Case study: How Singtel promotes sustainability across its supply chain
Headquartered in Singapore, Singtel is Asia’s leading communications technology company, providing a diverse range of services including fixed, mobile, data, internet, TV and infocomms technology (ICT), as well as digital solutions. With the wide geography and complex nature of its supply chain, Singtel believes that collaboration with socially and environmentally conscious suppliers will help it mitigate a significant proportion of its sustainability risks. Tweet This!
This case study is based on the 2021 Sustainability Report by Singtel, 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
The Singtel Group has an extensive supply chain ranging from mobile and network equipment, and infrastructure suppliers to content providers, security and managing agents, and seeks to implement tailored intervention programmes to support its suppliers in integrating sustainability-related practices into their business processes. In order to promote sustainability across its supply chain Singtel took action to:
- assess suppliers against ESG criteria
- conduct third-party sustainability risk assessments
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Singtel has identified;
- How Singtel proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Singtel 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 Singtel identified a range of material issues, such as talent attraction and retention, climate change and carbon, data privacy and cyber security, employee safety and well-being. Among these, promoting sustainability across its supply chain stands out as a key material issue for Singtel.
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 Singtel engages with:
| Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
| Academia | · Regular discussions · Business roundtables · Panel discussions · Research projects |
| Industry Bodies | · Regular discussions · Business roundtables · Collaboration |
| Government and Regulators | · Monthly customer experience surveys · Customer touchpoints |
| Media | · Interviews by management |
| Customers | · Monthly customer experience surveys · Customer touchpoints |
| Trade Unions
| · Regular Management-Union dialogues · Management-Union workshops and retreats |
| Employees, Management and Board | · Staff intranet portal and emails · Regular staff and management briefings · Annual staff engagement surveys · Monthly Board updates and regular Board meetings |
| Institutional Investors | · Quarterly business updates and half-yearly financial results announcements · Half-yearly investor roadshows by Senior Management · Annual Investor Day · Annual General Meeting · ESG roundtables and panels |
| Suppliers | · Supplier Code of Conduct · Supplier surveys |
| Non-Governmental Organisations | · Regular discussions · Business roundtables · Management and steering committees |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritise material topics Singtel consulted close to 2,500 individuals from ten key stakeholder groups through online surveys and one-on-one interviews.
What actions were taken by Singtel to promote sustainability across its supply chain?
In its 2021 Sustainability Report Singtel reports that it took the following actions for promoting sustainability across its supply chain:
- Assessing suppliers against ESG criteria
- All new Singtel suppliers are assessed against ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria through Singtel’s sustainability questionnaire as part of their onboarding tender process. This is applied to tenders above $200,000 across the Singtel Group. 100% of such new suppliers were assessed against these criteria during FY2021, along with 20 material suppliers on how they managed their environmental and social impact in their operations and supply chain. During the year, Singtel also conducted a sustainability and organisational life cycle assessment on its supply chain to identify direct and indirect environment and social impact and risks across its business operations and value chain. As part of this exercise, Singtel reviewed the ESG commitment of its top 100 suppliers, who constituted 65% of its procurement spend. Singtel analysed their processes and policies as well as products and services provided to Singtel and identified high impact areas of improvement and where it can influence positive change both environmentally and socially.
- Conducting third-party sustainability risk assessments
- In FY2021, Singtel concluded a sustainability risk assessment of its active suppliers using a framework it developed with supply chain expert ELEVATE. Suppliers were assessed according to inherent geographic and product risks and those identified completed a Sustainability Self-Assessment Questionnaire on the controls they had in place in the following areas: corporate governance, diversity, human rights, labour rights and anti-modern slavery, work health and safety, environmental and energy management, and conflict minerals.
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 Singtel, 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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