Working with our suppliers
Updated Supplier Code of Conduct in 2024
we launched a new version of our Supplier Code of Conduct, setting out our values and the latest expectations we have of our suppliers. We updated the Code with input from our expert partners, internal stakeholders and suppliers.
The Code has three sections. The first, ‘Operating Responsibly’ covers our requirements on protecting the environment, protecting the health and safety of our suppliers’ employees, and also on supporting local communities. This section also includes our expectations of our suppliers to source responsibly themselves and perform due diligence on their own suppliers.
The second section, ‘Respecting Human Rights’, covers a range of topics designed to protect the rights and freedoms of both our suppliers’ employees and those involved in their supply chains, setting out our expectations on matters such as pay and working hours, diversity, child labour, and modern slavery.
In the third section, ‘Acting with Integrity’, the Code references our requirements with regards to anticorruption, protecting data and information, and also covers the steps we expect our suppliers to take to ensure they can continue operating and supplying Belron with the goods and services that we need.
The new Code includes a ‘Speak Up’ mechanism for our suppliers’ employees, business partners, or any other third party to raise concerns with us. These concerns can then be investigated by us where appropriate
First Supplier Sustainability Handbook
In another important development, we published our first ever Supplier Sustainability Handbook, a practical ‘how-to’ guide to help our partners meet our updated Code and understand how we will assess and audit their compliance. The Handbook sets out the core principles behind each of our focus areas, clearly defines the minimum requirements our suppliers must demonstrate to be aligned to our values and shares best practice to help them go further wherever possible. With a focus on reducing scope 3 emissions in our supply chain, the Handbook also includes an emissions reduction framework. This helps our suppliers understand their level of maturity, defines the information we need from them, encourages them to set their own ambitious targets, and helps them develop plans to reduce their own carbon footprints.
Our new Supplier Code of Conduct and Supplier Handbook were important milestones. We sent the new documents to all our suppliers and, in a series of live webinars, we explained the changes made, how the documents should be used and the importance of compliance as a requirement of doing business with us. We then held deep-dive follow up sessions to ensure understanding.