An initiative intended to help telecoms companies share information on
ethical supply chain audits has appointed the supplier management
company Achilles to develop an online system for collating the data.
The
Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) has asked Achilles to create
a system that allows participants to post the results of supplier
audits without compromising commercial confidentiality or losing their
anonymity.
Chris Tuppen, the chair of GeSI and head of
sustainable development and corporate accountability at the telecoms
provider BT, said the online system, which should be ready by the end
of this year, ‘may provide a template for other sectors grappling with
similar supply chain issues’.
More than a dozen IT and
communications companies belong to GeSI, which is supported by the
United Nations Environment Programme and the International
Telecommunication Union. The other members are Alcatel, Bell Canada,
Cisco Systems, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Motorola, O2, Orange,
Telefónica and Vodafone.
