Mibote is committed to conducting our business in a lawful and responsible manner, including engaging with suppliers that respect human rights, providing safe and inclusive workplaces, and promoting a sustainable future. In this fast-paced world, we believe that secure supply chains are the key to our success. We expect our suppliers to adhere to the same ethical, social and compliance standards as we do.
Our approach to making our supply chains more sustainable
One of the goals of our supplier management is compliance with fundamental environmental and social standards, alongside high quality, reliable delivery, and competitive prices. To achieve this, we’ve introduced relevant strategies, processes and guidelines that we are continuously improving to prevent violations of supply chain standards. Our supply chains are diverse and differ in their characteristics. While some supply chains are automated, others, especially in the service sector, are labor-intensive. Our risk-based supplier selection and management approach takes this diversity into account. If the risk probability exceeds our risk appetite, we take further actions. For example, we ask the supplier to conduct a sustainability assessment or an audit. This additional step helps our sourcing employees to identify required mitigation actions with relevant suppliers and work on improvements.
How we implement Corporate Responsibility standards in the supply chain
Department of Procurement is responsible for integrating corporate responsibility (CR) requirements into the relevant stages of our sourcing and supplier management processes. It is a global organization with direct accountability and resources in procurement-relevant local subsidiaries. Our Department of Supplier Sustainability coordinates all relevant measures, such as updating our guidelines where necessary, examining processes and coordinating our participation in external initiatives. Sourcing staff are responsible for the supplier selection process and collaborate closely with the stakeholders in each business sector. All new Sourcing staff are trained on those sustainability aspects that are of importance for procurement.
Our commitment: Guidelines and standards
We expect all our suppliers and service providers to comply with environmental and social standards, which are primarily derived from the core labor standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the UN Global Compact.
Moreover, we support the Compliance Initiative of the German Association for Supply Chain Management, Procurement and Logistics (BME) and have endorsed the BME Code of Conduct. In particular, this code sets out rules for combating corruption, antitrust violations and child labor, as well as for upholding human rights, protecting the environment and public health, and promoting fair working conditions.
Our Department of Procurement stipulates expectations for our suppliers and specifies how we monitor compliance with our standards. This policy reflects both internal and external guidelines, such as our Code of Conduct, our Human Rights Charter, our EHS Policy (Environment, Health and Safety Policy), ISO 14001, and the BME Code of Conduct. In our Responsible Sourcing Principles we set out these expectations for our suppliers and formally oblige them to apply these standards to their own vendors.
All modifications to legal frameworks are incorporated and appropriate measures are initiated where necessary.
How we monitor our supply chain
A number of different approaches are used to keep track of our suppliers and ensure adherence to our standards and values. These are generally based on the risk they pose, combining the factors of country risk, product category and sales.
Conducting our own audits
We continuously conduct our own audits in selected cases based on business requirements.
Neither our audits nor those of related Departments revealed indications of violations of the right of association, the right to collective bargaining, cases of child labor, forced labor or compulsory labor.
Local suppliers
We have no internal guidelines stipulating that preference be given to local vendors in allocating contracts and therefore do not collect this type of data. We generally procure our goods and services globally. In some cases, however, local vendors do have an advantage, as products bought locally may be less expensive, due to a reduction in additional transport costs. Country-specific regulations such as import duties and licenses also help us decide whether to source our goods locally or globally. In some countries local laws require contracts to be awarded to regional suppliers.
