Our approach

A global approach to responsible sourcing

ANZ has a presence in 32 countries around the world, and an extensive supply chain:

  • More than 15,000 suppliers, including 3,500 in Asia Pacific
  • Managed by our Global Sourcing team through sourcing hubs in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and the Philippines
  • Most significant spend (around 70%) 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 know our purchasing power has an influence on the social and environmental performance of our supply chain, so we’re taking a proactive approach to reduce our impact.

Our approach is to develop an understanding of the most significant impacts in our spend categories then, in partnership with our suppliers and industry, formulate category strategies to minimise those impacts wherever we can.

At all times our approach is guided by:

  • Our Global 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.
  • Category strategies for our most significant spend and highest social and/or environmental impact categories.
  • 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 where we profile our suppliers by auditing their level of compliance to our Supplier Code of Practice. We then work with the 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.

Responsible sourcing in action

Engagement with suppliers is essential to building robust and lasting relationships and improving the social, economic and environmental performance of the products and services we procure. We develop mutually beneficial partnerships with our suppliers and encourage two-way dialogue. This helps us gain an understanding of best practice management in each category and how, together, we can encourage and extend best practice across the supply chain.

Case studies

Introducing carbon into accommodation decisions

As a carbon conscious company, we know that the accommodation choices our staff make when they travel are an important factor in our carbon footprint.

To help them make informed decisions, we are working with our corporate travel partner Carson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) and Earthcheck to introduce new functionality into the CWT booking tool that shows a ‘per room per night carbon calculation’ for each hotel stay.

This new feature is being trialled with a number of hotel partners and will lead ANZ to a position where ‘carbon’ will be part of our hotel selection criteria at time of booking.
Reducing our travel footprint

When we started measuring our environmental footprint, it emerged that travel was the second largest contributor to ANZ’s C02 emissions.

Reducing emissions in this category is complex because, as a global company with a presence in dozens of markets around the world, working across borders is vital to our development. However, we have identified a solution by working closely with our travel management company and our information technology partners. Through these partnerships, ANZ is on a journey to minimise our non-essential internal business travel and have set ourselves a target of 29% reduction by the end of 2012.

This approach – along with our processes for collecting data – was recognised by the Global Business Travel Association in 2010 with a Corporate Social Responsibility Award.
Improving workplace standards in security services

The protection of ANZ people, customers and assets is of paramount importance to our business. Working with the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) and our security service suppliers in Australia, we are developing a global methodology to monitor and improve our suppliers’ performance on human rights.

This methodology is being integrated into our supplier monitoring processes during 2011 and informing how we work in other categories of spend.
Working with print suppliers to reduce emissions

As with so much of our sourcing activity, the ability to make an informed decision about suppliers based on their carbon use relies on having reliable data and robust processes.

ANZ’s printing materials accounts for ~2% of our global emissions and while our processes for reporting are sound, carbon is not yet a selection criteria for our marketing staff.

To address this, ANZ has been working with its two most significant print partners Stream and Bluestar to incorporate carbon estimates into all our print quotations. This process has raised the profile of carbon in this supply chain and is informing the next stage of this project, where ANZ will select suppliers and award print jobs based on their environmental credentials.

More information:

 

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