Case study: How Stryker promotes sustainability among its suppliers
Stryker is one of the world’s leading medical technology companies and, together with its customers, driven to make healthcare better. Through its focus on supplier management, Stryker drives accountability with its suppliers to deliver high-quality materials, minimise disruption and uphold its values. Tweet This!
This case study is based on the 2022 Comprehensive Report by Stryker, 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
By the end of 2027, Stryker will engage 85% of its direct suppliers (by spend) on ESG (environmental, social and governance) performance assessments. In order to promote sustainability among its suppliers Stryker took action to:
- implement a Supplier Code of Conduct
- assess suppliers’ ESG performance
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Stryker has identified;
- How Stryker proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Stryker to promote sustainability among its suppliers
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2022 Comprehensive Report Stryker identified a range of material issues, such as climate change, employee and patient health and safety, access to quality healthcare, ethics, compliance, anticorruption and antitrust. Among these, promoting sustainability among its suppliers stands out as a key material issue for Stryker.
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 Stryker engages with:
| Stakeholder Group |
| Employees |
| Customers |
| Investors |
| Suppliers |
| Community members |
| Regulators |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritise material topics Stryker engaged with its stakeholders through interviews and surveys.
What actions were taken by Stryker to promote sustainability among its suppliers?
In its 2022 Comprehensive Report Stryker reports that it took the following actions for promoting sustainability among its suppliers:
- Implementing a Supplier Code of Conduct
- Any supplier doing business with Stryker is required to adhere to its Supplier Code of Conduct through Stryker’s supplier contracts and purchase order terms and conditions. The Supplier Code communicates Stryker’s expectations for suppliers in key areas including:
- General business and ethics
- Human rights
- Labour and employment
- Health, safety and environment
- Intellectual property and data
- Stryker’s Direct Procurement Team completes annual training to assist suppliers in meeting their obligations under the Supplier Code. In 2022, 98.6 percent of the team completed this training.
- Assessing suppliers’ ESG performance
- Stryker actively engages direct suppliers on their ESG performance and initiatives. Stryker segments its direct suppliers based on their overall importance to its business and performs evaluations against publicly available data to identify suppliers that may inherently be at higher risk for ESG-related issues, based on their industry or region where they operate. Using the results of these activities, Stryker engages the identified in-scope suppliers in ESG performance assessments through recognised third-party audit and ratings platforms that focus on policies, governance, key performance indicators (KPIs) and other evidence of integrated processes addressing human rights and labour, environmental, ethics and sustainable procurement risks. The assessment results are integrated into overall supplier risk scores, enabling easier risk identification and mitigation, procurement decisions and open dialogue about these topics during supplier reviews. Throughout 2022, Procurement Team members who manage in-scope suppliers received training on Stryker’s strategy and guidance on how to engage with suppliers on ESG performance topics. The completed assessments identified opportunities for continued supplier development but did not result in findings that required Stryker’s immediate intervention.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:
1) Disclosure 414-1 New suppliers that were screened using social criteria
2) Disclosure 414-2 Negative social impacts in the supply chain and actions taken
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
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 Stryker, 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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