Challenges and opportunities
As a group, Uniwater works actively with our suppliers to reduce our carbon footprint. We see both challenges and opportunities for climate change in the water and wastewater industry, but we are convinced that the job must be done. One effort is to implement our code of conduct for suppliers as a requirement in our framework agreements for material purchases. We are challenged by the fact that we have many smaller subcontractors. Our 13 companies currently have over 2,500 suppliers, including subcontractors, which is a large number to manage. We want to reduce the number of suppliers as part of our risk management.
Supplier code of conduct
By signing our supplier code, our suppliers agree to:
• Reduce their environmental and climate impact
• Combat corruption
• Ensure there is no discrimination
• Pay employees a fair wage for their work
• Eliminate child labour
To keep track of our suppliers and continuously improve our collaboration, we are increasing our focus on framework agreements and quality assurance of subcontractors, as well as coordination of product transport from major suppliers and knowledge-enhancing activities within the group. All employees should be aware of these efforts in order to contribute to and maintain our code of conduct in both directions.
These efforts are part of our sustainability work. Overall, we see that these efforts and increased awareness can lead to a reduced carbon footprint, improved working environment and synergy gains in general.
Suppliers that inspire
Uniwater has many environmentally conscious suppliers that inspire and challenge us to become even better in our environmental and sustainability work, for example, in the stainless steel category. We strive to always choose European stainless steel whenever possible. This is because European steel usually consists of mostly recycled materials and because of the geographical proximity that reduce transports.
Our stainless steel suppliers work actively with sustainability, which we appreciate and are inspired by. One of our suppliers, a pioneer in the climate field, is the Portuguese Fucoli. The company manufactures water infrastructure products in recycled steel and uses only green electricity. Fucoli works closely with our subsidiary Ibeco.