Human rights screening (HR 2)

Vattenfall wants all suppliers to accept and act according to the UN Global Compact. To ensure this, Vattenfall adopted a Group-wide code of conduct for suppliers in 2008 with the purpose:

• to be a Group-wide platform for promoting the right behaviour for
  enduring, trustful and sustainable business relations, and
• to increase supplier awareness of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Vattenfall’s Group-wide code of conduct for suppliers was signed by the CEO in September 2008. Since then it has been communicated both on the web and by requests that have been sent out to a couple thousand suppliers, asking them to accept the code by registering and performing a self assessment in the Vattenfall Supplier Bank (“VSB”) via Vattenfall’s website. Vattenfall’s suppliers are now required to be registered in the VSB, and in due time purchasers will not be able to order from unregistered suppliers. The type of self-assessment depends on the risk assessment of the suppliers and their deliveries. To date more than 3,200 suppliers are qualified on the different levels of the VSB database, and the number is growing steadily.

The risk assessment of nuclear fuel and hard-coal suppliers has led Vattenfall to pay continuous on-site visits to suppliers in these areas in order to conduct audits against the code of conduct for suppliers. The number of audited fuel suppliers is steadily increasing.

To date 25% of Vattenfall’s significant suppliers in all steps in the nuclear fuel supply chain have undergone human rights screening, which is a documented procedure for auditing suppliers’ policies, communication and implementation of practices in order to respect and support human rights. Each year two to four audits are performed of suppliers in the nuclear supply chain. These audits also cover other aspects of the UN Global Compact, such as labour standards and environmental impact. Since 1 July 2008, all new nuclear fuel contracts include a clause on compliance with the principles of the UN Global Compact.

To date 14% of Vattenfall’s hard coal supply has undergone auditing against the ten principles of the UN Global Compact. Since the start of 2007 Vattenfall has included a clause on compliance with the UN Global Compact in nearly all hard coal contracts, and every year two suppliers are audited based on a risk assessment.