Working with suppliers

Nokia provides training for suppliers. It focuses on the Nokia Supplier Requirements, labor conditions, health and safety in the work place, design for the environment, and substance management.

We work with suppliers to address any weaknesses revealed by our assessments. Suppliers must develop corrective action plans within 30 days and provide evidence of implementation. This can be in the form of a photograph for smaller recommendations, or may involve a further site visit if significant changes are required.

We help suppliers improve their management of corporate responsibility issues by meeting with them and sharing examples of best practice from Nokia’s own operations or from other case studies. We help suppliers develop their own internal CR organization and embed CR within their business starting with a commitment from the top. We also work with Tier One suppliers to help them manage their own supply chains.

For example, in 2007 we initiated a cross-commodity development program with Foxconn – a global contract manufacturer and component supplier based in Taiwan. We helped the company set up a corporate CR structure connected to business units, and to define a corporate CR commitment. Nokia has been working with Foxconn for a number of years, meeting regularly to share best practice.

See a supplier’s view for more information.

Several companies in our supply chain have been highlighted by reports from non-governmental organizations on working conditions in the ICT supply chain in 2006 and 2007. We are working with these companies to ensure any issues raised have been addressed.

See stakeholder engagement for more information.

Internal training

In 2007 we ran three training sessions on our updated Nokia Supplier Requirements, attended by approximately 50 people (40% of our supplier assessors). We also held a number of online sessions about new EU REACH regulations.

Working with industry

Nokia became a full member of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) in 2007. We have been a member of the GeSI Supply Chain Working Group since November 2004. This Group works closely with the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC). The main aim of this collaborative effort is to develop and deploy a consistent set of tools and processes to measure, monitor and improve CR performance across the ICT sector supply chain.

As part of our membership of the GeSI Supply Chain Working Group, we actively participate in the Learning and Capability Building, Joint Audit and Audit Process, and Extractives sub-groups.

Through GeSI, we are part of a multi-stakeholder capability-building project for the ICT sector in China. The Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS) project began in 2006, in collaboration with the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, Business for Social Responsibility, GeSI and the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct (EICC). The aim of the project is to identify key challenges and ways to improve labor and social conditions in the Shenzhen region of China.

The report published by FIAS in June 2007 found that while supply chain monitoring is valuable, the ICT industry should also collaborate with the government and non-governmental organizations to improve capability-building. It made a series of recommendations for customers, suppliers, government, industry associations and NGOs. A pilot is being conducted with a small number of suppliers in Shenzhen to test the practicality of the recommendations – and the potential to replicate them on a larger scale. The pilot is testing the effectiveness of a series of factory initiatives, including a worker hotline, a health and safety committee with employee involvement, worker training, and the implementation of social and environmental management systems. The pilot was due for completion early in 2008.

Find information about other GeSI activities at www.gesi.org.