Smart companies keep a close eye on the ethics of their suppliers. Brand loyalty can suffer if suppliers engage in questionable business practices, according to a report titled, "Assurance for a Sustainable Supply Chain," authored by the Federation des Experts Comptables Europeens (FEE), the representative organization of the European accountancy profession.
To assure compliance with ethical practices "a company can impose its sustainability policies on its supply chain by using a supplier code of conduct. To be useful codes must have sufficient detail to allow clear interpretation, and companies must be able to measure the extent to which suppliers are complying. Independent assurance is a powerful tool for use in the monitoring of suppliers and it adds credibility to a company's own reporting," says Lars-Olle Larsson, chairman of the FEE Sustainability Assurance Group.
For a copy of the report visit: http://www.fee.be/publications/main.htm
