Case study: How Atea promotes responsible sourcing

What are the material issues the company has identified?   

In its 2020 Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report Atea identified a range of material issues, such as business ethics, customer privacy & data security, climate change, energy. Among these, promoting responsible sourcing stands out as a key material issue for Atea.

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 Atea engages with:  

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics Atea engaged with its stakeholders through surveys and a number of interviews.

What actions were taken by Atea to promote responsible sourcing?

In its 2020 Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report Atea reports that it took the following actions for promoting responsible sourcing:

• Implementing an Assurance Programme
• Atea’s Assurance Programme is the core of its management system. Through this programme, Atea focuses on continuous improvement, industry engagement and partnerships, as well as engagement with its customers. All these steps combined have a ripple effect that influences the whole IT ecosystem in which Atea operates:
  • Atea actively monitored its supply chain for the use of “conflict minerals” from areas where human rights violations may occur.
  • Atea’s employees, suppliers and other external parties are encouraged to report suspected violations of law, the Atea Code of Conduct or Code of Conduct for Suppliers. Such compliance concerns can be related to corruption, fraud, accounting, deficiencies in the internal controls, auditing, environmental, occupational health and safety, human rights, or other matters that could constitute a breach of law, seriously affect Atea’s vital interests or personal health and safety.
  • In 22, 95% of Atea’s suppliers were assessed on their social and environmental impacts in the supply chain.
  • In 22, 24 in-depth assessments of suppliers were performed, either because of specific allegations on how they manage social impacts or issues with transparency and management systems.

• Applying a Supplier Code of Conduct
• Atea’s strategy is embedded in its Code of Conduct, which sets out that its suppliers shall deliver goods manufactured in accordance with the RBA Code of Conduct–the industry standard supported by more than 11 member companies and over 6, suppliers. Atea has adopted the RBA code as its Supplier Code of Conduct. All new suppliers and existing suppliers of commercial relevance are assessed on their compliance with and adherence to the Code. When joining the RBA, Atea also joined the Conflict Free Sourcing Initiative–which is dedicated to auditing and certifying smelters that work with conflict minerals, to strengthen its due diligence and keep abreast progress upstream in its supply chain. Atea assesses its partners against their commitment to uphold the RBA Code in their own operations and supply chain; against the maturity of their management system; and against the level of transparency reached in documenting their efforts. Atea leverages the tools and processes developed by RBA, of which Atea became a member in 216, to facilitate the assessment. Where specific risks are found, suppliers are followed-up through dialogue and documentation gathering. This may involve an assessment of relevant sub-suppliers’ documentation as well as site-visits and audits. A corrective action plan is formulated depending on the severity of eventual issues found. If risk reduction measures were to be found inadequate, or if major breaches against social and ethical demands occur and are not addressed within agreed timeframes, the business relation could be terminated completely.

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

The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:

1) Disclosure 38-1 New suppliers that were screened using environmental criteria

2) Disclosure 38-2 Negative environmental impacts in the supply chain and actions taken

3) Disclosure 414-1 New suppliers that were screened using social criteria

4) Disclosure 414-2 Negative social impacts in the supply chain and actions taken

Disclosure 38-1 New suppliers that were screened using environmental criteria does not correspond to any SDG.

Disclosure 38-2 Negative environmental impacts in the supply chain and actions taken does not correspond to any SDG.

Disclosure 414-1 New suppliers that were screened using social criteria corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender Equality
• Targets: 5.2
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.8
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
• Targets: 16.1

Disclosure 414-2 Negative social impacts in the supply chain and actions taken corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender Equality
• Targets: 5.2
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.8
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
• Targets: 16.1