Case study: How Galaxy promotes sustainability among its suppliers
Galaxy Surfactants Limited is one of India’s leading manufacturers of surfactants and other specialty ingredients for the personal care and home care industry. Galaxy considers suppliers as one of the important partners in its value chain and has supplier selection and evaluation processes based on environmental, social, safety and quality parameters prior to the registration of a supplier.
This case study is based on the 2019-20 Sustainability Report by Galaxy published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database 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
Promoting sustainability across its supply chain helps Galaxy ensure, among others, the integrity of its final product quality and safety. Tweet This! In order to promote sustainability among its suppliers Galaxy took action to:
- implement a Supplier Code of Conduct
- assess suppliers
- promote sustainable palm oil
Subscribe for free and read the rest of this case study
Please subscribe to the SustainCase Newsletter to keep up to date with the latest sustainability news and gain access to over 2000 case studies. These case studies demonstrate how companies are dealing responsibly with their most important impacts, building trust with their stakeholders (Identify > Measure > Manage > Change).
With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Galaxy has identified;
- How Galaxy proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Galaxy to promote sustainability among its suppliers
Already Subscribed? Type your email below and click submit
What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2019-20 Sustainability Report Galaxy identified a range of material issues, such as financial growth, employee safety, health and well-being, climate change, ethics and governance, water stewardship. Among these, promoting sustainability among its suppliers stands out as a key material issue for Galaxy.
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 Galaxy engages with:
| Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
| Customers
| · Conferences · Meets · Visits |
| Employees (including contractors) | · Digital Platform & Social Media · Survey, Feedback |
| Community, NGOs | · Engagement activities |
| Investors and Shareholders | · AGM · Investor Meets |
| Value Chain Partners
| · Collaborative Projects · Audits |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritise material topics Galaxy conducted a survey with selected stakeholders.
What actions were taken by Galaxy to promote sustainability among its suppliers?
In its 2019-20 Sustainability Report Galaxy reports that it took the following actions for promoting sustainability among its suppliers:
- Implementing a Supplier Code of Conduct
- Galaxy has established a Supplier Code of Conduct which defines the requirements of ethics and integrity, human rights, safety, health & environment to be met by all suppliers. Engaging continuously with its supply chain partners to improve operational efficiency and integrate sustainability considerations into its value chain, Galaxy scaled the strategic engagement with its suppliers on the sustainability agenda during the reporting year.
- Assessing suppliers
- During the reporting year, Galaxy took conscious efforts to create sustainability and safety awareness among local suppliers. Galaxy is regularly assessing its suppliers on their environment and social performance through its internal audit team and its supplier sustainability survey covers key suppliers amounting to more than 90% in procurement spend. In India, 33% of new suppliers were screened using environmental and social criteria in FY 2019-20 and 48.8% of all raw materials sourced were from renewable sources.
- Promoting sustainable palm oil
- Galaxy is an ordinary member of RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) since 2012 and its manufacturing units in India & Egypt are RSPO certified. Galaxy was the first company in India to receive permission to use the RSPO trademark globally, is certified to use MB (Mass Balance) grade for its products and also got upgraded to the SG (Segregation) model for its India facilities. This enables Galaxy to partner with its key customers’ sustainable palm oil strategy and goals.
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
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, IEMA, 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 Galaxy, 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 Galaxy: 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.