Raising Standards

As with all work environments it’s important that tea estates and processing factories conform to good social and environmental standards. Without them workers can be subjected to unsafe working conditions, unfair human resource practices (e.g. hiring, job allocation, career opportunities, grievance procedures etc.), and the environment can be susceptible to degradation, e.g. water and soil pollution.

How we’re helping

At ETP we help tea producers and smallholder farmers meet international social and environmental standards. Our work makes tea estates and processing factories better and safer for the people that grow and produce tea.

ETP Monitoring Programme and Global Standard

The core of this work is done through our Monitoring Programme , which is free to producers. We use third-party independent auditors to assess conditions on the ground against the ETP Global Standard. The Standard covers the following social and environmental principles:

Social Provisions	Environmental Provisions
Freely Chosen Employment Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining Health and Safety Child Labour Wages and Benefits Working Hours Discrimination Regular Employment Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures	Environmental Management Systems Agrochemicals Soil Conservation Ecosystem Conservation Water Conservation Energy Use Waste Management

Latest Blog Posts

Working Collaboratively to Improve the Sustainability of the Tea Sector

8 September 2016

Sri Lanka-China Cross Country Co-operation

26 August 2015

The Long Road to Gaining Social and Environmental Certification

17 April 2015

All Blog Posts

Projects

Embedding Good Practice (India)

We helped Indian producers improve in two key areas – healthy and safety and environmental management.

Human Resource Management (China)

We helped Chinese producers improve human resource management practices by providing them with free training.

Social Issues Training

We’re tackling harassment and discrimination, and promoting equal rights for women/minority groups at tea processing factories.

Raising Factory Safety (China)

In China our factory health and safety training helped make tea processing factories better and safer places to work.

Malawi Tea 2020

We’re leading a coalition to help create a more competitive Malawian tea industry in which workers earn a living wage and smallholders are thriving.

Occupational Health & Safety (Sri Lanka)

We developed an occupational health and safety (OHS) training course specifically for the Sri Lankan tea industry.

Agrochemical Management

We train tea workers and farmers to use agrochemicals safely in order to minimise risk to themselves, others, and the environment.

Monitoring & Certification

Our monitoring programme helps producers meet international social and environmental standards.

Improving Tea Communities (Sri Lanka)

We worked with CARE to improve living and working conditions on tea estates in Sri Lanka.