Cable & Wireless has pledged to build environmental criteria into the selection of its suppliers.
The UK-listed telecoms giant, which operates in more than 70 countries and employs 50,000 people, makes the promise in its first environment and community report.
C&W says it will begin to work with key strategic suppliers ‘to incorporate environmental considerations into business processes’. As a first step, print suppliers have already been made subject to environmental assessments.
C&W will also carry out more supplier checks using benchmarks devised by the UK-based Business Environment Association and run an employee awareness campaign on environmental management.
It says some of the company’s new environmental targets will have to be met by putting pressure on suppliers, and adds: ‘We do not expect that these [difficulties] can be eliminated overnight, but we do want to work jointly to find innovative solutions to environmental challenges.’
The report, which covers all C&W’s global businesses, is published in a pull-out pack format in which a general overview is supplemented by 12 leaflet-style summaries of areas such as supplier partnerships, customer and employee relationships, community involvement and ethics policies.
Fiona Ball, C&W environment manager, said the report would ‘establish a baseline of performance data for subsequent years so that we can measure our future progress’. The group’s previous venture into non-financial reporting – an environment review in 1996 – did not cover community matters.
Simon Propper of the consultancy Environmental Context, which verified the report, said that despite some gaps it was ‘a considerable achievement’ and ‘a genuine effort to identify all the important issues and to address them openly’.
The report promises to ‘foster open communication’ with neighbours living and working in areas near C&W facilities and to expand its community work.
The group last year spent £5.7million, or 0.3 per cent of pre tax profit, on community projects worldwide.
An internal survey showed employees generally supported the company’s ethics policy, which was drawn up in 1996, but thought that better training was needed on ethical issues.
The audit also commits the group to having environmental management systems in all of its businesses by the end of 2001. It says the deadline is ‘a challenging target but one we are determined to meet’ and reports that some businesses already have systems in place.