Responsible purchasing

Throughout 2010 we continued to develop our relationship with our suppliers, enhancing our communications with them and raising awareness of our business principles.

We also focused on updating and improving the ways we procure goods and services, and in December announced the creation of the Gemalto Responsible Purchasing Model.

This model aims to influence our suppliers’ business practices – so that we minimize social and environmental risks that could arise from their operations. The model, which is based on electronic industry best practices, includes:

Revising our purchasing policy: this now includes key environmental and ethical elements, such as compliance with the International Labor Organization (ILO)’s eight Fundamental Conventions;
The creation of the Gemalto Purchasing CSR Charter, which will be sent to all our suppliers by the end of 2011;
A CSR risk analysis of our existing and potential suppliers, which aims to assess, rank and monitor suppliers’ social, environmental and business performance;
The creation of a supplier CSR self-assessment questionnaire to help complete the risk analysis.

67 % of our key suppliers are now covered by a master agreement contract.

Preliminary CSR surveys

Before we could define our Responsible Purchasing Model, however, we needed a global view of stakeholder attitudes to CSR. So, in early 2010 we carried out preliminary CSR surveys with our key suppliers and customers, and with our purchasing, technical and environmental staff.

The ultimate aim was to better understand our suppliers’ feelings towards corporate responsibility, and to identify areas of strength and weakness in our supply chain management and purchasing processes.

The surveys showed that our responsible purchasing program is well supported. Notable strengths, as identified by employees and suppliers, included our existing policies (such as Ethics and HSE) and our sector leadership. Areas for improvement, meanwhile, included low CSR awareness among suppliers and the lack of measurable objectives and indictors in this area.

We will use the insights we gain from these surveys to develop our responsible purchasing policies even further in the year ahead.

Supplier commitments

We’re keen for our suppliers to comply with local, national and international legislation. In 2010 we continued work on a major project to ensure compliance with the EU REACH regulation.

By the end of 2010, 76% of our suppliers had provided us with proven evidence of REACH compliance. At the corporate level, 52 of our suppliers have now been assessed and monitored according to REACH legislation updates.