Sustainability must be embedded within a company's value system, laying the foundation for a principal course of action on how to do business. This also means operating in ways that meet primary responsibilities in the areas of human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. The UN Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative, encourages companies to make sustainability a priority from the top of the organization. Seeing the supply chain as an extension of their own operations, workforce and community, companies are expected to set up best practices across their supply chain. The UN initiative supports companies in doing business responsibly by aligning their strategies, policies, and procedures with ten principles across the four issue areas »Human Rights«, »Labor«, »Environment«, and »Anti-Corruption«.

Clariant is committed to making sure that its sustainability strategy not only includes its employees, customers, shareholders, and stakeholders, but also its suppliers. A major challenge concerning the latter is balancing cost efficiency and a high level of quality, ecological and social standards with a sustained security of supply. Setting sustainability as a key element for its business strategy, Clariant pledges itself to ethical and sustainable behavior in all business activities according to its own Code of Conduct for Suppliers based on the principles of the UN Global Compact and Responsible Care®. As the company is fully committed to continuously reducing potential risks that its supply chains may be exposed to, it consequently proactively monitors and manages supply chain risks.

Clariant produces and markets specialty chemicals for its customers. To this end, it requires raw materials, packaging, capital equipment, services, and other inputs, such as energy, sourced from suppliers throughout the world. Clariant procures most of its goods and services directly from the relevant producers and suppliers, whereby the company is not significantly dependent on any one supplier.

Clariant selects its suppliers, outsourcing partners and service providers based on a comprehensive set of criteria. The selection is based not only on economic and product-specific performance aspects alone, but also non-financial aspects and sustainability considerations are explicitly taken into account in the selection process as well. Clariant’s sustainability standards are incorporated into its procurement strategies and activities, policies, and general guidelines (such as the Code of Conduct for Suppliers). Therefore, sustainability at Clariant does not begin and end with its own manufacturing operations but extends across its entire supply chain as well.

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