Our approach to sustainable sourcing

ANZ operates in 32 countries around the world utilising an extensive supply chain that comprises more than 15,000 suppliers, including 3,500 in Asia Pacific. Our supply chain is managed by our Sourcing Team.  ANZ’s most significant spends (around 70%) are on IT and People & Professional Services, with the balance on Corporate Services such as Records Management, Cards, Security Services, Facilities Management, Travel,Marketing and Advertising.

We understand that through the procurement of goods and services we have the opportunity to influence the social and environmental performance of our supply chain, so we’re taking a pro-active approach to reduce not only our own environmental impact but that of our providers too.

Our approach is to identify the areas of greatest spend and understand which have the most significant environmental impact. Then, in partnership with our suppliers and the industry, we formulate strategies to minimise these impacts wherever we can. At all times our approach is guided by:

• Our Sourcing Policy (PDF 444kB), which defines the principles and behaviours expected of everyone involved in procurement to ensure all conduct is fair, safe and responsible. The policy reflects the principles of ANZ’s Code of Conduct and Ethics, and our Corporate Responsibility framework and priorities.
• Our Sustainability Guidelines for Procurement in specific categories such as IT, motor vehicle leasing, legal services, cards, travel, office products, advertising, print services and corporate wardrobe, which help sourcing managers understand and mitigate social and environmental impacts.
• The standards outlined in our Supplier Code of Practice, which aim to improve the social and environmental performance of our supply chain, and ensure that our suppliers have strong internal systems and governance processes in place.

We are committed to providing our staff at the ‘front-line’ of sourcing with regular training and information to assist in embedding responsible practices in all sourcing decision-making.

We apply a risk-based approach to managing supplier performance under our Operational Contract Management (OCM) framework. An essential component of this is our Supplier Verification program which profiles our suppliers by reviewing their level of compliance to our Supplier Code of Practice. We work with any suppliers that may have below acceptable local industry or ANZ standards to remediate their social and environmental risks. Each year we publicly report our performance.

Case Study

Michael Collins, Head of Sourcing for North East Asia and Vendor Management in International and Institutional Banking division was a participant in the Taiwan workshop. Michael was accompanied by members of his team across China and Taiwan. Following the workshop, Michael commented "The workshop gave my team a real appreciation of why we want our vendors to act responsibly and it’s had a direct impact on their work. Since the course I haven’t seen one 'push back'. Team members used to bring to me cases where our vendors were requesting an alternative route to our compliance measures. Team members are now handling these issues themselves, persuading our vendors to comply with our Supplier Code of Practice. Michael continued "This course is great for the bank, our suppliers and the local environment. Our reputational risk is diminished, vendors are more knowledgeable about our expectations, through the increased awareness of our staff; both of which is having a positive effect on practices in the region. These are important issues we’re talking about: trafficking of people, labour practices, environmentally-hostile activities and other potentially negative impacts. "ANZ has a lot of exposure in Asia and its great that we’re having an influence on corporate responsibility as far as our sphere of influence can go; ie into our value chain" Michael said.

 

You need Adobe Reader to view PDF files. You can download Adobe Reader free of charge.