- ECIP (Ethical Charter Implementation Program): An industry-wide collaboration among retailers, suppliers, growers and FLC’s (Farm Labor Contractors) designed to recognize and strengthen labor practices in the fresh produce industry.
- LAB (Learn, Assess, Benchmark): A continuous improvement platform, where FLCs, growers and suppliers learn, assess and benchmark their labor practices. Users have access to tools and resources to grow their management systems and track progress over time.
- Grower LAB: A module specifically for growing operations to learn about labor management systems, perform self-assessments, and track progress over time.
- Supplier LAB: A module for companies that purchase products and sell them directly to retailers or other suppliers. The supplier assessment focuses on supporting their grower supply chain with social responsibility efforts. Focusing on systems that support their grower networks.
- Buyer Dashboard: A portal for participating retailers to view supplier engagement profiles and aggregated data of their supply chain partners.
- FLC LAB: A module intended to provide Farm Labor Contractors with their own tailored experience to engage in the “Learn, Assess, and Benchmark” process.
- Retailer/Buyer/Merchant: an employee of a participating ECIP retailer or food service provider responsible for purchasing products. Buyers play a key role in sourcing decisions and ensuring supply chain alignment with ECIP requirements. Retailers pay an annual fee to access the ECIP buyer dashboard and invite their supply chain partners to engage.
- Supplier: a company that purchases product and sells it directly to a retailer
- Tier 2 Supplier: a company that sells its product to another supplier, who then markets and sells that product to retailers. This category includes, but is not limited to, wholesalers, brokers, exporters and suppliers that provide products to produce marketing operations.
- Grower: operations that produce agricultural goods and employ workers either directly or through contracted temporary or long-term labor.
- FLC: Farm Labor Contractors (FLCs) are third-party agencies that provide some or all of a grower’s workforce
- Ethical Charter on Responsible Labor Practices: The foundational framework consisting of 13 principles governing legal compliance, human rights and professional conduct in the industry. ECIP is a shared vision for an industry framework on how to responsibly produce and buy produce. The Ethical Charter provides a common baseline for accountability and transparency, that can be widely understood, accepted, and applied across the global produce and floral supply chains.
- Management Systems: The specific work areas evaluated in the platform; there are 8 for growers and 5 for suppliers.
- Reflective Statements: FLC LAB evaluates 54 specific management system descriptions, Grower LAB evaluates 54 and Supplier LAB evaluates 15. These systems are designed to help operations operationalize social responsibility efforts at the field level.
- Engagement Profile: A digital summary shared via supplier or retailer dashboards that tracks how an operation participates in the program, visualized through a star system.
- Engagement Stars: Visual indicators of user engagement ; for example, growers can earn an Assessment Star for 100% completion, or a Gold Star for having an approved social responsibility program.
- Supplier Gold Star: The highest level of engagement suppliers, awarded after earning four green stars and successfully cross-verifying supply chain numbers through payment systems or food safety records.
- Grower Gold Star: represents the highest form of engagement within Grower LAB . It is awarded to growers who hold a valid social responsibility program from one of 16 approved programs.
- Leadership Circle: recognizes produce suppliers who demonstrate exceptional commitment to strengthening labor practices and advancing the principles of the Ethical Charter on Responsible Labor Practices.
- Vertically Integrated Operation: A supplier that also owns its own growing operations. In ECIP this functions as both a supplier and a grower.
- ECIP Marketplace: a hub of expert service providers and specialized resources designed to help growers and suppliers address labor management challenges and strengthen their operations.
- ECIP Advisory Group: a multistakeholder group composed of leading retail buyers, suppliers, and key industry stakeholders who oversee and guide the development of ECIP.
- Continuous Improvement: The core philosophy of ECIP, which encourages operations to constantly evaluate and strengthen their management systems over time.
- Safe Harbor: A fundamental program principle ensuring that individual self-assessment responses are private to the organization and are never shared with suppliers, retailers or any external customers.
- Appreciative Inquiry: The organizational development approach used in the platform that focuses on an organization’s strengths to inspire innovation and growth through a “4-D” cycle: Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny.
- Stronger Together: a Marketplace service provider that specializes in responsible recruitment and human rights within the supply chain. They are primarily known for the Stronger Together Responsible Recruitment Toolkit, which is a comprehensive guide designed to help employers—particularly growers and Farm Labor Contractors (FLCs)—establish clear expectations and ethical hiring practices from day one.
- Verité : a non-profit and Marketplace Service Provider that offers tools to help businesses ensure ethical labor practices. They are specifically recognized for Verité’s Recruitment Cost Calculator, a tool that allows employers to estimate the total cost of hiring migrant workers.
- The Sustainability Consortium (TSC): an organization of experts in certification programs that played a critical role in the foundational vetting process for ECIP. The ECIP team collaborated with TSC to approve 16 third-party social responsibility programs against the 13 principles of the Ethical Charter.
- Service Provider: is an expert entity or individual accessible through the program’s Marketplace. These providers offer specialized tools, templates, and knowledge to assist growers, FLC’s, and suppliers in addressing labor management challenges, strengthening operational systems, and satisfying retail customer expectations.