Sustainable procurement

Integrating sustainable procurement into our ESG strategy ensures that we remain mindful of the impact our product and service buying decisions have on the environment and society, along our full value chain.

Throughout 2022, we worked to establish end-to-end visibility on supplier ESG performance through digitisation and process standardisation, with a prioritised focus on decarbonisation, safety and security, and labour and human rights. With targeted training on ESG in procurement, we are building capabilities to ensure that both our own and our customers’ sustainability goals are always factored into our procurement activities.

A governance model was established by means of the Sustainable Procurement SteerCo, which meets quarterly to review progress and discuss emerging risks. Regular progress updates are provided to the Executive Leadership Team, and an annual review is overseen by the Risk and Compliance Committee.

Setting a course for sustainable procurement

The Sustainable Procurement Roadmap outlines how we aspire to achieve industry leadership in supply chain sustainability. The Roadmap is divided into three phases with a focus on building the foundation in 2022, strengthening execution in 2023-24 and pursuing best-in-industry practices in the medium to long term. See below.

12.6

Ambition

To live up to our commitment to procure sustainably, we will integrate ESG as a strategic topic across supplier life cycle stages and establish end-to-end visibility on supplier performance through collaboration and engagement, with an ultimate goal of co-development and innovation towards sustainable outcomes.

Targets

2024:

100% of suppliers (in scope) committed to the Supplier Code of Conduct

>85% of strategic suppliers undergoing ESG assessments

>80% of high-risk category suppliers with Improvement Plan successfully closed

Sustainable procurement roadmap

2022 Progress

Building the foundation

Operational model established ESG integrated into procurement objectives

Supplier ESG process mapping and platform initiated

Initial focus on 3 ESG areas: Decarbonisationsafety and security - labour and human rights

2023-2024

Driving execution

Scale up supplier engagement

Initiate actions to integrate other ESG categories in procurement

Prepare for regulatory due diligence requirements

Embed Source-to-Pay process with ESG requirements

Implement procurement ESG platform

Integrate ESG into procurement training

Medium to long-term goals

Aspiring to best-in-industry

High-quality supplier ESG data on sustainable procurement metrics

Customised end-to-end supplier ESG overview through the ESG platform

ESG* fully integrated in assessments and supplier engagements for high-risk categories

Sharpening – and digitising – our approach to due diligence

In 2022, we improved visibility into supplier ESG compliance status for high-risk categories to monitor progress at the category and region level for supplier code of conduct acceptance, ESG assessments conducted and closing improvement plans. Sustainable Procurement, along with category managers, is engaging with suppliers to drive improvement and provide guidance as needed.

To ensure that Maersk is able to meet supplier due diligence requirements and effectively contribute to business accountability, Sustainable Procurement is working to embed ESG into our endto-end procurement process. This includes new trainings aligned with ESG topic experts to build our procurement capabilities, so appropriate ESG decisions are taken into consideration in all procurement activities.

Technology is also helping enhance our sustainable procurement due diligence, increasing reach and transparency and supporting higher assurance on supplier data reporting through a single source of supplier ESG information. The roll-out of a supplier ESG risk assessment tool was initiated in 2022. A supplier ESG data management module will be rolled out in 2023, enabling us to progressively implement a single overview for supplier ESG data.

Securing standards on third-party labour

Ensuring that people who work for us on our sites have decent working conditions is a fundamental priority. In 2022, we continued to strengthen our requirements towards third-party labour providers, and are engaging with external human rights specialists to support this work, for example in developing company-wide minimum requirement on third-party labour standards, aligned with international standards. Recognising that changing local practices and influencing suppliers will require behavioural change, the implementation plan for these will incorporate stakeholder engagement to a high degree and rely on feedback mechanisms to adjust and improve.

Advocacy and collective action through partnerships

In 2022, ESG was included in the Strategic Extended Partnership Agreement (SEPA) between Maersk, Carlsberg, Danske Bank and Friesland Campina. The SEPA partnership, which allows joint purchasing of indirect goods and services, allows Maersk to connect subject matter experts from leading corporations and strategically discuss all aspects of ESG, beyond simply meeting compliance requirements.

Together with the SEPA companies, we are currently focusing on building the foundation of a systematic ESG approach across the consortium with a special attention to sourcing projects and supplier relationships. Our SEPA participation creates an additional market leverage when approaching suppliers, and supports us in enhancing the importance of ESG in supplier relationships. Maersk’s long-term vision with SEPA is to make this systematic approach accessible to all member organisations and to establish joint ESG standards across the consortium that benefit SEPA partners and our suppliers.

In addition to SEPA, we engage with industry associations to advocate and establish sector-level ESG standards for supplier assessments and evaluations, such as the Responsible Trucking initiative run by CSR Europe. Our participation in this initiative has allowed us to gain information about social risks in landside transportation such as safety and working conditions.

Why it matters

Responsibly managing data from stakeholders, including customers, is a critical issue in today’s societies where the undue influence and abuse of data are growing.

Maersk is increasingly reliant on data as a key enabler in more digitally integrated offerings. We manage and control the storage and use of data ethically and proactively, to avoid abuse and privacy infringement. We must continually safeguard our position from legal, business and reputational risks.

UN SDGs