Chris Harrop, group marketing director and sustainability director at Marshalls, has been awarded an OBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours list for services to the prevention of modern slavery and exploitation.
Since 2005, Chris has spearheaded the hard landscaping manufacturer’s efforts to eliminate child labour and bonded labour from its global supply chain and improve working conditions, particularly in countries such as India, China and Vietnam.
Chris Harrop said: “Despite this being a huge personal privilege for me, it is sad that slavery remains a scourge on humanity almost twenty years into the 21st century. Even in the UK, there are an estimated 136,000 people trapped in slavery today. One is too many, wherever they are.”
Under Chris’s guidance, the business worked with BRE Global, the Building Research Establishment’s certification arm, to help develop two new industry accreditations – BES 6001 Responsible Sourcing of Construction Products and BES 6002 Ethical Labour Sourcing Standard.
He has also pioneered a ‘Find and Fix’ programme across Marshalls that educated its employees, customers and suppliers both in the UK and overseas on how to watch out for and report possible cases of modern slavery.
Chris Harrop’s key achievements
In 2016, Harrop travelled to the North Pole to raise awareness of the impact of climate change on the polar regions. Harrop joined Marshalls in 2002 and has overseen several other major corporate social and environmental responsibility initiatives, helping the business to qualify for the FTSE4Good Index for the first time in 2006, something that remains today.
Marshalls has achieved numerous accreditations during his tenure, including Business in the Community’s ‘Big Tick’ award, PLC of the year for Sustainability three times, thousands of Carbon Trust-labelled products and the Fair Tax Mark and Living Wage Employer certifications. He also holds several non-executive roles at global and UK organisations focused on corporate ethics and sustainability.
Since 2011, Harrop has been a director at the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) – an alliance of companies, trade unions and NGOs that promotes respect for workers’ rights around the globe and counts the Co-Op, H&M and the Body Shop among its membership. He is the current chairman of Made in Britain, an organisation committed to supporting British manufacturers making the most of opportunities domestically and overseas, and a former chair of the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative.
Chris won B2B Marketer of the Year at the B2B Marketing Awards in November 2018. Read more about his career highlights and commitment to sustainability, here.
Other marketers awarded in this year’s Honours list include:
- Sheila Mitchell, director of marketing, Public Health England, awarded an OBE for services to public health.
- Lynette Olatunde Rachel Adjei, marketing and promotions officer, Birmingham City Council, awarded an MBE for services to adoption and fostering recruitment.
