Sustainable sourcing
We select our suppliers carefully and collaborate only with those who conduct business ethically and responsibly and share our values.
Sourcing is guided by Suominen’s Purchasing Policy, which covers the sourcing and purchasing of goods and services. Raw material suppliers are required to sign and comply with Suominen’s Supplier Code of Conduct. The purpose of the Supplier Code of Conduct is to explain Suominen’s expectations for doing business responsibly and ethically and to set the standards for conducting business with Suominen.
In our Sustainability Agenda 2020-2025, our target is to have our raw material suppliers assessed against the Supplier Code of Conduct by 2025. Suominen established a supplier sustainability assessment process in 2024. In accordance with the process, all raw material suppliers were invited to complete a sustainability assessment through EcoVadis, and corrective actions are subsequently defined to address any identified issues.
In 2024, our primary raw material suppliers covered 93% of our raw material purchases (in tons). 91% of the purchased raw material tons from these primary suppliers, came from suppliers, with a valid EcoVadis ESG assessment in place.
In our 2025-2030 Sustainability Agenda, our targets for corporate citizenship include having all qualified raw material suppliers assessed against Suominen’s sustainability criteria by 2030. In order to assess our qualified raw material suppliers, we will renew our sustainability due diligence process 2025 onwards.
Raw material suppliers
Suominen’s current due diligence process for managing sustainable raw material sourcing consists of two elements: country risk assessment and a sustainability questionnaire.
We assess our potential new raw material suppliers with a country risk assessment. The assessment is designed to outline a standardized method for assessing the likelihood that a potential supplier may have insufficient sustainable practices in place to minimize potential risks to Suominen and its stakeholders and so that precautions can be taken to reduce risks. We identify and consider potential hazards and impacts concerning the environment, labor & human rights, and ethics, based on the geographic location and geopolitical and governmental practices.
Every raw material supplier is required to complete trial runs for quality and performance to ensure their raw materials meet or exceed our standards to become a qualified raw material supplier.
All qualified raw material suppliers will be invited and encouraged to participate in an annual sustainability questionnaire with EcoVadis. The resulting scorecard disclosing an overall score is published internally. Quarterly, Suominen monitors supplier scorecards, taking the opportunity to engage with suppliers who score less than the average industry score. In such a case, Suominen will initiate a corrective action plan (CAP) to address unacceptable scores and encourage the supplier to make improvements.
We are going to revisit this sustainability due diligence process for raw material sourcing and develop it further as part of our 2025–2030 Sustainability Agenda.