Focus on social responsibility and sustainable management among our suppliers
Social responsibility and sustainability are also firmly incorporated into our strategy. For example, we have already integrated climate protection and social standards as key decision-making criteria for many product groups in strategic tender-awarding processes. Our suppliers play an important role in implementing the Strong Rail strategy. We make the greatest possible contribution to sustainable mobility development through strong partners in transparent supply chains. Our suppliers take an active role in ensuring mutual business success with their sustainability performance and capacity to innovate. The Code of conduct for business partners is the starting point in forming sustainable supply chains and making definitive procurement decisions. We revised and updated the Code of Conduct in the year under review. We use it as the foundation for all new contracts, and we regularly check compliance with the Code of Conduct as part of on-site audits.
We also place great emphasis on comprehensively assessing the sustainability of our suppliers in terms of their management system, activities and results in accordance with the corporate social responsibility criteria. More than 550 suppliers, which account for 60% of our top purchasing volume, have already submitted an assessment to us. Two-thirds of the recently assessed suppliers improved their sustainability performance, enabling us to reduce risks and boost competitiveness together. Our suppliers can already present their sustainability evaluation in the qualification process.
As part of an extensive dialog with industry associations and Railsponsible, (our sustainable supply chain initiative for the rail transport sector with 12 international members), we are systematically making sustainable performance a business-relevant criterion for awarding contracts. More than 1,000 suppliers have taken part in the evaluation program so far. Climate protection and safeguarding social minimum standards in supply chains will be the initiative’s focus in the future, centering around responsible procurement management.
