Case study: How Genpact promotes sustainability across its supply chain

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2017 Sustainability Report Genpact identified a range of material issues, such as business growth and profitability, data security and confidentiality, customer satisfaction, business reputation, resource efficiency. Among these, promoting sustainability across its supply chain stands out as a key material issue for Genpact.

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 Genpact engages with:

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics Genpact engaged with eight stakeholder groups – employees, clients, investors, academic institutions, government/regulatory bodies, communities & NGOs/ civil society networks, industry bodies and suppliers – through a combination of online surveys, physical questionnaires and personal interactions.

What actions were taken by Genpact to treat waste responsibly?

In its 2017 Sustainability Report Genpact reports that it took the following actions for promoting sustainability across its supply chain:

• Implementing a sustainable supply chain policy
• Genpact formulated its sustainable supply chain policy in 2016. The policy captures the principles that ensure a responsible supply chain and details the sustainability standards Genpact requires of its vendors. Broad tenets of the policy are:
  • Ensuring ethical and transparent vendor operations and relations
  • Limiting negative environmental impacts in Genpact’s supply chain
  • Protecting of human rights and promoting globally accepted labour practices among Genpact’s vendors
  • Promoting diversity and inclusion in Genpact’s supply chain
  • Encouraging and engaging with vendors to encourage sustainable practices
• The principles of Genpact’s sustainable supply chain policy flow from Genpact’s integrity policy as it pertains to suppliers, Genpact’s EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) policy and its global sourcing policy. All vendors must adhere to these policies: Non-compliance may lead to suspension or termination of their contracts. In particular, Genpact’s contract with vendors operating out of its facilities obligates them to adhere to Genpact’s global safe work environment policy. Vendors must also follow specific criteria regarding the services they offer. Genpact’s sourcing team collaborates with infrastructure and logistics, EHS and IT teams to procure products that help save energy and conserve resources and, when procuring, Genpact prefers products that are greener, assuming they meet technical specifications. For example, Genpact’s food vendor in India must comply with specific health-related requirements, must have public liability insurance, must follow statutory norms such as food license and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) standards. Vendors who provide Genpact’s chairs have to comply with specific ergonomic requirements. Vendors for transport must comply to local statutory regulations, road permits check, insurance, EHS clearance, commercial licenses, and so on.

• Evaluating suppliers
• Genpact began evaluating suppliers on sustainability criteria in July 2017. Since then, Genpact has screened 201 of 580 new vendors using these criteria and is aiming for full adherence in the near future. Genpact is gradually screening its existing suppliers using the same parameters, with the goal of completing most of the supply chain screening process over time. Genpact has also been organising supplier awareness sessions on sustainability practices and expectations, as a part of this endeavour. All suppliers must reply to a qualifying sustainability questionnaire, as a part of the supplier/vendor on-boarding process. Genpact hires its key suppliers using a risk-based approach and, in 2016 and 2017, started sustainability evaluations of its top 50 vendors to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement. Genpact looked at their global environment health and safety standards, resource conservations initiatives, corporate social responsibility commitments and life cycle assessments. Genpact also checked if they support local economies, take measures against discrimination, adhere to work hours and wage norms, and clarified whether they allow freedom of association, collective bargaining and labour management processes. Genpact avoids business relationships with high-risk vendors to prevent financial, physical or reputational damage to Genpact and its stakeholders. In supplier self-assessment forms, Genpact flags risks regarding data privacy, information security, intellectual property and business continuity planning. As part of the approval process, the sourcing team also assesses a vendor’s financials, ownership structure, legal compliances and history. This assessment is industry-specific, to account for the differences inherent in each sector. When Genpact does find high risks based on any of these criteria, it urges vendors to put plans in place to mitigate them. Additionally, Genpact is digitising the supplier screening and on-boarding process, to create a repository of assessments and to document their actions. This initiative is helping Genpact to evaluate supply chain risks across locations and to review whether vendors are complying with its supplier code of conduct. It is also making sourcing/procurement procedures process- rather than people-driven.

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 407-1 Operations and suppliers in which the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining may be at risk

3) Disclosure 408-1 Operations and suppliers at significant risk for incidents of child labor

4) Disclosure 409-1 Operations and suppliers at significant risk for incidents of forced or compulsory labor

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

6) 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 407-1 Operations and suppliers in which the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining may be at risk corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
• Business theme: Freedom of association and collective bargaining

Disclosure 408-1 Operations and suppliers at significant risk for incidents of child labor corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
• Business theme: Abolition of child labor
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
• Business theme: Abolition of child labor

Disclosure 409-1 Operations and suppliers at significant risk for incidents of forced or compulsory labor corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
• Business theme: Elimination of forced or compulsory labor

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

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
• Business theme: Workplace violence and harassment
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
• Business theme: Labor practices in the supply chain
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
• Business theme: Workplace violence and harassment 

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

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
• Business theme: Workplace violence and harassment
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
• Business theme: Labor practices in the supply chain
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
• Business theme: Workplace violence and harassment 

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References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Genpact, 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/

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