Fair Labor

The health, welfare and safety of all those who manufacture our gear is critically important to us. This is true whether they are BD employees in one of our owned-and-operated facilities in Salt Lake City, Utah or Zhuhai, China or work for one of our global suppliers. To that end, Black Diamond has gone-and continues to go-to great lengths to ensure all manufacturing facilities where BD equipment is made meet our strict Vendor Code of Conduct.

Black Diamond was a founding member of the Outdoor Industry Association's Fair Labor Working Group and helped draft the OIA's Fair Labor Toolkit, which is used by companies throughout the outdoor industry. Traditionally we have utilized this toolkit and our Vendor Code of Conduct to conduct audits internally, allowing our own CSR representatives to work closely with suppliers to evaluate and improve upon their manufacturing processes. We require our suppliers to certify the integrity of their internal supply chains to ensure compliance to the Black Diamond Vendor Code of conduct along with the rules and regulations in the countries they operate. Due to our rapid growth, as of 2012 we will supplement internal evaluations with announced third-party audits conducted by a firm specializing in Fair Labor and CSR. This program will allow us to identify any existing problems, track accountability standards and procedures, and implement Corrective Action Programs to confirm compliant labor, environmental and social working standards.

Equally as important to monitoring the safety and operational compliance of our partners is to train and inform our own staff of issues such as human trafficking, slavery, environmental degradation, etc., that can often be found. We have created and implemented a training program to inform those closely involved in sourcing and supply chain management to ensure that our development and manufacturing processes are conducted along the highest standards.