Supply Chain
As part of our Corporate Responsibility (CR) materiality process, we engage with our stakeholders to identify relevant CR-related supply chain issues for our Company. The CR supply chain issues identified as relevant to NAB are:
- Managing the impact of our purchasing
- Outsourcing
- Responsible procurement practices
- Selecting sustainable suppliers
Across the Group, we are developing regional supplier sustainability programs each of which will differ due to varying regional regulations. Our procurement process clearly informs potential suppliers of our expectations, policies and requirements and outlines our preference to do business with suppliers that have sound environmental, workplace and human rights practices. All supply contracts put out to tender are evaluated against a pre-determined evaluation matrix which includes any relevant CR criteria and commercial requirements so that we can meet our commitments to the:
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In Australia
In 2009, NAB introduced our Supplier Sustainability Program to educate, influence and support our supply chain to improve their sustainability performance. The program involves the following key objectives:
- Implement Supplier Sustainability Principles
- Monitor compliance to Supplier Sustainability Principles
- Sustainability initiatives with high impact suppliers
- Support and recognition of supplier sustainability performance
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Key Achievements
CIPS Australasia Procurement Professional Award Winner 2010: Socially Responsible Procurement
We're committed to having a positive impact through our purchasing decisions and ensuring that our business practices are fair and responsible. Our supply chain is far reaching, covering purchases from technology to travel. As a global business we spend over $4 billion on goods and services each year and support over 20,000 suppliers worldwide. Our purchasing decisions can have a real impact on our suppliers, the environment and communities in which we work.
Since 2009, we have been the largest Fair Trade accredited workplace in Australia. At NAB, we drink over 4.5 million cups of tea and coffee every year in our offices and retail branches. By purchasing Fair Trade, we're helping create sustainable market opportunities for producers who have been economically disadvantaged or marginalised by the conventional trading system. Effectively, we're helping improve the lives of tea workers in Sri Lanka and coffee farmers in Colombia.
Sustainability in the supplier selection process
Our supplier selection process, as supplemented by applicable regional Supplier Sustainability Principles, aims to clearly inform potential suppliers of our expectations, policies and requirements, which include doing business with suppliers that have sound environmental, workplace and human rights practices. Our tender evaluation process includes questions regarding these practices.
Monitoring supplier performance
Monitoring our suppliers' performance is an important aspect of the ongoing relationship. Each regional business monitors supplier performance through their day-to-day relationships with suppliers. Where appropriate, we include clauses in new supply contracts to reflect our sustainability requirements.
Our policy is to ensure our suppliers are aware of important environmental, social and ethical risks and opportunities and then to work with them to address any issues. We have begun this supplier education process with key suppliers that help us to manage our environmental and social performance, or that have gone through recent tender processes.
A number of our suppliers, including our facilities managers, help us to monitor, improve and report on our own corporate responsibility performance.
Working with our suppliers
We ensure we conduct our procurement processes in a manner that is ethical, fair and transparent, whilst respecting the confidential information of suppliers.
We work with our suppliers to promote our corporate principles and values and we seek to build long-term productive and collaborative relationships. We also seek feedback from our supply chain partners on our own performance and supply chain management.
Selecting Sustainable Suppliers
We work hard to embed sustainability criteria within our procurement processes across the Group, excluding our US operations. In 2011, more than 24,000 businesses supplied us with over $4.5 billion of goods and services. Of the 45 significant supply chain contracts entered into in 2011, 40% contained specific corporate responsibility clauses.
Sale of Debt to Third Parties
At times NAB uses the services of debt collection agencies. These agencies are only engaged by NAB for customers with unsecured debts and only once internal avenues have been exhausted.
In 2009 NAB released a Request for Proposal tender into the market for its sale of debt to 3rd parties as part of a review undertaken of our debt collection agencies. The evaluation process involved ensuring customers are treated fairly and consistently when their debt is sold to a collections agency.
Some of the key areas of the evaluation included; the level of debtor care offered, hardships processes and related staff training on these issues, complaints processes and policies, and the number and nature of complaints lodged against the company previously.
For further information on how we manage debt collection and work with customers facing financial hardship at NAB please refer to the following fact sheets:
