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 direct suppliers and service providers in over 150 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: CO2 emissions are generally weighted at 20% and are therefore taken into account 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 covers the requirements of the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG). It sets out ethical, social and ecological principles as well as compliance with fundamental human rights.
• We have a sustainability risk assessment of new and existing 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 carry out a regular risk analysis of all our suppliers and investigate misconduct against LkSG protected rights.
• 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 other companies in the Joint Alliance for CSR. By this we are able to conduct a higher number of audits on joint suppliers and collaboratively enforce, review and further develop sustainability standards in the supply chain.
• If a supplier fails to cooperate and comply, termination of the business relationship may result.