The selection of suppliers has not only an impact on the quality (and price) of a product, but also determines a company’s impact on social and environmental sustainability. Therefore, it is important to choose your suppliers wisely.
1. Supplier selection criteria
Identifying and reviewing the criteria for supplier selection can be an important first step in building a sustainable and supply chain. In view of this, many company’s set up a Supplier Code of Conduct, ruling the ethical practices of your suppliers in order to align them with your company values.
A supplier code of conduct is a set of rules that define the tolerated procedures and best practices applied by suppliers. The goal of such a code is to ensure that suppliers provide safe working conditions, pay their employees appropriately, and respect the environment in accordance with company standards. Core elements of a standard code of conduct generally includes the following topics:
- Labor and working conditions
- Environmental standards
- Documentation policy
💡 Helpful resources include the following:
The Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact
UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
International Labour Organization - Labour Standards
2. Supplier Certification Monitoring
We know that tracking your supply chain and your supplier can be very challenging. Hence, we highly recommend you ecotrek. The company offers a continuous and automatic monitoring of supply chains through a sustainable data mining technology.