Stone Federation has met with the Contractors Group to look for ways that the two bodies can work together to promote issues of sustainability and ethical trading.

The members of the Contractors Group represent £33billion worth of business, which gives them a voice that gets heard.

One of the members is Skanska, and Nick Baker from Skanska attended the Stone Federation’s annual meeting in November when he told members: “Ethical sourcing really matters to main contractors… It matters to us because it matters to our clients.”

He said main contractors were being asked by public and private sector clients about the sources of the materials they use and the conditions under which they are produced.

The Contractors Group and Stone Federation were both represented at the launch of the Ethical Trading Initiative to improve conditions in the supply chain of sandstone from Rajasthan (see the previous issue of NSS). Nick said at the Federation annual meeting: “Stone makes us and our clients a little bit nervous.”

He said the Contractors Group would be issuing a stance notice on ethical trading shortly and its members would start to show a preference to suppliers that were signed up to the Ethical Trading Initiative, held BES 6001, and were members of Stone Federation Great Britain.