Sustainable Procurement Policy

Supply Chains require the sourcing, manufacture, packaging, transportation, and disposal, recycling, or reuse of a vast number of products. Prior to purchasing every product being incorporated into a supply chain operation, it must be evaluated by a procurement professional, and a decision made on whether or not to purchase the product. Many factors in addition to cost, configuration, and availability are considered when ALOM sources and procures materials such as country of origin, supplier reputation, diverse ownership, dependability, and human rights protection. Sustainable procurement is the incorporation of purchasing procedures that consider social, human health, environmental, and economic impacts before making any procurement decision.

This Sustainable Procurement Policy:

1. Defines ALOM’s commitment to sustainable procurement to its customers, employees, suppliers, and community.
2. Establishes core expectations around how ALOM procurement processes support its environmental, social, and governance values.
3. Empowers employees to be innovative and demonstrate leadership in sustainability by considering sustainability benefits when making purchasing decisions.
4. Promotes the choice of products that are more resource-efficient and by considering the total life cycle cost and impact.

ALOM’s Commitment

At ALOM, we are committed towards social impact and strive for sustainability across every function, including sourcing and procurement. We make our procurement operations more sustainable by:

• Upholding the laws and regulations of the respective countries we operate in
• Endorsing highest standards of economic, social, ethical, and environmental practices
• Identifying and moderating risks associated with our process
• Communicating the policy with stakeholders (internal and external) and raising awareness among our suppliers
• Tracking, reporting, and improving sustainable procurement performance outcomes

ALOM’s Approach

We commit to the following actions to attain Sustainable Procurement Policy compliance:

1. Allocate sufficient staff and financial resources to the sustainable procurement program to ensure program goals are met and results reported.
2. Create a shared understanding of current and future spending patterns and purchasing needs at ALOM and identify the largest purchasing-related sustainability impacts and opportunities.
3. Create a Sustainable Procurement Action Plan to:
   1. Prioritize categories of spending for sustainable procurement
   2. Establish quantitative goals for each category
   3. Identify the specific implementation strategies to achieve goals
   4. Describe coordination, communications, measurement, and reporting responsibilities
4. Engage appropriate internal and external stakeholders to implement the Action Plan with strategies that may include:
   1. Undertake a needs analysis to evaluate category spending
   2. Conduct market assessments and engage suppliers to determine the availability of viable and innovative procurement options
   3. Seek disclosure of relevant sustainability information from suppliers, leveraging shared or existing data where available
   4. Engage and reward suppliers for meeting sustainability goals
5. Review progress annually to maintain continuous improvement of the sustainable procurement program.
6. Contribute lessons learned to the broader community of professionals working to promote sustainable procurement as part of the ALOM leadership mission.

Supplier Diversity Program

At ALOM, we recognize the value of diversity and have adopted a Supplier Diversity Program to promote the inclusion of diverse suppliers in our procurement process. We categorize diverse suppliers as minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, LGBT-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, historically underutilized businesses, and SBA-defined small business. In 2002, ALOM became Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) and has remained an active advocate for supporting diverse supplier certification.

Suppliers at ALOM

In accordance with our commitment to the highest standards, we also expect our suppliers to aspire to the same standards in their business operations, including but not limited to:

Labor and Human Rights:

• Comply with all applicable laws, in accordance with the principles of the International Labor Organization, the UN Global Compact and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Prohibit slavery and the use of forced, bonded, or child labor across the supply chain
• Prohibit unlawful discrimination and harassment to provide a safe and inclusive work environment

Environment:

• Comply and adhere to all the applicable environmental laws in respective countries/jurisdictions
• Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility such as:

• Responsible waste management and disposal
• Reduction of greenhouse gas and other emissions or waste harmful to the environment
• Conservation of non-renewable natural resources

Business Ethics:

• Obey all relevant international and domestic laws regarding ethical business practices
• Demonstrate existence of procedures to prevent:

• Fraud, bribery, corruption
• Conflicts of interest
• Data security issues
• Collaborate with authorities regarding human rights violations

Community Development:

• Provide employees with a living wage, at a minimum
• Engage with the local governments and communities to address the education, cultural, economic, and social well-being of communities which they operate in

< Return to Supplier Management