Responsible Supply Chain
Our Commitment to Strengthening Human Rights Protection Worldwide
Many people around the world contribute – directly or indirectly – to our success. That’s just one reason why we have a particular responsibility to ensure respect of human rights in our own business units and in our value chain. To meet that responsibility, we have established a risk management system through which we are able to identify risks early on and take appropriate preventive and corrective steps. This means that we not only meet the statutory requirements but also contribute to making supply chains fairer and more sustainable in the long term.
Our Due Diligence Approach
As Europe’s No. 1 direct sales company, we have a global network of suppliers and service providers. To ensure that human rights are respected throughout our value chain, we have made it our mission to increase transparency and actively counteract risks or violations of human rights and breaches of environmental law. Before even entering into a business relationship, we check that our prospective suppliers maintain social and environmental standards. What’s more, we have set down our requirements in a Code of Conduct for Business Partners, which forms the basis of our contractual relationship. Using annual as well as situation-relevant risk analyses, we identify potential or actual risks in our own business units and value chain and investigate them systematically, adjusting for risk. For this, we adopt suitable preventive and corrective measures with the aim of ensuring a long-term improvement in conditions within the value chain.
Clear Responsibilities
With the aim of upholding human rights in our own business units and in our supply chain, we have established a risk management system with clear structures and responsibilities. Since the end of 2021, a cross-functional team made up of representatives of our Purchasing, Sustainability, Human Resources, Compliance and Communications departments has been responsible for the further development and implementation of appropriate processes and measures to enable us to meet our human rights and environment-related due diligence obligations. In 2022, the role of human rights officer was assigned to the Sustainability department, reporting directly to the Executive Board in the person of the Chief Operating Officer.
Enabling and Following up on Reports
To give everyone who is directly or indirectly affected by our business activities the opportunity to report harmful outcomes or violations of human rights anonymously, we have set up a whistleblower system that is available in 10 languages and around the clock on our company website. Once a report has been filed, our Clearance Team will review it and take any further steps it deems necessary in order to minimize the reported risk or to end the violation. You will find more information about our whistleblower system here.