Impact+ Procurement and Suppliers Policy

It is important for us to let you know that as a social company, Impact+ is committed to creating a positive impact for its clients, partners and other stakeholders. To accomplish that commitment the decision-making also considers the impacts of its supply chain.
We favour suppliers with a similar purpose, and analogous standards regarding the conduct of their business and their management of social and environmental issues. That is why we have a strict policy that entails 3 steps – criteria for supplier choice, monitoring and evaluation and products choice criteria.

Impact+ suppliers are preferably:

  • Entities that are non-profit organizations;
  • Entities that have social or environmental missions;
  • Entities with social or environmental positive impacts;
  • Local entities, to support the local economy and to reduce the environmental footprint;
  • Entities with active corporate social responsibility policies;
  • Entities with policies and initiatives to reduce their environmental footprint.

 

In addition, we make sure our suppliers enforce certain standards and business ethics, such as:
Social standards – eliminating forced or compulsory labour, abolishing child labour, fair wages; working hours in compliance with national legislation; respecting human rights; non-discrimination; safe and healthy working environments; and, freedom of association, meetings and collective bargaining.
Environmental standards – suppliers are expected to take environmental concerns into consideration during each phase of production or service development and delivery. This includes developing products with no unnecessary environmental impacts, that are safe and efficient in consumption, and can be reused, recycled or disposed of safely; are expected to monitor, control and reduce the use of resources, including energy, water and other commodities; are expected to minimise air emissions and water discharges, and to discharge of solid waste and by-products.
Business standards – suppliers are strictly forbidden from offering any bribe (consisting of money or anything of value) to public officials, irrespective of their worth, its results, local custom, the tolerance of such payments by local authorities; should avoid any actual or apparent conflict of interest. 

In terms of monitoring and evaluation of our suppliers we also take it very seriously in order to choose the most suitable ones and to understand if they are aligned with our values.

Monitoring process rules:

  • A team member should visit personally the facilities of all relevant suppliers at least annually.
  • In this visit the team member should evaluate the supplier performance during the past year, considering the points stated below, as well as to check all the evaluation criteria referred on the check-list below.
  • Less relevant suppliers are checked over email or phone and might ask for evidence of their statements.

 

Performance review:

  • Review client’s feedback
  • Review prices if necessary
  • Confirm if contact person remains the same
  • Confirm if contacts are updated
  • Were there any relevant incidents in the past year on the service/product provided?
  • Are there any relevant changes coming next year?
  • How can we improve the service/product together?
  • Is there anything we can do to help them?
  • What are their main goals for next year?

 

Evaluation Checklist:

  • Are the company social standards met?
  • Are the company environmental standards met?
  • Are the company business standards met?
  • Are the past certifications currently valid?
  • Are there any new certifications (ISO, Green key, B-Corp, Biosphere…)?
  • Do they run criminal background checks on their employees?

 

Finally our procurement policy goes beyond the choice of the supplier but is also applied to the products these suppliers offer us.
Given that a given supplier meets the social, environmental and business standards defined above, we defined as preferred choice the products/services that meet the following criteria:

  • Products crafted/produced by non-profits
  • Produced locally
  • Organic
  • Seasonal products
  • Products with plastic-free packaging
  • Non-GMO seeds/products
  • Energy efficient products, such as equipments’ with at least A+ efficiency label
  • Second-hand products