Focus Topics – Society

Sustainable purchasing

We are setting standards and holding our suppliers accountable

Management approach: Zehnder Group aims to work with suppliers who are pursuing similar sustainability goals and who provide transparent reports on their environmental and social impacts along the value chain, as we do. We will be auditing our key suppliers in stages. For this purpose, we have expanded our auditing procedures to give even greater consideration to risks related to the environment and social issues. Furthermore, we aim to have our suppliers sign our Supplier Code of Conduct or to make a binding commitment to comply with a standard that is equivalent to our Supplier Code of Conduct. We will regularly audit our important suppliers that we consider critical.

Implementation: The first step involved the central purchasing organisation carrying out a risk assessment based on social and environmental criteria. This allowed us to identify high-risk suppliers of production materials. To establish a mutual understanding with our suppliers on how we view open and transparent information on the environmental and social implications along the value chain, our Supplier Code of Conduct was created in 2021. Long-term cooperation, mutual commitment, sustainability and social responsibility are key principles in our Code of Conduct, which we strive to implement in our procurement of raw materials, semi-finished products, finished products and services.

One important element was the inclusion of our commitment to the United Nations (UN) Global Compact and the extended human rights obligations. Reference to the Supplier Code of Conduct is made in our contracts with suppliers. In our general terms and conditions of purchase and ordering, Zehnder’s suppliers also agree to comply with the relevant legal regulations on combating corruption and adhere to the ethical rules of conduct in the performance of their activities.

Outlook: We also aim to have the Supplier Code of Conduct signed by our approximately 870 direct materials suppliers globally in 2023. The goal is that by the end of 2023, all key production material suppliers will have signed our Supplier Code of Conduct or have agreed to adhere to a similar standard. The collection of the signed Supplier Code of Conduct documents and communication with key suppliers will be centralised within Group Procurement.

In the future, new relevant suppliers of production materials will be assessed in terms of their impact on the environment and society by means of a self-assessment questionnaire and a subsequent on-site assessment.

In addition, we plan to conduct on-site audits (environmental and social impact assessments) of around 20 suppliers in 2023, whom we have identified based on our internal risk assessment. This risk analysis will be continuously expanded and defined more precisely.

Furthermore, we seek to have our high-risk suppliers participate on the SEDEX (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange) platform.

GRI 204: Procurement Practices 2016
GRI 204-1: Proportion of spending on local suppliers