Published
06 February 2008, 04:48 AM
Last month the closing conference of our Central Europe Supplier Responsibility Project (CESR) also known as ‘Small suppliers in global supply chains’ took place in Prague. The result of the CESR project is a report which outlines guidelines on how corporations can target their suppliers to manage a sustainable supply chain.The joint project with The Copenhagen Centre for Corporate Responsibility (now integrated into the Danish Commerce and Companies Agency) started in 2006 and aims at supporting our suppliers to develop their business practices so that they are operating in an efficient and responsible manner. We are one of many multi-national corporations (MNCs) to have small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) represented in the supply chain. However, SMEs may not always have adequate management systems in place to ensure conformance with applicable laws and regulations, identification and mitigation of risks, and continual improvement. We participated in the project since we want to work with suppliers that implement social and environmental standards and want to support especially SMEs in achieving this.
Guidelines on how corporations can target SME suppliers within their supply chain were developed. The guidelines were derived from a study of our sustainable supply chain management practices at HP; on-site visits of SMEs within our supply chain management which assessed the social and environmental practices at our suppliers; and training workshops to stimulate capability building activities focused on our SME suppliers.
The Danish Commerce and Companies Agency (DCCA) published the report “Small Suppliers in Global Supply Chains” which summarises those guidelines and results of the CESR project. The report illustrates that MNCs can have a huge impact on the standards in the supply chain, especially if their direct suppliers are fully engaged.
I am proud to have been part of this project and I enjoyed the work very much. I think we have achieved quite a lot. The project provided great and helpful insights on SMEs challenges, their awareness and performance on socially and environmentally friendly business practices. The project once more illustrates the importance of relevant and tailored trainings and workshops.
We hope to get a follow up project in conjunction with the European commission and ideally with the DCCA. Let’s keep at it.
Karl Daumueller, Program Manager, HP Global Procurement Services
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