of business partners.
You can ask your overseas partners to adopt this Code and you can require them to develop and implement internal business procedures to ensure compliance with your own company policies.
The “Freedom of Association” statement included in the Code reflects what is in United States law under the National Labor Relations Act.
It is important to keep in mind that, with some notable exceptions (the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, CPSIA, for example), conformity with specific standards applicable to any promotional product itself is rarely required by law. Conformity is either specifically required by the end buyer or based on the promotional products supplier or distributor’s assessment of the end buyer’s and consumer’s expectations. Second, the standards development process is voluntary and decentralized, thus there is rarely “the standard” for a particular promotional product. There may be multiple standards that may apply to a promotional product, some for performance and some for design.
To help you find out what the specific requirements are for compliance with CPSIA, PPAI has developed an automated flowchart that will walk you through the testing process and identify tests and paperwork.
This information is maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor and is available here.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) maintains a database of international labor standards.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) maintains a database of international labor standards.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has published its Environmental Guides. You can access environmental standards through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
List of Adopters