Ethical Foundations

It is extremely important to us to ensure that our teams and all of our partners around the world behave in a socially, ethically and environmentally responsible manner. We make our standards clear and employ significant resources in the UK and at source to make sure these are understood and adhered to.

Environmental Policy

dps are fully committed to Operating Responsibly to ensure we maximise our positive social and ethical impacts and minimise our environmental footprint.

Working together with our supply chain partners, we aim to have a restorative impact on the planet so that we can secure a sustainable future for generations to come.

Our Environmental Sustainability Commitments

We will minimise our environmental impacts by:

  • Reducing our end-to-end Food Waste
  • Removing Plastic Packaging and improving Recyclability
  • Protecting and restoring Biodiversity
  • Implementing Water Stewardship practices
  • Minimising office, manufacturing, and agricultural Waste through the principles of Circular Economy
  • Creating a roadmap to achieve Net Zero by 2035 across our own operations and a greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reduction target aligned to Science Based Target initiative (SBTi).

Our environmental commitments aim to contribute directly to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs): Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, Life on Land, and Partnership for the Goals.

Our global supply chain is directly impacted by the effects of climate change, and we recognise the importance of collective action to protect natural resources. In November 2021 dps joined the WRAP Water Road Map as supporting suppliers to increase resilience in water stressed areas by improving water quality and availability, and working in collaboration with other businesses, aim to achieve a shared target of sourcing 50% of the UK’s fresh food from areas with sustainable water management.

SDG Goal 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, is particularly important to dps. In 2017, we adopted SDG 12.3 to halve food waste in our operations and have a roadmap to deliver this commitment by 2025.

dps are UK WRAP – IGD Food Waste Reduction Roadmap signatories, we report on our food waste annually which further embeds our commitment to halve supply chain food waste from farm to fork. We work closely with our suppliers and customers to reduce food waste across the supply chain and by partnering with redistribution charities such as FareShare and City Harvest we are able to prevent food waste by making sure that surplus food, perfectly fine to eat reaches the people that need it most.

  • Senior level responsibility

    Senior level responsibility

    We have a senior manager responsible for ensuring the commitment, policies, practices, and due diligence relating to the eradication of Slavery and Human Trafficking is upheld and progressed within our global supply chains

  • Annual risk assessments

    Annual risk assessments

    We conduct annual supplier risk assessments on all suppliers capturing the threats and vulnerabilities within the supply chain. These incorporate government human trafficking data in addition to other risk factors including human rights and country governance and accountability. Our team of trained auditors visit individual supplying sites to conduct an in-depth analysis of the labour force.

  • Code of Practice

    Code of Practice

    We require our suppliers to sign a dps Code of Practice annually. This prohibits the use of forced; bonded (including debt bondage) or indentured labour; involuntary prison labour; slavery or trafficking of persons in line with the Ethical Trading Base Codes

  • SEDEX membership

    SEDEX membership

    We are committed members of The Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX). We also require our suppliers to become members and to complete a comprehensive self-assessment questionnaire capturing labour supply which forms an integral part of our risk assessment process and management

  • Stronger2gether partnership

    Stronger2gether partnership

    Representatives have been part of the multi stakeholder initiative aiming to reduce modern slavery; Stronger2gether http://stronger2gether.org and attended bespoke training to ensure company compliance. Additionally we became Stronger2gether business partners in 2015