As a founding member of AIM-PROGRESS, we also adhere to the Sedex Member Ethical Trade Audit. This audit evaluates suppliers against a common set of Corporate Social Responsibility standards to drive efficiency on performance improvement for the consumer goods industry. In 2016, 218 of our key suppliers — 99 percent of our 2016 target group of highest priority suppliers — completed the audit, in addition to the 388 suppliers audited in 2014 and 286 audited in 2015. See our 2016 Impact For Growth Progress Report at page 9.
While there are several PROGRESS recognized audit protocols, Mondelēz International along with many in the industry, primarily require an audit to the SMETA (Sedex Member Ethical Trade Audit) protocol. To learn more about SMETA audits visit the SEDEX website. For an overview of PROGRESS and SEDEX, click here.
To help address the need for global social responsibility in the supply chain, we are continuing to leverage supplier self assessments and third party ethical practice audits. To lessen the burden of audits and to align the industry on the key issues, we support mutual recognition of audits. The goal of mutual recognition is to satisfy the needs of many through a common audit framework and sharing network. “one audit for many requests”.
We believe that everyone should be treated fairly and with dignity in both our own operations and supply chain. We are driving a comprehensive approach to social sustainability across our business and in particular through our $400 million Cocoa Life program and Palm Oil Action Plan. We continue to look for ways to strengthen our approach to social sustainability.