We launched our Best Practice Principles for Suppliers ("BPPS") in September 2021 after a prolonged process of engagement with key suppliers to understand their current circumstances and future expectations concerning corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. In doing so, we intend to secure and advance long-lasting and stable partnerships with suppliers who share our values.
The scope of our BPPS encompasses suppliers of raw materials, semi-finished products and finished products, as well as contractors, service providers and consultants. Each supplier is expected to exceed legal compliance and strive to meet internationally recognised standards for human rights, business ethics, and social and environmental responsibility. We also uphold special stipulations for suppliers of high-risk materials.
Suppliers of diamonds, including rough diamonds, melee diamonds and diamonds on finished products, must guarantee they are procured from legal sources and conflict-free. Suppliers of precious metals must ensure that these have not been mined with child or forced labour or in violation of any environmental law regulations.
Key suppliers who have signed our BPPS undergo regular self-assessments. Suppliers who can demonstrate compliance with De Beers Group Best Practice Principles or other recognised codes of practice, may be considered compliant with our BPPS.
In FY2022, we proceeded with the first stage of roll-out of our BPPS. During the year, 178 suppliers were identified as key suppliers, and by the end of the reporting period, 122 were fully subscribed. Our target is to achieve 100% compliance for all key suppliers by 2029.
Jewellery manufacturing produces residues that are difficult to capture but nonetheless contain valuable precious metals. At Chow Tai Fook, we believe it is important to recover these by-products for the sake of our environment and to promote resource-efficiency in our industry.
Long-time partnership with Heraeus
We have a longstanding relationship with Heraeus, a specialised refiner of recycled precious metals collected from various industries such as electronics, jewellery and chemical manufacturing. In addition to promoting circular economy, this company headquartered in Germany is currently working very diligently in finding ways to produce precious metal products in a sustainable way so that they could help downstream customers like jewellery manufacturers to achieve their sustainability goals.
Chow Tai Fook has worked closely with Heraeus for over 20 years to source gold kilo bars and grains, silver kilo bars, platinum ingots, Potassium Gold Cyanide and other chemical products and master alloys. Heraeus also supplies refining services for precious metals containing scraps collected from our own operations.
We are pleased to work closely with this supply chain partner who demonstrates strong leadership in making sustainability a core theme of its future strategy. The precious metals division of Heraeus aims to achieve carbon neutrality for scope 1 and scope 2 GHGs by 2025. It has also committed to eliminate fossil fuels from its operations by 2033.