We seek to do business with suppliers who share our social and
environmental values.
Our Sustainability 2015 goal is 100 percent
compliance with Kimberly-Clark social standards.
Our suppliers are the 30,000-plus companies worldwide that
provide the goods and services we need to run our facilities and
make our products. These include about 150 contract manufacturers
that produce finished products to our specifications. Some 96
percent of Kimberly-Clark's cost of sales in North America and
Europe related to our own production and contract manufacturers
accounted for the remaining four percent. We expect suppliers to
comply with applicable laws, standards and codes and to work to
enhance the sustainability of their operations.
We keep our suppliers informed about our sustainability
objectives and activities through our Sustainability at K-C: Guide for Suppliers,
launched in 2007 and updated in 2012. In addition, we meet with key
suppliers on a regular basis.
We engage a number of these key suppliers in
sustainability-related projects and objectives. Examples include
working with suppliers to help them achieve more efficient use of
packaging, forestry stewardship certification, and more sustainable
materials. Many of our suppliers have their own sustainability
strategies and goals in place. In 2010, we plan to have a greater
number of suppliers with explicit sustainability-related objectives
for Kimberly-Clark.
Strengthening social compliance
During 2010, we made substantial strides in developing a
best-practice protocol for supply chain auditing and contract
manufacturing adherence. We updated our SSCS requirements and
checklist, which clearly communicates Kimberly-Clark's values and
expectations. In 2011 our plan is to complete communicating the
standards and building understanding of expectations throughout the
top tier of Kimberly-Clark's finished-product
contract-manufacturing supply chain.
At the end of 2010, Kimberly-Clark had more than 230 contract
manufacturers worldwide. This represents $1.1 billion in total
category spend, or about 5 percent of Kimberly-Clark global sales.
As part of our Global Business Plan, we will be using contract
manufacturing to a greater degree. The use of contract
manufacturing is a strategic decision that offers certain
advantages and will enable us to achieve our Global Business Plan
objectives.
Climate change and our supply chain
In line with our life-cycle
approach, we're seeking to assess the greenhouse gas
emissions of our suppliers as well as those from our own
operations. In 2010, we joined the Carbon Disclosure Project supply
chain project and we will ask about 60 of our major suppliers to
disclose their carbon emissions-related data in 2010.
Through our partnership with the World Resources Institute,
which developed the GHG Protocol in partnership with the World
Business Council for Sustainable Development, we have discussed the
challenges of tracking greenhouse gas emissions throughout the
product life-cycle.
As a result of these discussions, we were asked to lead the GHG
Protocol Product Life Cycle Initiative Methodology Technical
Working Group. Throughout the year we contributed to debate and
coordinated the development of methodology for the draft Product
Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard. Sixty companies are
currently testing these standards and we look forward to working
with these and other organizations to finalize the guidance
following the review process.
Support secondary fiber suppliers, Colombia
Recyclers in Colombia are a socially vulnerable
population. Kimberly-Clark contributes to the health, hygiene
and the well-being of the recyclers that work with us as suppliers.
For more than three years, we have conducted comprehensive health
events with general physicians, ophthalmologists, dentists and
speech and hearing therapists. At these events, recyclers - and
their families - have the opportunity for medical reviews, receive
medications, lab exams and eyeglasses, all according to the
patient's needs. More than 1,100 recycling families have benefited
from this program, which in turn creates loyalty and admiration for
the Scott brand. And given that 90 percent of the raw materials for
producing tissue paper in Colombia comes from recycling, these
efforts represent a win-win for the recyclers as well as our
environment.
Learn
more about K-C's Supplier Diversity program.
