Case study: How Virtusa promotes sustainability among its suppliers

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2018-19 Corporate Citizenship Report Virtusa identified a range of material issues, such as client satisfaction, economic performance, ethics and compliance, information security, emissions and climate change. Among these, promoting sustainability among its suppliers stands out as a key material issue for Virtusa.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards              

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Virtusa engages with:

To identify and prioritise material topics Virtusa engaged with its stakeholders through the following channels:

What actions were taken by Virtusa to promote sustainability among its suppliers?

In its 2018-19 Corporate Citizenship Report Virtusa reports that it took the following actions for promoting sustainability among its suppliers:

• Launching Supplier Guidelines
• Virtusa’s Supplier Guidelines were formulated in 2013. The guidelines set out the standards and practices that suppliers are required to uphold in the areas of human rights, labour, environment, and business ethics. These include complying with all applicable laws and regulations, ensuring that they are not complicit in human rights abuses, ensuring that child labour and forced or compulsory labour are not used in any operations and providing safe working conditions for employees. In addition, suppliers are expected to ensure the protection of the environment and follow ethical business practices. In 2016, Virtusa updated the supplier guidelines to include the prohibition of slavery and human trafficking. Virtusa is also improving its guidelines and evaluation criteria for suppliers for complying with occupational health and safety norms.

• Organising a Supply Chain Sustainability Awareness Session
• This event is held annually for Virtusa’s Tier 1 suppliers. The intention is to share sustainability best practices and to create awareness on current sustainability issues. The session has been held at Virtusa’s Sri Lanka facilities since 2013 and will be implemented in other locations. In addition, Virtusa conducts road safety awareness sessions in collaboration with the police for transport providers in several geographies. Virtusa has also enhanced its approval process for procurement to include evaluations not only on cost and quality aspects, but also aspects such as user safety, climate change impact and risk management (for example, procuring Energy Star rated products and farmed paper). Virtusa collaborates with its suppliers and contractors to continuously improve its procurement process, identify hazards, and assess and control occupational health and safety risks.

• Carrying out checks and inspections
• Virtusa seeks to make sure that its suppliers operate responsibly. Suppliers and contractors are required to ensure that any employees performing work on Virtusa’s behalf are competent and use the correct health and safety equipment and procedures. Transport providers are required to undergo vehicle inspections, and drivers are required to provide police reports. Food service providers are required to submit themselves for inspections conducted by the Public Health Inspector (PHI). In some geographies, such as India, suppliers are required to undergo audits on labour practices to ensure compliance with legal requirements. Virtusa is also in the process of developing a mechanism whereby suppliers will be required to confirm compliance with aspects of the Supplier Guidelines and FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) in order to proceed with business.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 102-9 Supply chain

Disclosure 102-9 Supply chain does not correspond to any SDG.

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

7 GRI sustainability disclosures get you started

Any size business can start taking sustainability action

GRI, ISEP, CPD Certified Sustainability courses (2-5 days): Live Online or Classroom  (venue: London School of Economics)

• Exclusive FBRH template to begin reporting from day one
• Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and People
• Formulate in group exercises your plan for action. Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP. 
• Benchmarking methodology to set you on a path of continuous improvement

See upcoming training dates.
References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Virtusa, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

Note to Virtusa: With each case study we send out an email requesting a comment on this case study. If you have not received such an email please contact us.