Ethical auditing of suppliers by the mobile phone group O2 has
encouraged two of them to introduce their own ethical procurement
policies.
O2 issued self-assessment questionnaires to 20 suppliers in the 2004-05
financial year but also carried out five ethical audits of handset and
network manufacturers in south-east Asia and eastern Europe. As a
direct result Asian IT multinational BenQ and a company that has
requested anonymity have since produced policies requiring their
suppliers to meet social and environmental standards.
Charlotte Wolff, O2’s corporate social responsibility manager, told EP:
‘It’s great that we can have this kind of effect because, even though
we are huge in mobile phones, we are pretty small in terms of general
influence in the supply chain.’
O2, which has a turnover of £6.7billion ($12.4bn), will perform
further audits this year, but also hopes to make progress on ethical
auditing through its involvement in the Global e-Sustainability
Initiative, an IT sector network that is working to establish a common
approach to supplier assessments and audits.
