Case study: How Celestica promotes sustainability in the electronics supply chain

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2016 Sustainability Report Celestica identified a range of material issues, such as anti-corruption, occupational health & safety, diversity & equal opportunity, forced or compulsory labour. Among these, promoting sustainability in the electronics supply chain stands out as a key material issue for Celestica.

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 organization should identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s 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 Celestica engages with:

To identify and prioritise material topics Celestica engages with its stakeholders through the following channels:

What actions were taken by Celestica to promote sustainability in the electronics supply chain?

In its 2016 Sustainability Report Celestica reports that it took the following actions for promoting sustainability in the electronics supply chain:

• Ensuring suppliers comply with the EICC Code of Conduct
• Celestica informs its suppliers about the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) Code of Conduct and uses approved EICC risk assessment methods and tools to monitor major suppliers’ management systems with regard to the EICC Code’s requirements. Conforming to the EICC’s mandate to better the electronics supply chain, Celestica makes sure it partners with socially responsible suppliers.

• Requiring suppliers to complete Self-Assessment Questionnaires
• Celestica requires suppliers on its Major Supplier List (MSL) to complete and submit Self-Assessment Questionnaires (SAQs), identifying risks within their operations. SAQs are completed by Celestica’s major suppliers annually and ask more than 100 questions regarding key elements of labour, ethics, the environment, and health and safety. The questionnaires also cover suppliers’ management systems that are used to identify, manage and monitor each of these elements.

• Implementing a Supplier Responsibility Management System
• Celestica manages all its suppliers through its Supplier Responsibility Management System. By means of this system Celestica assesses each supplier’s level of risk. In addition, in 2014 Celestica updated these activities, with the Vendor Verification Visit. Every supplier on Celestica’s Major Supplier List is expected to complete an EICC Self-Assessment Questionnaire, support a Verification Visit and/or provide a VAP (Validated Audit Process) report if one is available. Audit findings are tracked through a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) and can result in removal from Celestica’s Preferred Supplier List (PSL) if appropriate corrective actions are not taken.

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 412-1 Operations that have been subject to human rights reviews or impact assessments

4) Disclosure 412-3 Significant investment agreements and contracts that include human rights clauses or that underwent human rights screening

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 412-1 Operations that have been subject to human rights reviews or impact assessments does not correspond to any SDG.

Disclosure 412-3 Significant investment agreements and contracts that include human rights clauses or that underwent human rights screening does not correspond to any SDG.

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

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References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Celestica, 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) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page

3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx

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

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