Case study: How Bechtle promotes sustainability across its supply chain
Bechtle AG is one of Europe’s leading IT providers, with some 80 system houses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as e-commerce subsidiaries in 14 European countries. Bechtle engages in close and trusting collaborations with its suppliers to make its contribution to, among others, protecting human rights Tweet This! within its sphere of influence.
This case study is based on the 2021 Sustainability Report by Bechtle, 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
Bechtle seeks to establish a process to systematically evaluate its direct suppliers and vendors with respect to ecological and social responsibility, through enhanced supplier management and a new auditing procedure. In order to promote sustainability across its supply chain Bechtle took action to:
- implement a Supplier Code of Conduct
- promote compliance
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Bechtle has identified;
- How Bechtle proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Bechtle to promote sustainability across its supply chain
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2021 Sustainability Report Bechtle identified a range of material issues, such as information security and data protection, energy consumption and emissions, anti-corruption and anti-bribery, people development. Among these, promoting sustainability across its supply chain stands out as a key material issue for Verizon.
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 Bechtle engages with:
| Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
| Owners/shareholders
| · Annual General Meeting · Biannual events · Roadshows and investor conferences · Announcements, press releases, the Annual Report, half-yearly reports and quarterly statements |
| Employees
| · E-mail · Intranet · Digital employee magazine · Weekly employee blog · Employee satisfaction surveys |
| Customers (enterprise and public sectors) | · Customer fairs and events · Social media channels, website and both online and hardcopy editions of the customer magazine |
| Suppliers/partners | · Vendor Integrated Product Managers · Personal exchanges |
| General public | · Communications channels and various publications · Bitkom industry association |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritise material topics Bechtle engaged with its stakeholders through interviews.
What actions were taken by Bechtle to promote sustainability across its supply chain?
In its 2021 Sustainability Report Bechtle reports that it took the following actions for promoting sustainability across its supply chain:
- Implementing a Supplier Code of Conduct
- In 2014, Bechtle’s Purchasing and Legal departments designed a Supplier Code of Conduct for suppliers of goods and services as a control mechanism. This code is based on the principles and minimum requirements of the ILO Convention of Core Labour Standards. All newly contracted suppliers are requested by Purchasing to sign this Code of Conduct on an annual basis or to supply their own equivalent documentation. As of 31 December 2021, 189 suppliers and vendors have signed the Bechtle Supplier Code of Conduct. As in the previous year, 39 suppliers and vendors presented their own policies, which overlap with Bechtle’s own code in all essential respects. Combined, these represent 93 per cent of Bechtle’s purchasing volume.
- Promoting compliance
- To monitor its suppliers’ compliance with social and labour standards, Bechtle has been focusing on examining supplier-provided documentation on a project-related basis, such as audit and inspection or sustainability reports. Bechtle’s Sustainability Management regularly checks if any of its key suppliers have been flagged by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. Over the course of the reporting year, Supplier Management canvassed a variety of ways for Bechtle to monitor compliance with social and ecological standards along its supply chain in a reliable fashion. In the end, Bechtle chose EcoVadis as the way forward, meaning direct suppliers could be evaluated according to social and ecological criteria through a documents-based supplier audit. EcoVadis was used for this purpose beginning in the second quarter of 2022, with the results directly informing CSR risk management. In order to better perform due diligence with regard to human rights, and for the purpose of ongoing professionalisation of CSR risk analyses, Bechtle also solicited the advice of the German National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (NAP). Through extensive evaluations, as well as an in-person and a virtual training seminar, Bechtle drew on support provided by the NAP Help Desk to lay the foundation for a realigned CSR risk analysis and, thus, its overall CSR risk management.
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 308-2 Negative environmental impacts in the supply chain and actions taken
3) Disclosure 414-2 Negative social impacts in the supply chain and actions taken
Disclosure 308-1 New suppliers that were screened using environmental criteria does not correspond to any SDG.
Disclosure 308-2 Negative environmental impacts in the supply chain and actions taken does not correspond to any SDG.
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
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References:
This case study is based on published information by Bechtle, 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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