Improving Suppliers
We’re helping suppliers meet the highest standards in the industry. Ours.
We have a strict Code of Conduct that requires our suppliers to adhere to high standards for safe working conditions, fair treatment of workers and environmentally safe manufacturing. Every year, we strengthen these standards in a continuing effort to raise the bar. By forming close partnerships, we help our suppliers develop the knowledge and skills they need to operate responsibly. In 2016, even as we raised our benchmarks and added new suppliers to our program, our collaboration resulted in higher scores across the board.
Year-on-year progress through partnership.
We conducted 705 supplier assessments in 2016. Almost 30 per cent of these were first-time assessments for suppliers new to the program. By working closely with our suppliers, we were able to increase the number of high-performing supplier sites by 59 per cent and decrease the number of low-performing supplier sites by 31 per cent compared with 2015.
- 209 High Performers (90–100)
- 330 Medium Performers (60–89)
- 35 Low Performers (≤59)
- 332 High Performers (90–100)
- 349 Medium Performers (60–89)
- 24 Low Performers (≤59)
How we measure our progress.
In order to know whether our suppliers are progressing, we conduct regular assessments. We assess suppliers in three main categories: labour and human rights, environmental responsibility, and health and safety. Each category is scored on a 100-point scale based on more than 500 data points that correspond to our Code of Conduct. We expect our suppliers to show steady improvement, and we work with them to achieve this through education, training tools and support.
85
Average Assessment Score
compliance: 85 points, violations: 15 points.
87
Average Assessment Score
compliance: 87 points, violations: 13 points.
87
Average Assessment Score
compliance: 87 points, violations: 13 points.
Scores issued on a 100-point scale in 2016
We’re leading the way on the environment and helping our partners keep pace.
Throughout our supply chain, we’re driving programs that minimise carbon emissions, eliminate landfill waste, conserve water and replace unsafe chemicals. We’re also helping our suppliers reduce the amount of energy they use and make the switch to renewable energy. We’re advancing renewable energy usage by working with suppliers to create 4 gigawatts of renewable energy around the world by 2020 that will help power their facilities. In 2016, we tripled the number of supplier sites participating in our energy efficiency program, resulting in a reduction of more than 150,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. A number of large suppliers have already committed to powering all Apple manufacturing with renewable energy by the end of 2018. These commitments will reduce carbon emissions by 7 million tonnes per year — the equivalent of removing 1.5 million cars from the road for a year. We’re even taking responsibility for our paper supply chain: more than 99 per cent of the paper used in our packaging comes from either recycled wood fibre or sustainably managed forests and controlled wood sources.
Case Study
Creating a zero-waste manufacturing facility.
In 2015, we started a zero-waste program for our final assembly suppliers. One of the participants was Tech-Com in Shanghai. Working closely with the facility, we discovered that more than 20 per cent of the waste it produced was being incinerated or going to landfill. We partnered with our supplier and its local recycling facility to develop a better process for separating and recycling waste. As a result, Tech-Com is now able to recycle all its waste rather than sending it to landfill or an incinerator. Tech-Com also developed a new process for managing food waste, allowing it to send this waste to a local composter instead of landfill. It then used what it had learnt to develop a process that helped its own suppliers collect and reuse packaging material. Since the program started, Tech-Com has diverted more than 10,000 tonnes of waste from landfill, earning the company a well-deserved UL Zero Waste to Landfill validation in 2016.