For our suppliers

Vendor Day: an event addressed to suppliers

The "Acea Vendor Day. Let’s grow together" event was held in March 2023 at the La Fornace Conference Centre. During this occasion we shared with our partners and suppliers the vision and objectives outlined in our 2024-2028 Business Plan – Green Diligent Growth. The meeting was a precious opportunity to enhance the dialogue and cooperation between all the players in Acea’s supply chain with a view to facing the challenges and taking advantage of business opportunities. The objective is to constantly improve process efficiency, focusing on innovation, sustainability and occupational safety.

In addition to contractor awareness initiatives with regard to safety and the monitoring of data, audits and inspections are performed regularly to ensure contractor compliance with safety standards. More specifically, Acea Infrastructure’s Occupational Safety Unit, the reference structure, at Group level, for the safety management of outsourced works and services, conducted 14,252 safety inspections at worksites, following which a lower number and constantly downward trend was noted of the “major” non-compliance cases recorded. Apart from the audit of health and safety criteria, we make sure that our suppliers integrate key sustainability aspects into their business, paying attention to the environment, energy efficiency, utilisation of eco-sustainable materials and the fight against corruption.

85%
of suppliers qualified during the year completed the Quality, Environment, Safety, Energy and Sustainability self-assessment questionnaire
14,252
safety inspections at worksites (+3.6% compared to 2020) conducted by the Worksite Safety Unit

Data as at 31 December 2023

Focus on ethics and sustainability in Acea’s value chain

We create value also thanks to the responsible management of relationships with our suppliers, fundamental players for the ethical and sustainable activities of the entire Group. Supplier relationships and procurement management take place in accordance with our Code of Ethics, which, in the revised version approved in 2022, sets out the principles underlying our business. As regards the relationship between Acea and its suppliers, the key points are:

  • equal opportunities for each supplier;
  • behaviours based on reciprocal loyalty, transparency and collaboration;
  • observance of rules and procedures, including due diligence processes designed to identify potential reputational and/or corruption risks;
  • on the part of the supplier or sub-supplier, the protection of human rights pertaining to their respective employees and environmental conservation, respect for privacy and guaranteed quality of goods, services and performance.

Supplier selection and assessment

To ensure the quality of the work and promote sustainable worksite management, we only operate with qualified suppliers. In this connection, we have established qualification systems for the suppliers of work, goods and services, which can be accessed via our Vendor Management portal, already integrated with supplier details.

At the time of qualification, our suppliers are required to complete a self-assessment questionnaire - differentiated according to whether they provide goods and services or works - which focuses on Quality, Environment, Safety, Energy and other aspects of sustainability.

After qualifying, the supplier may be subjected to a second-party audit of the Quality, Environment, Safety, Energy and Social Responsibility (QASER) management systems, to verify their correct application, and the procedures for managing the areas of significance in terms of sustainability.

The Group Vendor Rating project was expanded during 2022 with a view to improving the monitoring of the supply chain. In particular, the assessment system will monitor several performance indicators, also including an indicator that rewards aspects associated with social and environmental sustainability, identified using the EcoVadis model.

Highlights

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