ITW is committed to working with suppliers who operate responsibly and share our dedication to global environmental and social standards. We conduct our own due diligence and foster responsibility across our value chain to ensure business is conducted with a high degree of ethics and integrity while providing economic opportunities to diverse suppliers.
Ensuring Accountability Across Our Supply Chain
ITW is committed to fostering responsibility across our value chain, through the impact of our products as well as via our global supplier network. Our policies outline our expectations of suppliers and ensure we engage with responsible partners:
- Supplier Code of Conduct and Supplier Expectations help ensure our supplier partners align with our ethical standards. The Supplier Code of Conduct applies all relevant aspects of ITW’s Code of Conduct to our suppliers and is consistent with the United Nations Global Compact.
- Responsible Materials Policy codifies our commitment to responsible sourcing of all source materials and is intended to support compliance with applicable legal requirements regarding legislated materials.
- ITW Human Rights and Modern Slavery Statement describes our activities to promote respect for human rights, including the elimination of slavery and human trafficking from our business, our supply chains and our service providers.
Purchase order Standard Terms and Conditions further reinforce our expectations.
We review and update our policies periodically. Our Core Values, together with the policies referenced within this section, provide the over-arching compliance framework relating to human rights and decent working conditions across our global enterprise.
Managing Our Supply Chain Efficiently and Responsibly
ITW employs several practices to support the resiliency and continuity of our supply chain.
Supplier Due Diligence: We rate and audit our suppliers to evaluate their long-term viability and ability to support our businesses sustainably by measuring a variety of factors, including safety and environmental measures, financial data, leadership stability and operational metrics. In addition, we partner with a third party to validate compliance with ethical standards.
Efficient Distribution and Storage: Our data-driven approach leverages various planning tools to review our supply chain networks and identify the most efficient logistics routes, methods and warehousing strategies that meet or exceed customer expectations. We strive to enable ITW businesses to optimize distribution and storage patterns, resulting in shortened freight routes, less packaging waste and reduced carbon emissions and environmental impact.
Sustainable Materials: Sourcing environmentally friendly and socially responsible materials for our products is an ongoing priority. Strategic focus areas across our segments include:
- Increasing our use of resins in our Automotive OEM and Specialty Products segments with higher recycled content and lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in production
- Using electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mills when viable, which produce the cleanest recycled steel on the market
In addition, we continue to invest in resources to identify ways to reduce packaging, while still protecting our product throughout the delivery process. We also remain committed to helping our customers identify ways to incorporate recycled materials into their manufacturing processes, in turn helping our own environmental footprint.
Diverse Suppliers: ITW is committed to fostering economic opportunity for all, including those with whom we do business. We are committed to grow our spend across all diverse groups by investing in supplier development programs that recognize suppliers with competitive advantages in their offerings.
Local Suppliers: The long-standing relationships ITW businesses have with local suppliers enable us to support the communities in which our businesses operate around the world more efficiently while minimizing our carbon footprint. We employ a “buy-local, sell-local” sourcing strategy, where feasible.
