We see the protection of international human rights as part of our due duty of care as entrepreneurs and business owners. This is why we published an updated ‘Supplier Code of Conduct’ on 1 November 2017 and began urging initial suppliers to abide by the Code in early 2018.  We will continue this measure until have attained our target to communicate the Code of Conduct to 100% of our suppliers, including technical suppliers and service providers.

As a part of „Chemie³ – die Nachhaltigkeitsinitiative der deutschen chemischen Industrie“ (sustainability initiative of the chemical industry in Germany) – Worlée-Chemie participated in the project ‘Sustainability in the supply chain’ as a pilot company and has also contributed to the development of guidelines for SMEs. These guidelines are predominantly intended to help SMEs in the chemical industry implement a sustainable supply chain management system.

The pilot project allowed us to collect practical experience in the identification of sustainability aspects in supply chains and to carry out risk analyses for individual phases of the value chain. Business partners from the supply chains identified on this basis were requested to undergo an  EcoVadis Assessment. These assessments consider the following criteria: environment, work practices and human rights, fair business practices and sustainable procurement. By the end of 2018, we had contacted approx. 20% of our raw material suppliers and the largest part of the results are already available to us. Our objective is to continuously have additional suppliers assessed until we have covered all of our most important suppliers.

We additionally intend to introduce a complaints office as part of our compliance management.

Our strategy is to procure, as far as possible, the goods and services required at our main business locations in Hamburg, Lauenburg and Lübeck from local suppliers in northern Germany (federal states of SchleswigHolstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania).