Our products are to be made in the same way throughout our global supply chain – with respect for the people who made them and care for the environment.
Electrolux will ensure that all suppliers live up to our high expectations, no matter where they are located and we will support the transition to more sustainable practices.
Electrolux has high standards for environmental, labor, anti-corruption and human rights practices, which we also expect our suppliers to live up to.
As a global company, we have a duty to drive improvement in this area, especially as more of our business is conducted in emerging markets. Our responsible sourcing program has been ongoing since 2006, and we introduced even stricter audit standards in 2015.
From our own experience, we know that raised sustainability performance, particularly in health and safety and energy use, improves the bottom line. We want to pass on this knowledge by working together with our suppliers to strengthen relationships, and ultimately create mutual benefit.
Electrolux emits more CO2 in distributing its goods than is emitted through the energy consumed in Group operations: about 300,000 tons are emitted through the global transportation of goods via sea and air, as well as land transportation in Europe, North America and Brazil.
This promise will contribute to our climate targets.
In 2016, Electrolux renewed its Global Purchasing strategy to further increase the emphasis on supply chain sustainability. With the 2020 Sustainability target in mind, focus will be on the sustainability performance of purchased materials and solutions, as well as the sustainability performance of our supply chain partners.
The Group’s standard supplier business contract requires that every supplier acknowledges and promises to fulfill our high expectations on sustainability. All suppliers, both local and global, are expected to live up to our Code of Conduct and Workplace Standard. Purchasing teams ensure that meeting these standards is a mandatory part of evaluating prospective and existing suppliers. To support auditing and performance monitoring, the Responsible Sourcing Program provides training for global and local purchasers and suppliers in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Serious non-compliances are reported to the top management in each region. Purchasing is involved in the remediation of audit findings and on-line training is available for staff and suppliers. Non-compliances are addressed through mandatory corrective actions, as well as beyond compliance support activities such as training and capacity building.
We also work to reduce carbon emissions throughout our value chain. We are taking our internal approach to monitoring and reducing energy consumption and applying it to the key members of our supplier base.
Furthermore, since Electrolux emits more carbon distributing than producing goods, we seek to influence the logistics industry in our role as a purchaser of transport services.
We are rolling out a group-wide system for gathering and tracking transport data throughout our markets and evaluate the environmental performance of road freight carriers. As of 2014, all shipping companies must be members of the BSR Clean Cargo initiative.