Supply chain initiatives

Our ability to have impact on sustainable practices among our suppliers, both first tier and further down our supply chain, is limited if we act alone.

We believe that partnerships and collaborations offer the greatest opportunities for positive impact and therefore we take part in various supply chain initiatives.

World Nuclear Association

Vattenfall has long been an active member of the World Nuclear Association, participating for example in the Uranium Stewardship Programme, which defined ten principles for managing radiation, health and safety and environmental issues. The resulting joint policy document, 'Sustaining Global Best Practices in Uranium Mining and Processing', aims to maintain best practices and promote them to new participants in the uranium supply chain. An internationally standardised audit checklist for joint audits of mines supports the policy document.

Vattenfall is currently a member of the newly established World Nuclear Association ESG Working Group.

The Bettercoal Initiative

Vattenfall is a founding member of the Bettercoal initiative, which is a global non-profit initiative established by some of the largest European energy utilities. The aim is to improve corporate responsibility in the coal supply chain, with a specific focus on mines.

The Bettercoal vision is a coal supply chain that protects the environment, respects the human rights of people and contributes positively to the livelihoods of workers and communities. The mission of Bettercoal is to advance the continuous improvement of the ethical, social and environmental performance of coal mines by improving business practices through engagement with stakeholders and based on a shared set of globally recognized principles. This way Vattenfall aims to contribute to the continuous improvement of the sustainability performance of coal mines.

Coal Working Group

In 2018, two Country Working Groups for Colombia and Russia were set up to facilitate closer monitoring by buyers of the implementation of Continuous Improvement plans by suppliers and to establish a platform for capacity building. In 2022, Bettercoal suspended its work with Russian coal producers, and – correspondingly – the activities of the Russia Country Working Group, but launched a South Africa Working group due to increasing volumes of South African coal coming into the European market.

Vattenfall stays involved in Bettercoal main forums, though since October 2021 we have been using an external service provider for coal sourcing due to shrinking coal volumes.

The Wind Europe Initiative

The Wind Europe Sustainability Taskforce members have identified supply chain sustainability as a very relevant topic for the industry in order to reduce costs, anticipate regulatory changes, manage risks and increase collaboration while also contributing to the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The aim of the project is to develop and adopt a wind industry approach for assessing, controlling and monitoring the supply chain. Several tasks have been identified that have led to the development of:

• Wind industry guiding principles on supply chain sustainability and reference framework
• A potential joint compliance process that could include developments such as the design of a common self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ);
• Joint capacity building activities and events.

Developing a common approach would empower the companies that adhere to this initiative to apply a powerful supply chain tool to control and impact sustainability related topics.

Solar Power Europe and Solar Stewardship Initiative

Establishing sustainable and robust supply chains is crucial to enable a just transition to clean energy, according to Solar Power Europe (SPE). We fully agree and support SPE in its sustainability work by being active members in various workstreams.

In addition, we sponsor the Solar Stewardship Initiative as we believe it is necessary to work together to address the need for increasingly sustainable products in terms of the origin of materials and components.

International RBC agreement for the renewable energy sector

The International Responsible Business Conduct Agreement for the Renewable Energy Sector is a broad coalition of solar and wind energy companies, industry associations, the Dutch government, knowledge institutions, NGOs and trade unions committed to making international value chains more sustainable. Vattenfall took part in the very first meeting some years ago and kept pushing to get the covenant agreed upon by relevant participants.

We believe collaboration is fundamental to create transparency, build leverage and have impact beyond legal compliance. Working together with peers and other industry partners is key, but what makes the covenant even more valuable is the multistakeholder approach at its heart. It will accelerate our understanding and impact; one workgroup will focus in due diligence practices and make these aligned with OECD, another work group is focusing on collective actions in order to jointly push the bar on specific issues.

First Movers Coalition

Vattenfall is a founding member of First Movers Coalition (FMC), established in 2021. FMC was launched by the US State Department and the World Economic Forum, and has grown to over 80 corporate members including global brands such as Boeing, Deloitte, Vestas and Ford Motors.

The objective of FMC is to commercialise breakthrough technologies within hard-to-abate sectors, which will be required to reach net-zero worldwide by 2050. Corporate members commit to procuring breakthrough materials and transport solutions at premium prices. This collective purchasing power sends a powerful market demand signal to suppliers and manufacturers to develop technology that reaches commercialisation in time.

Vattenfall has four FMC commitments: to procure 10 percent near-zero steel and 10 percent near-zero concrete/cement of our total volumes, to ensure that 5 percent of our business travels are covered by sustainable aviation fuels, and that our trucking service providers procure zero-emission trucks by 2030.