OUR APPROACH

To ethical sourcing

How we source

We want strong relationships with our suppliers and producers around the world.

 

That’s why we buy our tea directly from our list of approved tea gardens, agreeing forward contracts, paying a fair price and making regular visits to the estates we source from.

 

Our herbs are grown on farms or collected in the wild. We work with selected suppliers to increase transparency and ensure our standards are met.

SOURCING MAP

Meeting high ethical standards

We strive to source all our tea, herbal ingredients and packaging ethically.

 

It starts by ensuring we know where our products and ingredients come from and that the people making them are treated well and have a safe and hygienic work environment.

 

100% of our tea and over 60% of our herbs come from gardens and farms that have been certified by internationally recognised third party sustainability standards.

CODE OF CONDUCT

Our unique approach to understanding community needs

Our Twinings Community Needs Assessment (TCNA) framework helps us understand the needs of communities in our supply chains. Unlike audits, the TCNA is designed to be participative and focuses on hearing from the workers, farmers and their family, through focus group discussions and individual interviews.

 

The TCNA covers 10 areas which we believe are essential to ensuring a good quality of life: Gender; Health and Nutrition; Children’s Rights; Lands Rights; Livelihoods; Water and Sanitation; Natural Resources; Farming Practices; Housing; and Working Conditions.

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Delivering impact on the ground

We are working to address community needs in a tailored and sustainable way.

 

From improving access to water and sanitation to enhancing income and empowering women, our interventions make a positive long-lasting impact in the communities we source from.

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Working in partnership

We know we are only one part of the solution. That’s why we partner with NGOs, supply chain partners, companies, government industry associations and local communities to help tackle the broader structural challenges affecting the tea sector. We are also a founding member of the Ethical Tea Partnership, a membership organisation working to create a fairer, more sustainable tea industry for tea workers, farmers and the environment.

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"USAID’s SHOPS Plus project partnership with Twinings in Kenya is an excellent example of how corporations and development partners can complement each other’s strengths to co-create sustainable health impact, leveraging Twinings’ supply chain and industry knowledge, and our healthcare expertise and relationships.”

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"As an Ethical Tea Partnership member, Twinings provides an important and valuable contribution to our work and programmes. Working together, we are able to reach many more farmers and workers through our programmes to improve their lives and livelihoods.”

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"Twinings’ partnership with CARE in Sri Lanka is at the forefront of social innovation and has the potential to create sustainable, industrywide change. Together, we are establishing powerful models for community empowerment and positive social development.”

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"Access to water and sanitation is one of the most pressing challenges for tea workers and their families in Darjeeling, and we’re delighted to address this through our partnership with Twinings.”

Contributing to the SDGs

Through our work on the ground and in our supply chain, we support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its ambition to achieve a better world for all. We contribute to the following SDGs: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 17.

Additional resources

Learn more about how we respect and promote human rights in our business and through the work of our Social Impact team.

 

Click below to see our library of progress reports, policies, documents and resources.

DOCUMENT LIBRARY