Fair trade requires transparency, dialogue and mutual respect. Confidence in trade partners and their engagement is the key to Fair Stone activities. Nonetheless, inspections are necessary. Fair Stone controls its partners and suppliers regularly, with announced as well as unannounced inspections.
The Fair Stone control system is based on three pillars: Self-assessment, control by Fair Stone e.V. and independent audits.
1. Self-assessment with Step by Step process: Every supplier has to submit progress reports, at least once a year. These serve as self-assessment and as a base for inspections. Indicators and implementation steps help the participating factories to handle their standard implementation.
2. Fair Stone inspection: Announced and unannounced inspections by the Fair Stone Team are conducted regularly in Asian factories as well as in European ports and storage facilities to monitor the implementation progress and to check the correct logo usage. During these visits the next steps in the Fair Stone process are discussed and agreed upon by the representative, the partner and the factory management. Additionally the software Tracing Fair Stone is used to monitor the Partner's and Supplier's activities. Every order that is supposed to be labelled as Fair Stone has to be entered in it. The Fair Stone Team, as well as the final customer, can monitor during production, where the products are. Fair Stone checks the order and conducts inspections at random. If all is correct, order specific QR-codes are created that have to be attached next to the Fair Stone label. Only materials that are traceable in this way are Fair Stone products.
3. External Audit: After at least three years, an external audit issued by an accredited auditor has to take place. The Fair Stone Partners contact the accredited auditors directly and pay for the audit. Fair Stone e.V. has no influence on the outcome of this external verification of the Fair Stone criteria. The Audit has to be repeated every three years.