Symrise has joined the international initiative AIM-Progress. The Association des Industries de Marque unites consumer goods manufacturers and their suppliers committed to sustainability and respect for human rights throughout the supply chain.
AIM-Progress provides members with a forum for collaborative exchange, mutual audit recognition, continuing education and networking with similar initiatives. The initiative makes it possible for Symrise to exchange information with customers and suppliers.
“We have set out the framework for responsible procurement in our Supplier Guidelines and our Supplier Code of Conduct, which we developed in 2016,” says Bernhard Kott, chief sustainability officer at Symrise. “Membership in AIM-Progress will help us to improve existing processes. Thanks to the mutual recognition of audits, we can, for example, assess our suppliers more quickly according to sustainability criteria.”
To this end, AIM-Progress has developed a four-stage process that checks compliance with common quality standards, among other things. This allows participating companies to see, which suppliers have already been assessed and how, for example in terms of sustainability criteria and quality. In addition, AIM-Progress looks at human rights compliance throughout the supply chain. In doing so, it helps members develop meaningful auditing procedures for suppliers, as well as establish opportunities for employee involvement and ensure the payment of fair wages.
Likewise, AIM-Progress provides information on how companies can verify human rights compliance, how workers can report violations and how companies can procure goods from sustainable sources. For this purpose, AIM-Progress provides guidelines and conducts training courses together with its members.
