suppliers must provide some indicator of their engagement in sustainability so they may gain an understanding of sustainability performance .
Q . HOW IMPORTANT IS TRANSPARENCY ?
» Procurement needs to have insight into the maturity of the supplier ’ s management system across key sustainability topics including environment , labour and human rights , ethics and sustainable procurement , as well as their willingness to improve over time . This insight will involve not only data collection and validation , but also monitoring of multiple sources of data to assure reliability of provided data , provide a cross check on the supplier ’ s sustainability transparency , reporting practices and ongoing performance . Suppliers who respond and engage in a sustainability assessment and improvement journey send a strong sign that they are willing to make sustainability part of a long-term relationship .
“ Suppliers who respond and engage in a sustainability assessment and improvement journey send a strong sign that they are willing to make sustainability part of a long-term relationship ”
Q . WHEN IT COMES TO HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN , WHAT DO ORGANISATIONS NEED TO BE AWARE OF , AND ACT ON ?
» They need to be aware for several reasons , not only risk management ( eg . to comply with new regulations ) due to stakeholder scrutiny , to assure resilience ( eg . avoidance of disruptions ) and longterm value creation .
Comprehensive international standards are available to guide corporate approaches to human rights , including the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights and the OECD