Sika works to ensure its sourcing activities are aligned to all required standards and regulations.
Sika therefore employs a stringent and comprehensive Supplier Qualification Process, enforcing the highest standards when selecting potential suppliers. We take the responsibility to effectively manage and execute this process carefully to ensure complete transparency upstream of our supply chain.
This qualification process is additionally applied to our existing supplier network to ensure continuous assessment, evaluation, and collaborative improvement, with a strong focus on compliance and sustainability.
Supplier Code of Conduct - Values and Expectations
A core pillar of Sika’s supplier qualification process is the “Sika Supplier Code of Conduct”, which sets out our expectations for our supplier network and reflects the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact initiative, the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the International Labor Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the global chemical industry’s Responsible Care® program and the Conflict Minerals Regulations.
Sika’s values are very much centered around respecting universal human and workers’ rights, acting in accordance with fundamental environmental, health and safety standards and investing efforts into sustainable development and corporate responsibility. It is the expectation of Sika that our supplier network embraces the same set of values and enforce them in their own supply chain network. The same standards and expectations will apply to any acquisitions Sika onboards and integrates as well. As a minimum requirement, Sika requires that all suppliers sign and agree to meet the standards set out in the Sika Supplier Code of Conduct.
Supplier Code of Conduct
This Supplier Code of Conduct shall govern the relationship between Sika and Supplier. The term “supplier” as used in this document refers to a legal or natural person, which – as a third party and based on a contractual agreement – provides any type of raw material, good, technology, know-how or service to Sika and/or its subsidiaries.
Supplier assures full compliance with all applicable laws and international standards. This includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the core conventions of the International Labor Organization on labor standards, and all applicable local, national and international laws concerning anti-corruption, fair competition, non-proliferation and export controls, sanctions and embargos, environment-health-safety protection, permits and licenses to operate, as well as secrecy and privacy protection.
Supplier assures zero tolerance for any form of bribery, corruption, or money laundering. This means that Supplier does not engage in offering or accepting any kind of incentive, kickback, gratuity, gift or other unlawful favor with the intention to receive favorable treatment by Sika or obtain/retain Sika business. In addition, Supplier has internal rules in place prohibiting bribery and corruption and provides regular training to its staff to assure compliance.
Supplier assures full compliance with applicable competition laws. This means, Supplier does not engage with its competitors in price fixing, bid rigging, customer/market collusion, exchange of pricing information or the like.
Supplier complies with fundamental human, workers’, and consumers’ rights. All employees must be treated with respect and dignity and shall not be verbally or physically harassed, abused, threatened, or intimidated.
Supplier will not engage in any practice nor tolerate any circumstance that puts the life or health of workers or consumers at risk. All applicable health and safety standards must be fully met.
Supplier shall implement suitable internal guidelines and assure adequate training to concerned staff.
Supplier enforces the prohibition of all forms of child¹ or forced labor (including modern slavery and human trafficking), in accordance with relevant international conventions. Where local laws are stricter, they take precedence. Supplier assures implementation of the prohibition of modern slavery, human trafficking, child and forced labor in its own supply chain network.
¹ The term “child” refers to any person under the age of 15, or under the age of completing compulsory schooling (whichever is higher).
Supplier does not discriminate² against any specific group of its work force, promotes diversity and inclusion among its work force, and is required to document its efforts to achieve such goals.
² “ Discrimination” is the act and result of treating people unequally by imposing unequal burdens or denying benefits rather than treating each person fairly on the basis of individual merit.
Suppliers grants its employees the freedom to associate and the right to bargaining collectively, to the extent permitted under applicable local law.
Supplier complies with all applicable wage and working hours regulations.
Supplier implements all applicable environmental, health, safety and transportation standards. It maintains a recognized management system identical or similar to ISO 14000 ff. and ISO 45001, ensuring a continuous monitoring and improvement of its operational impacts on environment, health and safety. If appropriate, it further implements adequate management systems to guarantee the safe and environmentally sound development, manufacturing, transport, and use of its products, as well as full compliance with all applicable regulations concerning dangerous goods and hazardous substances.
Accordingly, Supplier ensures the safe management of waste, air emissions and wastewater discharges along its own supply chain. It strives for increased resource efficiency, by means of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly technologies to reduce the use of finite resources, energy consumption, waste, wastewater, pollution, emissions of greenhouse gases, and any other negative impact on biodiversity, the environment, health or safety.
Supplier provides Sika with all required product safety and labelling documentation and makes sure that the goods delivered to Sika do not contain substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to reproduction under the Global Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS CMR Category 1A/1B substances).
Supplier regularly assesses potential emergencies and is prepared to implement contingency plans in case of business interruption.
To the extent required by applicable national laws and its contract(s) with Sika, Supplier must maintain confidentiality regarding all confidential and business sensitive information it exchanges with Sika. In its sphere of influence, it shall protect personal information it received from Sika as well as Sika’s intellectual property rights with adequate measures.
Supplier must have measures in place to assure compliance with applicable non-proliferation, export control, sanctions and hazardous materials regulations.
Supplier must be free of any conflict of interests³ when fulfilling its contractual obligations vis-à-vis Sika. In case of an actual or potential conflict of interests, please immediately contact compliance@ch.sika.com.
³ A “conflict of interests” may result from pursuing goals that are not aligned or clash with each other, for instance if a Sika employee or his/her close relative also owns a supplier company.
Supplier must implement above-listed principles in its own supply chain and is expected to document its efforts to achieve such goals.
Supplier must inform Sika immediately about observed violations of abovelisted principles, by Supplier’s or Sika’s staff. In either case, please report to compliance@ch.sika.com.
This Supplier Code of Conduct represents an integral part of the contractual agreement between Sika and Supplier, unless Sika and Supplier – in a separate Declaration of Recognition (see Annex) signed by Sika – agree that Supplier’s own Code of Conduct or similar internal guidelines adequately satisfy all above-mentioned principles and their implementation and thus may be applied in lieu of Sika’s Supplier Code of Conduct.
Supplier grants Sika the right to assess, by means of targeted questionnaires or third-party audits, compliance with certain or all of the above-listed principles.
Sika at any point shall have the right to propose corrective actions to Supplier. If Supplier is found not to have met above-listed requirements, Sika may terminate its contract(s) with Supplier.