As there is no law which prohibits or prevents Norwegian businesses from importing goods manufactured under unlawful conditions, such as child labour or extreme overtime, efforts to promote ethical trade are left to the discretion of individual businesses. IEH offers guidance, support and tools to enable its members to develop more sustainable supply chain practices.

Advice and tools

We give guidance and individual advice to our members regarding their progress in promoting ethical trade, and when they encounter challenges in the supply chain. Our members report transparently on their goals, activities and acheivements using templates developed by IEH. We send all members annual feedback and guidance, providing specific advice, based on the information given in the annual reports, in addition to the ad hoc guidance provided throughout the year. 

Membership in IEH also secures access to IEH's member pages, tools, networks, courses and seminars. Our member pages contain most of IEH's templates and tools, ranging from a template for a Code of Conduct to action plans and self-assessment questionairres for agents and manufacturers. The RAID risk assessment tool is one example of the kind of tools which members of IEH can access. RAID enables companies to efficiently assess risk relating to working conditions at production sites, and makes it easy to assign and prioritise follow-up activities in the supply chain.

We also give advice and arrange supplier training courses for suppliers to IEH members in China,Vietnam and India. We have developed a supplier handbook which, coupled with supplier training, makes it easier for members to help build capacity in partnership with their suppliers. The Local Resources Network (LRN) gives IEH members access to local experts and advisors in producer countries.

Constant development

IEH is continuously developing and improving its tools, in cooperation with various organisations. Sharing experiences is an efficient and cost effective way to learn about ethical trade, and cooperation between members gives our ethical trade efforts more impact.