Fair Stone

Fair Stone is the first comprehensive international standard for the global trade in the natural stone industry. Its main objective is to ensure that imported natural stones are excavated and processed according to accepted social and environmental standards. The need for such a standard is owed to altered perceptions of the market demand especially of private households and public authorities.

Content demarcation
"Fair Stone" the first comprehensive international standard, was developed since 2007 for the international natural stone industry. The standard is a code of conduct that provides guidance for stone processing factories, stone quarries and international dealers in natural stones who want to comply with international standards and the local legislation. Presently the standard is in the second phase of the stakeholder dialogue which will be closed at the end of March, 2009. It may be expected that this standard will be adopted by many countries. This concerns the exporting nations like China, India, Brazil, South Africa as well as the importing countries of Europe and America. Up to now there are customers and interested parties in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria. The Standard was developed together with 20 stone processing factories in China and is currently further developed in other countries like India as a general standard of the branch. Beginnung of 2008 the Fair Stone team started to customize the Fair Stone Standard to quarries and stone processing factories in India.
Relevance of Fair Stone
Globalisation and international trade have unleashed great momentum in the natural stone branch in the last two decades. New technologies, falling freight rates, low prices of the natural stones, and also a large variety of natural stones have led to the fact that the majority of the stones sold in Europe and America are imported from emerging countries, particularly Asia. The working conditions in those countries however rarely meet international standards. In China most labourers in quarries and in stone processing factories are exposed to dust, noise and unhealthy working conditions. In other countries such as India additionally child labour and bonded labour is widely spread as a result of indebted families.
Public authorities, private enterprises as well as individuals in the industrial countries increasingly criticize that the import of natural stone of the industrial countries contributes to the exploitation and to the increase of injustice in the developing countries and therey the dynamism of the globalization goes at the expense of the poor in these countries. Groups of the Civil society in industrial countries, but also anti-globalisation activists have promoted this new consumer awareness. The natural Stone industry and the international trade must address the new market demand by adopting the Fair Stone Standard and fulfilment of certain requirements. The signature on the Fair Stone Certificate shows the company`s compliance with minimum social, economic and environmental requirements.
The standards of Fair Stone
The standard is among others based on the following conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO)
*C182 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
*C105 Abolition of Forced Labour Convention
*C155 Occupational Safety and Health Convention
*C148 Working Environment (Air Pollution, Noise and Vibration) Convention
*C170 Chemicals Convention
Furthermore the standard respects and takes into consideration the national legislation here in this case: the labor laws of China. In the interim the same applies also to India.

Fair Stone was developed by Win = Win in two years in close cooperation with managers of an established supply chain for natural stones from China to Europe, experts of the International Social Security Association (ISSA)“, the Steinbruch Berufsgenossenschaft StBG (stone quarry professional association / statutory accident insurance) and international labour law experts and social experts. and now is available as a generally accepted standard of the import economy. Fair Stone takes care of a worldwide spreading, with the aim to improve the working conditions of the people in the natural stone industry, particularly in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
How does Fair Stone work?
The mode of operation of the Fair Stone Standard resembles other standards like Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), SA8000, Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) or Fair Trade . Companies that want to implement the Fair Stone Standard in their supply chain have to produce from their suppliers, i.e. the persons responsible of the stone quarries and the stone processing factories a written statement (pre-condition) to the effect that the company does not make use of child labor nor bonded labor and obliges itself to improve the working conditions acc. to the specifications set forth in the standard. If this statement is given to Win=Win as the bearer of the label , the companies are registered as a “Fair Stone Supplier“ and the importing enterprise and his export partner as a „Fair Stone Partner“. Suppliers and Partners are bound by the Fair Stone Partnership Agreement to implement the Fair Stone Standard in their factories within three years and to report annually about the progress. The implementation of the Standard is subject to independent verification. Independent examiners carry out at the latest after three years an audit in the companies and issue the Fair Stone certificates. If a supplier does not fulfil the conditions of the standard he is conceded another 12 months at the longest to take corrective actions before he looses the right to use the Fair Stone label and to call himself a Fair Stone Supplier.
Parts and sections of the Fair Stone Standard
The Fair Stone Standard is divided in five parts: (1) stone quarries, (2) stone processing factories, (3) supply chains importers/exporters, (4) stonecutters/traders and (5) role of WinWin and international audition. The criteria were compiled by the experts of the ISSA and other experts on the base of several visits in the Chinese production plants.
#Organisational requirements for occupational safety and health
#Risk assessment and prevention
#Training and instruction
#Maintenance and inspection
#First Aid and Fire Prevention
#Workplace safety
#Prevention of silicosis and mineral dust
#Prevention of noise and vibration
#Handling of hazardous substances
#Machinery and equipment
#Electrical appliances
#Storage
#Transportation and lifting gear
#Ergonomics
#Service facilities for the staff
#Shipment
Labour law related issues
To this group also belongs the prohibition of child labor, forced and bonded labor which were already mentioned above as a pre-condition to become a Fair Stone supplier. As already mentioned the labour-related Fair Sone criteria are derived from the conventions of ILO and from other standards such as SA8000 and BSCI as well as visits by international labor and social experts in the Chinese companies.
#Prevention of discrimination
#Observance of national legislation and rules
#Labor contracts
#Working hours, rest and vacation
#Wages and salaries
#Social security
Environmental protection
Today with an international standard ecological criteria may not be absent. Protection of the environment and economical use of resources are necessary to ensure sustainability, ie the chances of future generations. The first criterion is about the need to avoid waste, wherever possible, to recycle or dispose of waste in an appropriate manner. The second criterion is about the need to save energy and water:
#Waste management
#Consumption of energy and water
Any progress in the process of improving the working conditions must be documented, and must be open to the scrutiny of external auditors.. The management system Fair Stone specifies unannounced compliance visits in the quarries and workshops in order to track down and stop illegal child labor in Indian quarries but also to verify the cleanness of the supply chain. In this context, however, it cannot be expected that with the Fair Stone label child labor is reduced, all together, or even eradicated. The Fair Stone standard can only partially reduce or eliminate child labor. To prevent abuse with the Fair Stone label, the code of conduct intends the following measures for the trade:
By signing the Apreement of Cooperation Fair Stone suppliers commit themselves to refrain from any misuse of the Fair Stone label. Any offence against the arrangements will be sanctioned with the revocation of the seal or in heavy cases with demands for compensation. All export deliveries must be documented by the trade companies through the web-based application “Tracing Fair Stone“ on the internet site: www.fairstone.win--win.de.
Fair Stone partners are offered Fair Stone stickers for marketing purposes to show towards customers and authorities that the supplied products (tombstones, slabs, paving stones) are really Fair Stone.
The development of the Fair Stone Standard is promoted by an honorary advisory board who has given essential suggestions to Fair Stone. Since December 2008 there is a draft of the Fair Stone manual which is brought up for worldwide discussion with all stakeholders.

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