Sustainable Procurement Guidelines

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Statement of Intent:  WESCO supports the need for corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability across our supply chain. These Sustainable Procurement Guidelines (“Guidelines”) are being implemented to help reduce the impact of our supply chain on the environment and more broadly to help ensure that our suppliers are conducting themselves responsibly. While no supplier will automatically be disqualified based on its current sustainability practices, WESCO intends to work with all suppliers to improve their environmental performance moving forward since we believe there is more value in bettering our supply chain than in simply changing it. That said, WESCO reserves the right to discontinue relationships with any suppliers that are unwilling to partner with us to better our supply chain.

Guidelines Administration: These Guidelines will be administered by our Director of Environmental Sustainability who will work with various internal and external stakeholders in the monitoring, enforcement, and continuous improvement of the Guidelines.

Reporting:  Progress toward implementation of these Guidelines and any associated Key Performance Indicators will be reported as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility report.

Scope: These Guidelines apply to WESCO’s purchases of products and services both for our own direct use in our own operations and for resale to our customers.  All WESCO suppliers, regardless of size, geographic location and product type, are subject to these Guidelines.

Supplier Requirements:  WESCO expects all suppliers to observe the following minimum standards and reserves the right to audit all suppliers’ progress in complying with these standards.  As these Guidelines evolve, WESCO will investigate means to measure suppliers’ sustainability performance and potentially conduct on-site audits, particularly for any suppliers that are deemed to be high risk.

Regulatory and Workplace:

  • Conduct business in accordance with WESCO’s Supplier Code of Conduct located here (enter link).
  • Abide by all local, national, and international laws.
  • Comply with all applicable child labor laws.
  • Actively promote a safe and healthy work environment, taking a zero-tolerance approach to harassment and discrimination, while also maintaining fair pay and work hours standards for their employees.

Environmental and Social:

  • Actively manage the impact of their operations on the environment and investigate and implement reasonable and financially feasible ideas and projects designed to minimize undesirable environmental impacts.
  • Partner with WESCO to explore opportunities to create more environmentally friendly products, services, and packaging.
  • Become active members in supporters of the communities that they are located in.
  • Develop a supplier diversity program among their supply base and ensure that small, medium, and diverse suppliers have an equal opportunity to participate in sourcing events.

Specific Product Category Requirements on Indirect Materials WESCO Procures for our Operations: Where cost and performance considerations are equal, WESCO will show a preference toward more environmentally friendly products and services.  Specifically, WESCO will observe the following category specific goals:

Electronics: Printers, copiers, faxes, monitors, personal computers, data center technology, and all other electronics should be energy-efficient and have reduced environmental impact in their production.

  • All electronics should be ENERGY STAR-certified if certification exists in their product class. ENERGY STAR electronics will reduce our energy consumption, cut energy costs, and help WESCO do its part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. WESCO is an ENERGY STAR partner, and we support the program’s mission to drive energy efficiency forward. www.energystar.gov
  • When possible, all electronics should be EPEAT-compliant, reducing the environmental impact of these products as well as their use of toxic materials. http://www.epeat.net.

Office paper: All office paper should come from more sustainable sources.

  • All general copy, fax, and printer paper should be 30% recycled content or higher. Where cost-competitive and job-appropriate, paper should be 100% post-consumer recycled content.
  • Where cost-competitive, paper should come from sustainable sources and be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Packaging: Where cost-competitive, all boxes should use cardboard from recycled sources. All packaging fill should be as sustainable as possible given product safety and cost constraints.

  • Packaging fill should minimize the use of styrofoam, plastics, and virgin paper. Fill should come from recycled content, be recyclable, or come from sustainable bio-based sources.
  • Warehouses and WESCO Branches should reuse packaging fill from intra-company and customer shipments whenever possible to reduce the purchase of additional packaging materials.

All cleaning supplies must be non-toxic:

  • WESCO will work with our cleaning companies to ensure they are using products that are non-toxic and environmentally friendly