We are partners to our suppliers when it comes to a more sustainable approach to doing business.
We have a trusting relationship with more than 20,000 suppliers and service providers in over 80 countries. In order to work with us, these suppliers and service providers need to do business responsibly and transparently. We insist on high social and environmental standards in these relationships worldwide and support our suppliers and partners with advice.
We use a number of tools, methods and measures that improve sustainability efforts along our supply chain. It all starts during the bid phase: From 2022, sustainability criteria will be weighted at 20% in the award decision process and in the selection of suppliers. In this way, we create an effective incentive for suppliers to take greater account of the topic of sustainability and to offer more sustainable products and services.
Controlled supplier selection
We take a multi-phase approach in our new and existing business relationships in order to guarantee the sustainability of our supply chain:
- Our Supplier Code of Conduct (SCoC) is an integral part of all supplier contracts and binding for all our suppliers. It sets out ethical, social and environmental principles as well as fundamental human rights.
- We have a sustainability risk assessment of new suppliers carried out by a company specializing in ESG risk data. In this way, we determine whether there are increased risks with regard to certain sustainability criteria at one of our supplier companies.
- We ask particularly strategically relevant and high-risk suppliers to enter extensive information about their practices in the EcoVadis information system. Based on this data, our experts can identify potential risks at an early stage.
- We even take things a step further in our relationships with some of our strategic or particularly high-risk suppliers and service providers by conducting regular social audits and mobile audits to review the work practices employed at their production facilities.
- The effectiveness of our audits is also boosted by collaborating with at current nineteen other companies in the Joint Audit Cooperation (JAC). Thanks to the increasing number of JAC members, we are able to conduct a higher number of audits on joint suppliers.
- If a supplier fails to cooperate and comply, termination of the business relationship may result.
Cooperative partnership
We work together with our suppliers as a partner and assist them in meeting our high sustainability requirements. To aid us in these efforts we have created a development program for strategically significant suppliers.
In the program we work together to come up with solutions for topics such as environmental protection, working hour regulations and occupational health and safety. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved because better working conditions have a positive impact on employee motivation and loyalty. And that improves productivity as well as the quality of our products.
