Aldi, a retail giant having annual textile sales of €2.5 billion has joined the Business Environmental Performance Initiative (BEPI). As part of the move, the company will implement the BEPI's Supply Chain Chemical Management Module, which aims to help companies work towards the goals set by the Greenpeace Detox commitments, including eliminating potentially hazardous chemicals from its supply chains by 2020.

BEPI is an initiative launched by the Foreign Trade Association to improve the environmental sustainability of global supply chains. The BEPI module tools aim to help companies communicate with producers at all tiers of the supply chain and target specific chemical management impacts.

Supply chain partners of Aldi will benefit from the Chemical Module, which offers participants common tools and industry-wide standards, such as those developed within the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals programme (ZDHC), of which BEPI is a contributor.

Christian Ewert, FTA director general, said that the Foreign Trade Association welcomes Aldi as a participant of BEPI and praises their commitment towards tackling environmental challenges in their supply chains.

The company is already an extremely valued and active member of their Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), and adding their environmental initiative to its FTA membership has consolidated efforts towards a more complete approach to sustainability. They look forward to working with Aldi and following their improved performance.'

Aldi and its supply chain partners will also have access to BEPI's full array of services, including: a broad range of monitoring tools that target 11 environmental performance areas, training and development activities for staff at all levels of the supply chain, and an intelligence dashboard with all relevant sustainability data maintained in one place.

Aldi by joining BEPI will be joining a network of industry peers dedicated to the improvement of supply chain environmental performance.