Growing membership and external recognition

The initiative Together for Sustainability (TfS) has become the benchmark for industry collaboration for sustainable supply chains. Its membership has more than tripled in the five years since it was founded, from six up to 19. In May 2016, the initiative and EcoVadis were awarded the SPLC Public Market Transformation Award.

The Together for Sustainability (TfS) initiative was set up in 2011 with the purpose of developing and implementing a global auditing program to assess and improve sustainability practices within the supply chains of the chemical industry. Suppliers’ sustainability performance is verified against pre-defined criteria that are tailored to the requirements of the chemical industry through two processes: TfS assessments that are performed by EcoVadis, an external service provider for CSR assessments, and on-site TfS audits.

TfS membership has more than tripled in the five years since it was founded. In addition to the six founding members, TfS has welcomed members from Europe and the United States. Its members come from all sectors of the chemical industry: In the fourth quarter of 2015 Syngenta, Covestro and IFF joined TfS and in March 2016, Sanofi became the first French-based healthcare company to join this growing initiative.

In the same month, the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC) awarded TfS and EcoVadis its Public Market Transformation Award. At the Ethical Corporation’s Sixth Annual Responsible Business Awards ceremony held in London in 2015, the TfS initiative was recognized as ‘highly commended’ in the category Best Supplier Engagement.

Harmonize complex supply chain management

The TfS initiative is based on the principles of the United Nations Global Compact and the Responsible Care Initiative of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA). Above all, it aims to create synergies so that resources can be used more efficiently and with minimal administrative effort. The members of TfS join forces to assess and audit their suppliers and share the results. The benefits are on both sides: Suppliers receive one request from TfS instead of multiple requests from each individual customer, and TfS members gain access to the results. These synergies make it possible to direct more resources into improvement measures.

Since the start of the TfS initiative 4,600 suppliers have had their sustainability performance rated within the TfS initiative based on EcoVadis assessments. A further 446 TfS audits have been conducted. A total of 2,580 sustainability assessments were shared among TfS Members in 2015, and 179 new TfS audit reports were received by the TfS initiative.

The main focus of activities in 2016 will be on global expansion of the assessment and audit program, driven in part by a supplier conference in India in September. TfS will continue to work on implementing and further developing its processes also in cooperation with stakeholders, e.g. Chemical Associations – with the aim of influencing suppliers and achieving its goal of a more sustainable supply chain for the chemical industry.