Symantec promotes responsible business not only in our own operations, but also throughout our supply chain, to ensure that the practices and policies we put forth in our corporate responsibility strategy are upheld throughout our entire value chain.
A focus on supply chain practices brings numerous benefits to our business - things such as mitigating risks through fair labor practices, reducing costs through more efficient energy and resource use, increasing trust and credibility with stakeholders by demonstrating we are addressing our key environmental, social and governance (ESG) impact areas and helping our suppliers adopt more responsible practices within their own value chain.
As we have discussed here in the past, and as detailed in our annual CR Report, to implement responsible supply chain practices we have adopted and aligned with leading guidelines from a variety of supply chain experts such as the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative (CFSI), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”). We also support and respect internationally recognized human rights and labor standards as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labor Organization’s Core Conventions, the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social, Cultural Rights and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Today we bring you recent updates on two of our primary supply chain initiatives – our Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) membership and our efforts to trace conflict minerals in our supply chain:
EICC Membership
We are committed to progressively aligning our own operations with the provisions of the EICC Code of Conduct and to support and encourage our own Tier 1 suppliers to do the same. Where possible and applicable, we seek to adopt the EICC approach and tools in practical ways in the spirit of the industry’s common goals and continuous improvement.
In FY16, we integrated additional corporate responsibility and environmental guidelines and requirements into approximately 47 percent of our supplier contracts. Of these suppliers, 100 percent have completed the EICC self-assessment questionnaire, which enables us to understand the risk level of our suppliers and inform stakeholders how we target and address the most significant risks in our supply chain. Additionally, we use the results of the self-assessment questionnaire as a means to provide constructive feedback to suppliers on areas for improvement.
This year we became full members of the EICC, which expands our reporting and compliance requirements. Additionally, in the next year we aim to integrate the additional CR and environmental guidelines into 100 percent of our Tier 1 supplier contracts, as well as establishing a framework that will enable us to audit suppliers against these requirements.
Conflict Minerals
We are working towards our 2017 goal that our products be conflict mineral free. The SEC Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act states that due diligence must be completed to establish if companies are purchasing the 3TG’s - Tin, Tungsten, Titanium and Gold - from the Republic of Congo, where regional conflict exists and there is a significant risk of human rights violations. To achieve this, we must work closely with our suppliers to gain transparency into the source of their materials as well as providing support in moving to conflict free mineral resources.
To date we have engaged with the EICC who together with CFSI have developed a comprehensive due diligence process in line with the OECD's five-step framework, outlined in the Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict Affected and High-Risk Areas. The framework includes:
- Establishing strong company management systems, as can be seen in our publicly available Conflict Minerals Policy.
- Identifying and assessing risks in our supply chain, which is done through completion of the EICC Conflict Minerals Reporting Questionnaire. In 2015 we reached out to all of our Tier 1 Product Suppliers, we had a 90 percent supplier response rate. Of those, 50 percent were able to verify their materials as conflict mineral free. Of the remaining 50 percent that use the minerals in products, 33 percent could verify that the minerals were purchased from approved smelters. The remaining 67 percent are still investigating the source. Symantec provides direction to resources and training, such as EICC approved conflict-free smelters from the CFSI Training Program, and we outline our expectations to each supplier.
- Designing and implementing a strategy to respond to identified risks. Symantec has designed a Due Diligence Decision Tree that sets forth steps to be taken to mitigate risk based on a supplier’s responses to our EICC survey. Suppliers are ranked for risk, ranging from low to high, based upon issues raised in suppliers’ survey responses. Regardless of their risk level, in 2015, all suppliers were contacted via email with follow-up questions, comments and/or requests.
- Third-party auditing of Symantec's conflict minerals due diligence process, conducted by the CFSI if required.
- Reporting on our conflict minerals due diligence process and outcomes as can be accessed in our publicly available Conflict Minerals Report.
Managing risks and impacts throughout our supply chain is a challenging, yet crucial, component to conducting our business responsibly. We are always striving to strengthen our relationships with suppliers and improve transparency into their operations.
We look forward to bringing you additional details on our FY16 outcomes in this year's Corporate Responsibility Report. Until then, to learn more about our supply chain practices please visit our 2015 Corporate Responsibility Report as well as our Corporate Responsibility website.
Amanda Davis is Symantec's Senior Manager, Corporate Responsibility & Environment.