Sustainable supply chain and operations

Sustainable business means looking beyond one’s own factory gate. It concerns managing the environmental, social and economic impacts of products and services throughout their entire life cycle – from the procurement of raw materials, through processing and manufacturing processes, and the use of products and services, to their disposal or recycling. Vossloh will be devoting even greater attention to these aspects in the future.

As part of the comprehensive Sustainability Materiality Analysis 2021, “Sustainable supply chain and operations” was identified as one of seven key focus areas. The goal was set to expand sustainability in the supply chain and to increase the share of sustainably purchased procurement volume to 90 percent by 2025. As part of a responsible sourcing management system, sustainability criteria are defined and implemented in procurement, a criteria-based risk assessment of suppliers is conducted and suppliers are bound by a Group-wide Code of Conduct.

The Group already attaches great importance to the responsible use of resources and environmental protection in its service provision and procurement activities. Vossloh units check suppliers on the basis of self-disclosure as a standard procedure before placing an order. For ongoing contracts, a performance evaluation is carried out on a regular basis. Several business units also developed their own codes of conduct for partners based on their experience in 2021. This includes committing strategic suppliers to key principles, including sustainability issues that Vossloh itself is also concerned about.