Hasbro realized early on that to make a true impact in third party factories, we needed to collaborate with other members of the toy industry to leverage our ability to improve work environments. Given that Hasbro owns or operates only two of the factories making Hasbro products, it became important to develop a common standard that all toy factories could implement, rather than create confusion with separate and inconsistent codes of conduct. In 1995, Hasbro began partnering with other companies in the toy business to develop a single, unified code through the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI). Through this collaborative effort, ICTI’s Caring, Aware, Responsible, and Ethical (CARE) process was born. This program seeks to collectively improve workplace conditions through stakeholder engagement, monitoring, education, and training.

The ICTI CARE process is composed of an auditing system whereby approved factories gain the ICTI Seal of Compliance. It seeks to provide “fair, thorough, and consistent” monitoring through the use of highly trained and qualified auditors. China, Hong Kong, and Macau have been the initial focus for the ICTI CARE process given the concentration of toy factories in this region. All activities of the ICTI CARE process are overseen by an independent Governance Board and the process for factories to achieve a seal of compliance is transparent.

Hasbro was one of the first companies to formally commit to the ICTI CARE Date Certain. By committing to the date certain of January 1, 2006, Hasbro agreed, in regions where the ICTI seal program exists, to only purchase products from factories that have the ICTI seal of compliance. We met our commitment to the date certain program and require every one of our third party factories in China to be audited by an independent third party auditing firm on an annual basis. In regions where the seal is not available (Europe and the Americas) we require factories to meet the same level of standards.

If a factory with a seal of compliance is found to have significant areas of non-compliance, they are required to fix the area(s) of non-compliance and are put on probation for one year. During the probationary period, the factory will undergo four unannounced audits over the course of the year to ensure they are continuing to meet the ICTI standards.

For more information on the ICTI CARE Process, please visit the ICTI CARE website: http://www.icti-care.org/index.html.