CSR, or corporate social responsibility, programmes play a key part in the supplier qualification work we do with our clients, either as part of our consultancy offering or through use of our electronic sourcing tools for the delivery of pre-qualification questionnaires that automatically rank and score supplier repsonses on elements including CSR metrics.
And if suppliers didn't think large organisations really took this stuff seriously, then the last couple of weeks will have disabused them of that notion, with two of the biggest brands on the high street getting into a pickle and causing a stir respectively.
Burger behemoth McDonald’s kicked things off by deciding to stop sourcing tea from Tetley because the company is not certified by the Rainforest Alliance, even though it does belong to the rival Ethical Tea Partnership.
And with immaculate timing our favourite skinny latte purveyor Starbucks has let slip that it is to ramp up its corporate responsibility efforts after an audit found that over half of its suppliers failed to comply with the company’s CSR programme.
The fall-out from the audit saw Starbucks give 14 suppliers the heave-ho, after finding its standards in areas such as child labour and wage payments were not being met.
“Even during this time of change for our company, one thing that will never change is our long-standing commitment to conducting business in a responsible and ethical manner,” Starbucks’ chairman, president and CEO, Howard Schultz, said in a letter to stakeholders.
