Ethical purchasing

We prefer to deal with responsible companies.

We have a responsibility to ensure the products we sell and use have been manufactured in an ethical fashion, by suppliers who share our concern for the wellbeing of employees and the environment. We apply our Code of Ethical Purchasing throughout our supply chain, setting the environmental and labour standards we expect of our suppliers.

Our suppliers must provide safe and fair working conditions and responsible management of environmental and social issues down the supply chain.

Eighty percent of our top-level local suppliers have signed up to our Code of Ethical Purchasing. In 2006, our focus was to ensure the remaining suppliers not covered by the Code agreed to sign up. Twenty suppliers remain outstanding.

In 2006, we conducted corporate responsibility evaluations of five of our local suppliers. These five were identified through a process of risk-assessment across our top suppliers by spend. The evaluations test our suppliers' compliance with the Code, and ensure they fully understand its requirements. All five suppliers passed the assessments, with an average score above 80 percent. Remedial plans for the suppliers have been drafted, offering guidance on improving their assessment score.

In 2007 and beyond, we will work to integrate corporate responsibility performance into our standard supply chain processes through a new vendor approval process. Our Procurement Framework has been updated to include the Code of Ethical Purchasing along with clauses relevant to suppliers social and environmental management.