Delivering sustainability through supplier engagement

Following the successful culmination of its ambitious three-year resource efficiency programme in June 2015, New Zealand Post is now challenging itself to strengthen its supplier engagement processes to help deliver tangible environmental and societal improvements for all actors along the postal value chain. 

As part of its sustainable procurement programme, New Zealand Post has introduced a new supplier code of conduct. The code establishes a minimum level of expectation for the group’s suppliers, and extends to all suppliers and subcontractors. This initiative is enabling the group to track and monitor the sustainability performance of its supplier base, as well as helping to identify which business partners require further engagement on this issue.

In an effort to further enhance supplier dialogue, New Zealand Post has also committed to promoting best practices among its supplier base starting with a workshop on value chain management. The workshop was set up for a large group of key suppliers and was based upon a framework originally developed by the New Zealand Sustainable Business Council.

New Zealand Post plans to continue to assess its suppliers’ commitment and performance on sustainability criteria over a multi-year period, while also identifying new topics and methods to engage with suppliers on. Following the success of this year’s initial workshop, plans are already afoot to develop and deliver future content on topics such as environmental management systems and business ethics.