As a business with a global supply chain, at Star Group we are wholly aware that the responsibilities of our industry don’t stop with those in the direct employ of our company. As such we need to take positive action to ensure our operations are having a positive action throughout the supply chain.
What is Modern Slavery?
The 2023 Global Slavery Index estimated 50 million people were living in modern slavery around the world, including 27.6 million in forced labour.
Modern slavery refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, or deception.
Modern slavery includes forced labour, forced or servile marriage, debt bondage, forced commercial sexual exploitation, human trafficking, slavery-like practices, and the sale and exploitation of children. In all its forms, it is the removal of a person’s freedom in order to exploit them for personal or financial gain.
Our Responsibility
At Star Group we have a zero-tolerance policy with regards to Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking within our supply chain and work closely with our supply chain partners to ensure they are adhering to our Ethical Sourcing Policy.
As part of our work in this area, we have identified areas of risk within our supply chain that could link to modern slavery which can be found including:
- Supply coming from higher-risk countries
- Working with suppliers in regions with temporary workers
- Demanding delivery timeframes
Our Action
An ethical supply chain is critical to our business and our customers. To do this, we build a relationship of trust and integrity with our suppliers built on mutually beneficial factors.
These relationships are established through our supplier selection and onboarding procedure which includes due diligence of the supplier's reputation, respect for the law and compliance with health, safety and environmental standards.
It is through these relationships that we can maintain transparency with our supply chain partners to identify and prevent instances of modern slavery.
Our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement can be found here.