Greenstone Sustainability Blog

19 Nov 14

Supplier due diligence – the DOs and the DON'Ts

Over the last few years there has been a welcome growth in buying organisations recognising the importance of understanding the behaviour and practices of suppliers in their supply chain.

However, for every buyer transitioning to an online solution, there are hundreds more suppliers about to be bombarded with yet another offline questionnaire or interrogated by consultants on a buyer’s behalf. Unsurprisingly, this is leading to supplier fatigue and corresponding low compliance rates.

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Supplier Management

15 Oct 14

How are you complying with the supply chain aspects within GRI G4?

If you're reporting against GRI, then you know you’re going to have to answer questions specifically on your supply chain. In fact, the increased focus on supply chain disclosure is one of the key aspects of the GRI G4 guidelines, ensuring a more holistic approach to the overall sustainability performance of a company.

There are questions dotted throughout the GRI on suppliers and supply chains. This includes sections on labour, human rights, society, environment, and then there are also procurement practice questions. For companies to comply with GRI G4’s supply chain aspects robustly they need to be confident that they can gather and analyse all of their supplier data.

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Supplier Management , GRI

13 Oct 14

How can online tools help you focus on suppliers that really matter

It’s impractical and unrealistic to expect buyers to use a manual process for managing supplier information requests. Asking all of your suppliers to complete an anti-bribery or working conditions questionnaire by email and spreadsheets is not efficient and for organisations with thousands of suppliers it is impossible; the administrative overheads are too great. It’s why organisations typically focus on just the suppliers they knew well already but it means there are potentially many gaps in the supply chain which go unnoticed.

With an online process, there is no reason why you can’t ask everyone the same set of core compliance questions and then go deeper on those suppliers that are material to your organisation.

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Supplier Relationships , Supplier Management