We have strengthened the CSR focus in our purchasing policy, including specific guidance on CSR, ethical behaviours and standards of business conduct. The UK purchasing and supply management team act as the custodians of good practice and guidance in this area.

Embedding CSR in supply management

To embed CSR, we realised that we needed to make CSR more formalised and measurable in our sourcing and supply management activities. Here are some of our key achievements in 2006.

A revised group purchasing and supply management policy, approved by the group executive in 2006, paved the way for the purchasing and supply management team to establish this initiative globally in the end-to-end supply chain.

The policy was issued to all business units, together with guidance on how to implement it. We are now developing a standard process framework to put this into action and monitor its success. A key element is a supplier CSR code of conduct and we have given this to our top 20 suppliers by value. To date, 65% of suppliers have signed up to the code of conduct. In 2007 we will roll it out to our top 100 suppliers and have set a sign-up target of at least 75%. In 2006, Delta Lloyd Group also actively contacted suppliers to ask them to sign a Suppliers Sustainability Code of Conduct. All contacted suppliers signed the Code.

We want to be seen to be leading from the front in CSR, not only within our company but in the wider financial services community. It is important to raise the profile of CSR and to develop industry standards and common approaches so we proposed, and now chair, a CSR sub-group within the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) Financial Services Purchasing Forum. This includes representatives from other leading UK and international financial services companies. The work of the CSR sub-group has led to the development of an organisational measure of CSR maturity for financial services organisations. By setting themselves against a range of six measures, financial services organisations can understand their maturity and develop action plans to move forward.

We are building CSR into every stage of our contracting process, setting this against the need to meet organisational objectives and targets. This will be achieved by understanding the CSR opportunity at the outset of a project and then following it through each stage to contract award and benefit delivery. Our CSR questions ask the supplier’s stance on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) core labour standards and how these affect their own employees and suppliers.

Since 2004, Aviva France has sent CSR questionnaires to suppliers which include a clause regarding CSR (long-term development) to ensure that the companies that Aviva works with share the same values. The CSR questionnaire is also sent to suppliers as part of the call for tender and has to be completed by the suppliers and returned to Aviva France as part of their offer. The guidelines through which tenders are offered are being placed online on the website to advertise the “politique d’achat”. This increases the awareness of both employees and clients to Aviva France’s supplier policies. In 2007 an evaluation will take place to assess the progress of the suppliers since the initial surveys carried out in 2004.