LEADERSHIP
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
Time for more action! Businesses are under increasing obligation to make their businesses more sustainable. DR LIZ WILKS outlines some ways that this can be achieved
L
ast year the
if you’re serious about establishing your
and working hours. Another key part of
Global Resources
sustainability credentials – if you haven’t
these guidelines is the protection of the
Initiative Taskforce,
done this already. Make sure they are up to
environment - for example, ensuring
convened by the
scratch in order to meet consumer demands
compliance with relevant environmental
UK government,
and changing legislation.
laws, regulations and standards.
recommended that
a ‘mandatory due diligence obligation’ be introduced. This would require companies to analyse the presence of environmental and human rights risks and impacts within their
1
ESTABLISHING A CODE OF CONDUCT WITH YOUR SUPPLIERS
The first step to ensuring that your supply
2
COMMUNICATING EXTERNALLY AND INTERNALLY
Communicating internally is about making
supply chains, to take action to prevent or
chain is sustainable is to establish a code of
sure you have an open and transparent
mitigate those risks, and to publicly report on
conduct that outlines what you expect from
method of reporting - after all, that’s the
actions taken and planned.
your suppliers. Knowing your suppliers
best way to find out more about a particular
is critical; for example, where they source
product and how it is produced. However,
Union’s mid-2022 Sustainable Corporate
their products from, and whether their
it’s important that these guidelines are
Governance Policy and will be applicable to
sustainability ambitions align with yours.
discussed with suppliers and put in place
This has been echoed in the European
both large and small organisations – though giving smaller organisations time to ‘get ready’. Here are some key areas to look at
[36] SEPTEMBER 2021
www.dealersupport.co.uk
Generally, in this set of guidelines,
within the supply chain, as well as being
you should explore health and safety and
proactively communicated to customers.
the company’s approach to human rights
Many customers will naturally be
