Page 25 Supplier Relationships
1,304 Suppliers registered on Sedex supplying John Lewis own-brand products
Ensuring our suppliers comply
Because our products are sourced, directly and indirectly, through literally thousands of suppliers and agents, it is a challenge for us to confirm that every supplier throughout our supply chain is fully compliant with the Code at all times. Nevertheless, we do not seek to avoid the challenge, and are fully committed to ensuring our suppliers observe the Code. To help us with this, we continue to use the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex), the world's largest database of labour standards.
This tool enables our suppliers to share information with us on their labour standards and work practices, and allows us to jointly agree action plans for improvement, where current practice falls short of our expectations. Sedex currently facilitates the provision of labour standards information for 22,000 separate sites of employment in more than 143 countries and is used by more than 250 companies involved in the monitoring of supply chain standards.
We are currently focusing on our own-brand suppliers to ensure they are using the Sedex tool effectively, and providing information that enables us to assess them and measure their compliance to the Code. Over 950 sites of production have registered, of which 802 (84%) have fully completed our information requirements. From the information we receive from Sedex, we prioritise sites for further action.
We then seek further assurances from prioritised supplier sites and if we still do not get the assurance we need, independent audits are conducted. Through Sedex, we can access many more audits than we ourselves commission, avoiding duplication of effort and minimising 'audit fatigue'.
Should non-compliances be identified, we work directly with supplier's site management and independent third parties to assess their operations. This extends to offering email and telephone helpdesks, running supplier conferences and providing a Responsible Sourcing Supplier Workbook. We have also developed a responsible sourcing e-learning tool to give our suppliers a better insight into our Responsible Sourcing Code of Practice and a greater understanding of the related issues and challenges faced in supply chains.
As part of the ongoing development of its self-assessment questionnaire, Sedex has introduced a section on business integrity (focusing on bribery and corruption).We have also been involved in a working group to develop questions about environmental impact, such as whether a site has an independently certified environmental management system and what measures are in place to help to avoid or reduce environmental damage. A risk-assessment scoring mechanism for the new questions is expected later this year.
(Photograph of artisan producer making stained and painted glass lamp shades with the caption:)
84% of our registered sites of production have completed our information requirements.
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