Case study: How Trinseo promotes sustainable procurement
Trinseo is a global materials company passionately focused on collaborating with its customers to create future-oriented solutions that not only meet sustainability needs, but enable customers to design around future trends with products that have true market differentiation. At Trinseo, ethical considerations are integrated into how it conducts its business, and Trinseo works to select suppliers that mirror the company’s commitment to ethical conduct, global corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. Tweet This!
This case study is based on the 2020 Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility Report by Trinseo 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
Working with suppliers who reflect its commitment to sustainability and make a positive impact on the value chain, is a top priority for Trinseo. In order to promote sustainable procurement Trinseo took action to:
- implement a Supplier Code of Conduct
- apply a Corporate Procurement Policy
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Trinseo has identified;
- How Trinseo proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Trinseo to promote sustainable procurement
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2020 Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility Report Trinseo identified a range of material issues, such as economic performance, product safety, labour and human rights, environmentally responsible operations. Among these, promoting sustainable procurement stands out as a key material issue for Trinseo.
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 Trinseo engages with:
To identify and prioritise material topics Trinseo engaged with its stakeholders through the following channels:
| Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
| Customers
| · Meetings, visits and calls · Questionnaires including EcoVadis and the Carbon Disclosure Project · Innovation collaboration · Tradeshows · Surveys · Industry partnerships and conferences · Media and social media |
| Communities
| · Volunteer Days, open houses, charitable contributions, internet, direct contact |
Employees
| · Intranet and internet · Meetings, employee broadcasts and town hall meetings · Strategy booklet · Email newsletters · Social media · Employee surveys · Annual Report and Sustainability Report |
| Government / regulatory
| · In-person visits, associations, reports, training and inspections, seminars, audits |
| Industry & trade associations | · Working groups, board meetings, conferences, events
|
| Shareholders & investment community
| · Quarterly investor conference calls, public reports (including Annual Report and Sustainability Report) and press releases, rating agency publications, financial analyst phone calls, annual shareholder meetings, one-on-one meetings, non-deal roadshows, investor day events |
| Suppliers
| · Meetings and reviews, assessments, sustainability ratings |
What actions were taken by Trinseo to promote sustainable procurement?
In its 2020 Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility Report Trinseo reports that it took the following actions for promoting sustainable procurement:
- Implementing a Supplier Code of Conduct
- Trinseo’s Supplier Code of Conduct sets out guidelines for its suppliers in the value chain, establishing the expectation that they will:
- Respect human rights and not be complicit in human rights violations within its sphere of influence, and have appropriate safeguards to identify, track, and resolve any such violations
- Respect workers’ rights, including the right to fair wages and hours, to organise and be free of harassment or discrimination, and to prevent child labour
- Provide a safe and healthy workplace for employees, with operational controls and emergency prevention, preparedness, and response; and communicate any EH&S (environment, health and safety) incidents to Trinseo if affected
- Conduct business in compliance with antitrust and fair competition laws; prevent situations with conflict of interest
- At no point source tin, tantalum, tungsten, or gold (conflict minerals) from the Democratic Republic of Congo or the adjoining countries in a manner that directly or indirectly finances or benefits armed groups
- Adherence to its Supplier Code of Conduct, or substantially similar principles, is included as a requirement in Trinseo’s contracts.
- Applying a Corporate Procurement Policy
- Building on the Supplier Code of Conduct, Trinseo has been implementing the 2019 Corporate Procurement Policy that not only restates the requirement that suppliers adhere to Trinseo’s Code of Conduct but also sets forth Trinseo’s policy to preferentially select suppliers that adhere to the principles in its Supplier Code of Conduct and demonstrate the integration of sustainability and corporate responsibility into their business strategies. The Procurement Policy is designed to leverage Trinseo’s purchasing power across the company to establish the principles and directives for the procurement of materials, supplies, equipment, and services on behalf of Trinseo, and it reflects the transparency that Trinseo expects in all procurement-related activities. This policy includes a selection criterion for new suppliers and an evaluation criterion to retain existing suppliers. Supplier evaluation criteria are based on environmental, risk, quality, innovation, cost, and price parameters; new suppliers are checked for financial stability, sustainability, performance, and all ethics and compliance factors. Trinseo has developed a variety of evaluation tools to support this new policy, including an updated Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) scorecard that establishes a sustainability rating to evaluate the top 25 suppliers, with plans to extend that to 50 suppliers and include more environmental aspects. The results of the scorecard are shared with suppliers and improvement points are identified.
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:
1) This case study is based on published information by Trinseo, 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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