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Sustainable Development

Suppliers

At CEMEX, we want to be the customer of choice for our suppliers. In turn, their loyalty, support, and collaboration enable us to compete more effectively, innovate, source our inputs more sustainably, and find new ways integrate sustainability into our value-chain and our industry.

In 2011 we carried out a global supplier sustainability survey, some of the findings were:

  • 41% of our global suppliers are signatories or committed to the United Nations Global Compact, whose ten principles seek to address human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption challenges.
  • 62% have specific projects or social programs to promote the development of the communities where they operate.
  • 32% work with their suppliers in social programs for the communities.
  • 79% have a written ethics policy or internal code of conduct.
  • 70% have a written sustainability policy.
  • 71% have staff responsible for sustainable development or corporate responsibility.
  • 70% offer CEMEX sustainable products/services (for example, 100% biodegradable kraft paper bags).

We understand that our sustainability efforts depend on the support and participation of our supply chain partners. We actively collaborate with our global, multinational suppliers to achieve our mutual business and sustainability goals, and we benefit as we learn from their global perspective, expertise, and practices.

In 2010, CEMEX started the first phase of a new Sustainable Procurement Program that will systemize and expand the various sustainable sourcing practices that have been used for several years. In brief, the program’s objectives are to:

  • Inform all employees and main suppliers about CEMEX’s commitment to sustainable sourcing policies and practices, and what we expect from them
    ensure that all current and potential new suppliers are qualified and evaluated thoroughly, fairly, and at regular intervals on the sustainability of their own business practices,
  • Enable main CEMEX suppliers to adopt and develop more sustainable practices and empower them to assist us to do the same,
  • Extend sustainable procurement practices beyond the procurement area to include all departments that use suppliers,
  • Strengthen the lines of communication between CEMEX and our suppliers in order to facilitate collaboration.

We also work to support smaller, local suppliers. Our relationships with these firms help to build local economies as well as our relationships with local communities.

Many of our country operations have made substantive efforts to enhance sustainability within their procurement practices. These include questionnaires for evaluating suppliers and our efforts to encourage more sustainable modes of travel and transport in our travel policies. In addition, we use environmental standards or criteria in the country-level selection of suppliers of our primary and secondary raw materials.

Whenever feasible, we support small and locally based suppliers in an effort to create jobs, broaden their skills, stimulate economic growth, and help them become more sustainable. In fact, the vast majority of our suppliers are locally based. Our country procurement teams participate in local events for identifying new locally-based and SME suppliers. We provide training and development programs that help these suppliers strengthen their business practices and embed sustainability principles within their systems.

We value our suppliers' feedback and provide them with an online mechanism, at cemexsuppliers.com, for sending us their comments, suggestions, and complaints, which are consolidated and reviewed at the global level. Complaints in particular are reviewed at the highest level, and we do our best to address them in a timely and responsible manner.

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