Since 2012, we have had the GFD (Supplier Management) program to ensure a structured management process to assess our supply chain based on social-environmental, economic, and quality criteria.
Additionally, in 2018, we developed a criticality matrix that serves as a tool to select our strategic partners and ensure they are in sync with our Purpose.
GFD evaluations are performed annually with support from a specialized, independent consultancy and are intended to engage and develop our suppliers in the market’s best practices, so we can mitigate risks related to the value chain and also foster increasingly more ethical and responsible businesses.
Since its inception seven years ago, the program has already evaluated nearly 400 suppliers and performed more than 200 on-site visits.
We have committed to fighting child, forced, or slave-like labor in the value chain since 2007. We sponsor Childhood Brasil’s Na Mão Certa (In Good Hands) program, whose goal is to do away with sexual abuse and exploitation of children and adolescents in the country’s roads. From time to time, we raise awareness among truck drivers that work for our suppliers so they can act as inspection agents on our roads. In 2018, we broadened our scope and started raising awareness in our communities as well.
In 2018, we also formed the Supply Academy – Supplier Module to educate and train our partners on sustainability themes deemed strategic to our business and society. These include inclusion of disabled people, safety at work, environmental management, and fighting exploitation of children and adolescents.
Working closer to and more focused on our clients and consumers has allowed us to, more than doing it “for them,” do it “with them.” It is an approach that establishes an ongoing conversation.
Through Client Committees, our brands’ sales areas hold periodical meetings with the purpose of co-creating, adapting, and perfecting our Solutions to Live Better, made available to the market as a result of this exchange of ideas and experiences. Major architecture, finishes, and decoration trade shows also provide opportunities to listen to our audiences.
Our wood panel manufacturing plants in Brazil are supplied with only certified wood (83% of total supply in 2021) or other controlled sources.
For wood sourced from third parties in Brazil, our due diligence system looks into environmental, land ownership, labor, tax, and social issues of both suppliers and supply areas. All suppliers have their homologation documentation audited before wood is purchased, and on-site audits performed by Dexco’s technicians in each supply unit and link of the chain, all the way to the forest the wood is sourced from. That allows us to ensure the traceability of the raw material we use in our forest-based products.
When deviations are identified in audits, together, the supplier and Dexco come up with an action plan to correct them. If a serious deviation is found (for instance, lack of environmental license) or if we find too many deviations, the supplier is suspended until the situation is addressed. In case of extremely serious deviations (for instance, forced or child labor), the supplier is removed and cannot continue to supply wood to Dexco.
In 2021, we purchased wood from 40 third-party suppliers, 33 of which directly from forests and seven from sawmills. We performed 163 on-site and documental audits, which resulted in four suppliers being suspended. The deviations found were not connected with conversion of native ecosystems, but with work health and safety documentation.