Case study: How Air Canada promotes sustainability across its supply chain
Air Canada is Canada’s largest airline and the largest provider of scheduled passenger services in the Canadian market, the Canada-U.S. transborder market and in the international market to and from Canada. Air Canada works with various suppliers worldwide and seeks to make sure, not least through its Supplier Code of Conduct, that its suppliers adhere to key sustainability principles.
This case study is based on the 2020 Corporate Sustainability Report by Air Canada, prepared in accordance with the GRI Standards, that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Abstract
Air Canada is firmly committed to promoting sustainability among its more than 7,800 individual suppliers Tweet This!, monitoring their environmental, ethical and social performance. In order to promote sustainability across its supply chain Air Canada took action to:
- implement a Supplier Code of Conduct
- reduce activities related to attractions involving dolphins
- protect human rights
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Air Canada has identified;
- How Air Canada proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Air Canada to promote sustainability across its supply chain
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2020 Corporate Sustainability Report Air Canada identified a range of material issues, such as economic performance, ethical business practices and policies, safety, data protection and privacy, energy consumption. Among these, promoting sustainability across its supply chain stands out as a key material issue for Air Canada.
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:
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 Air Canada engages with:
| Stakeholder Group |
| Shareholders |
| Customers |
| Employees |
| Suppliers |
| Communities |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritise material topics Air Canada engaged with its stakeholders through interviews, workshops and surveys.
What actions were taken by Air Canada to promote sustainability across its supply chain?
In its 2020 Corporate Sustainability Report Air Canada reports that it took the following actions for promoting sustainability across its supply chain:
- Implementing a Supplier Code of Conduct
- Air Canada has developed a Supplier Code of Conduct (SCC), which forms an integral part of Air Canada’s material supplier contracts. The SCC is principle based and sets out Air Canada’s expectations of suppliers to ensure their behaviour aligns with Air Canada standards in the following key areas:
- Business integrity
- Responsible business practices
- Responsible treatment of individuals
- Respect for the environment
- The SCC includes provisions relating to forced labour, child labour, non-discrimination and human rights, safe and healthy employment conditions and ethical behaviour. Air Canada is committed to working in partnership with its suppliers to help ensure adherence to the SCC. Suppliers may be asked periodically to confirm in writing that they meet Air Canada’s expectations as set out in it. Certain audit rights are also available. The SCC is reviewed regularly.
- Reducing activities related to attractions involving dolphins
- In 2019, Air Canada and subsidiaries (including Air Canada Vacations) made the commitment to no longer sell or promote packages to, or generate revenue from, attractions that involve the captivity of current or future generations of dolphins. In 2020, Air Canada Vacations further acted on these commitments, working with its suppliers and contracted hotels to continuously reduce the practice of keeping dolphins in captivity. In addition, and further to the SCC, Air Canada is looking to restate its Procurement Policy to integrate its ESG (environmental, social and governance) priorities and sustainability principles going forward.
- Protecting human rights
- Air Canada currently has two human rights components in its strategic procurement process, including clauses related to human rights within the Supplier Code of Conduct, which suppliers are expected to respect, and a one-time risk assessment inclusive of human rights screening, which is conducted prior to the execution of strategic procurement agreements.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:
1) Disclosure 308-1 New suppliers that were screened using environmental criteria
2) Disclosure 414-1 New suppliers that were screened using social criteria
Disclosure 308-1 New suppliers that were screened using environmental criteria 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
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References:
This case study is based on published information by Air Canada, 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 following link:
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