Facilities of Open Door Effect members are open to the public for tours. 

This does not mean the doors are open at all times as companies must also run their production. It would increase members work load too much to give individual tours whenever requested. Further this would cause a safety risks for all to have visitors exploring facilities unaccompanied. Thus, visits to ODE members are organised in larger groups with a guide for safety and information purposes.

All visitors are welcome unless safety regulations disallow it.

Open Door Effect members open their doors indiscriminately. This means that competitors as well as potential customers can walk in their production hall. However, while our members are transparent with you we also request a level of transparency from our guests. Therefore, we request you disclose your current employment. The only exceptions to this rule are if safety laws in place require a certain age, amount of mobility, etc. for guests to attend. In these cases we will disclose the requirements and by whom these regulations are set.

Members respond to request for tours in a timely fashion.

Members receive your inquiries for tours and information on their company. They have a duty to respond within a timely fashion to the requests about their participation in the Open Door Effect. This does not mean that they are available to answer all of your questions and requests night and day. However, they should respond within a reasonable period of time to you.

Members document input from visitors and implement where beneficial.

One of the unique features of the Open Door Effect is that it creates a dialogue between the visitor and the producer. This means that the input provided by the visitor is recorded by our members and taken seriously. Not all input from visitors may be applicable for the member company. Yet, it is still the duty of the member company to consider the input of the visitors. In this way members gain fresh useful insights and visitors have an influence on the production of their own products.

Transparent in product, process, and what they are not transparent on.

Our members are transparent in the ingredients and process of their products in line with the transparency criteria. Of course this is obvious as visitors are let into the factory to see for themselves and ask questions. However, they recognize not all answers to all questions can be given. This could be because of pending IP patents or that a certain knowledge or process is the core of their business and revealing it would cause them to go out of business. In these cases our members are transparent on what they are not transparent on and why. An honest conversation is what ODE is all about.

Members support visitors in navigating complex information to understand consequences.

Our members often work in complex industries with technical language and nuanced terms that people are not accustomed to outside of the industry. Therefore, they take the responsibility of supporting their visitors to navigate these complexities, as well as understand their consequences. Through this, visitors will become educated and better capable of making informed decisions and judgements for themselves rather than taking others word for it.

Tours are content driven about the product and company mission, not a marketing stunt.

While all of our members have unique stories worthy of being shared, the Open Door Effect is not a marketing stunt. Our members give tours that are content driven for quality guests interested in the unique product or process in a particular industry. For this reason we work carefully with ODE members to make sure there is a good mix of crucial content without greenwashing or leaving out the content which distinguishes them from other businesses.

Our members either know, or are in the process of getting to know their ingredients and their chain. 

For most products there are multiple ingredients and multiple suppliers. This can make it difficult for producers to know all of the ingredients in their products as well as where all of those ingredients come from. While it can be quite the task, our members either already know their ingredients and their chain, or are making a concerted effort to get to know their ingredients and their chain.

Each year our members make a report published on our website about the meeting of our standards and improvements of the year. 

Reporting is never fun but it is a crucial part of learning loops, accounting for progress, and sharing that with the rest of the world. That is why ODE members make a short progress report or update on their activity through out each year. These reports are then published on their page for everyone to see. In this way you can track the progress and achievements of our members.