
The Responsible Purchasing Code of Conduct (Buyer Code)
The Responsible Purchasing Code of Conduct, or Buyer Code, is model language that outlines steps buyers (e.g. brands and retailers) can take to uphold human rights in their supply chains—a role often overlooked in traditional codes of conduct.
Traditional codes of conduct only address suppliers and do not account for the role buyers play in upholding human rights standards, nor hold them accountable when their actions undermine the standards.
The Buyer Code sets out the steps the buyer can take to support positive human rights outcomes, in line with the buyer's own policies. It promotes a shared-responsibility approach to human rights and environmental due diligence, where contracts commit both buyers and suppliers (e.g., farms and factories) to fulfill their individual responsibilities and cooperate to prevent and address harms.
The Buyer Code can be attached to supply contracts for the manufacturing and sale of goods as a binding schedule (Schedule Q), where it becomes enforceable. Alternatively, the Buyer Code can be implemented internally, as a voluntary policy. It can be adopted with or independently of the MCCs 2.0.
Read the Buyer Code:
1.1 ) Buyer recognizes that it has an obligation to respect human rights throughout its supply chains, in particular with respect to those human rights and principles enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and in applicable labor and employment laws.
1.2) Accordingly, Buyer commits to taking the human rights implications of its decisions into account at all times and to working towards the full implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy.
1.3) In particular, consistent with the UNGPs and the relevant OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct (sector specific where available), Buyer will establish and maintain a human rights due diligence process appropriate to its size and circumstances to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for how Buyer addresses the impacts of its activities on the human rights of individuals directly or indirectly affected by its supply chains.
1.4) Such due diligence will be both forward-looking and backward-looking, preventative, risk-based, and ongoing. It will involve meaningful engagement with stakeholders through participation in regular, transparent, two-way consultation and the timely sharing of relevant information with stakeholders in a format that they can understand and access. Due diligence will also require Buyer to provide support for and participate in remediation where appropriate and necessary, in particular where it caused or contributed to an adverse impact.
1.5) All of the commitments undertaken by Buyer under this Responsible Purchasing Code of Conduct serve to advance and institutionalize human rights due diligence throughout Buyer’s own operations and supply chains so as to achieve or exceed the internationally recognized human rights standards identified in 1.1.
1.6) Buyer commits to improving alignment across its teams and business units on relevant aspects of human rights and procurement and to assign oversight and responsibility for the human rights performance of its supply chain to its senior management and executive board.
1.7) Buyer recognizes that its purchasing practices can either improve the human rights performance of its supply chains, or exacerbate and compound adverse human rights impacts for workers. Accordingly, Buyer will train and incentivize its procurement team to understand the direct links between Buyer’s purchasing practices and the labor conditions in its supply chains.
1.8) Buyer will at all times foster a culture of cooperation and partnership with its sup-pliers. Buyer will treat its suppliers fairly and with respect and will communicate with them clearly and promptly throughout their relationship.
1.9) Buyer will communicate externally all relevant information pertaining to its human rights policies, processes, activities.

Latest Tools
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UN Global Compact Decent Work Toolkit for Sustainable Procurement: Chapter on Responsible Contracting In Sustainable Procurement (Feb. 2025)
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The Zero Draft Responsible Investor Model Clauses (RIMCs) (Feb. 2025)
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RCP Policy Brief: "What the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) Says About Contracts" (July 2024)
RCP in the Media
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Susan Maslow, RCP Senior Legal Advisor, co-authored an article in Business Law Today announcing the public consultation on the Zero Draft of the Responsible Investor Model Clauses (RIMCs). Read here.
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