Social and Environmental Assessments for World’s Biggest Logistics Supply Chain

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DHL is the world’s leading logistics company. A household name, the Group employs around 600,000 people in more than 220 countries and territories, and had a revenue upwards of £80bn in 2022.

What’s less well-known is the company’s coordination of relief efforts for natural disasters. Since 2005, its response teams have worked at disaster site airports in support of the United Nations, getting humanitarian supplies out quickly to help save lives.

“We’ve always been a responsible business that has a conscience,” says Stuart Sumner, Head of Global Supplier Sustainability at DHL Group, which now has 900 or so specially trained Disaster Response Team volunteers. “ We recognize the influence we can have around the world and the positive impact we can make.

“This ethos extends throughout the business, and is one of the reasons why we turned to ESCP to support and enhance our ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) strategy.”

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THE CHALLENGE: Ensuring suppliers are ‘doing the right thing’

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Enshrined in a Supplier Code of Conduct, DHL Group has an expectation that its partners across the globe make a measurable contribution toward its social responsibility efforts and climate-neutral logistics.

“We’re committed to ensuring suppliers are doing the right thing,” says Stuart, who has over 25 years’ experience in supply chains and compliance. “Rather than just dictate our ESG standards on suppliers, we want to bring them along on a journey – to not just improve their social and environmental impact, but to also take ownership of these standards and make a positive impact.”

While formulating its latest sustainability roadmap in early-2021, DHL Group approached ESCP to learn about the Social Impact Assessment – a tool to support worker wellbeing and ensure safe workplace conditions – and Environmental Assessment, which helps companies understand the impact of their global supply chain on the natural world.

There are other sustainability assessments available, so what made DHL Group choose ESCP?

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THE SOLUTION: Added value and peace of mind

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“DHL Group was drawn to ESCP for two main reasons,” says Stuart. “Firstly they provide both mutually recognised desktop assessments and face to face audits and secondly they aren’t profit-driven: they live their values, and that's demonstrated by the work that they do.”

ESCP's CEO, Carmel Giblin, says: “We love hearing feedback like this, as integrity, people, and ‘going above and beyond’ are at the heart of everything we’ve done since forming as a non-profit organization in 2004.

“At ESCP, our remote online assessments help reduce audit burden, are scalable and low-cost. Globally available, non-category specific and applicable to any supplier, they provide trusted verification of a supplier’s performance, vastly reducing the weight of what can seem like overwhelming tasks.

“But we go far beyond just audit reports; we’re committed to taking further steps to certify factories, giving tailored support to those who need to rectify root causes to reach the required compliance standards. It’s in our DNA to provide assurance and eliminate sustainability risks.”

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THE BENEFITS: Impact, efficiency and reduced costs

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DHL Group’s suppliers, including the thousands of employees working in those companies, are already benefiting from ESCP's social and environmental impact assessments, and Stuart is quick to emphasize how the tools have made his life easier:

“Measuring and improving the effectiveness of management systems in our supply chain, and assessing its environmental health, is time-consuming. A benefit of working with ESCP is the support they can provide.

“ESCP has made the whole process straightforward, right from the word go. They listen, take on board our ideas, and are open to suggestions. They've been accommodating to our needs and adapted to the scoring methodology we wanted.”

Stuart rounds off by offering a few words of advice for other organizations considering how to measure and achieve their own ESG objectives, and for their suppliers.

“If you really want to add value to your ESG strategy and be seen as being a serious player, definitely have a conversation with the team at ESCP. With legislation changing, suppliers need to get on board and take their responsibilities seriously – because if they don’t then their competitors will, and they’ll lose market share.”

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