Three core frameworks underscore our interactions with suppliers, what we expect of them and how we support them: Responsibility Standards for Suppliers; our Supplier Sustainability Program (SSP); and our Global Supplier Diversity & Inclusion Program.
Through our SSP, we monitor, engage and collaborate with suppliers on environmental, social and ethical obligations. In 2023, J&J first-tier suppliers were monitored using a tech-enabled risk-screening tool to evaluate risk across a range of potential human rights and environmental metrics. Selected suppliers completed an assessment by EcoVadis, a provider of sustainability ratings for global supply chains, and our highest GHG-emitting suppliers were requested to publicly disclose their environmental performance to CDP.
In 2023, J&J completed more than 150 supplier EH&S audits and technical visits. Fewer suppliers than in previous years were identified as high-risk for non-conformance to J&J Responsibility Standards for Suppliers. This was due to strong due diligence processes and mitigating identified critical risks with existing suppliers.
989 J&J suppliers completed EcoVadis assessments in 2023.
Now in its third year, our Onward Sustainability Program was executed in partnership with Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation, covering a wide range of ESG topics to help our suppliers build capability and take action to improve sustainability performance. Also, in 2023, we engaged across our supply chain to advance environmental sustainability and human rights. For example:
Environmental sustainability
Our work on supply chain emissions reductions continues, expanding our CDP disclosure requests to our high-emitting suppliers and using their responses to segment our supply base and encourage working toward science-based climate targets. We continued our work as a member of Energize and Activate pharmaceutical industry collaboration, pushing the uptake of renewable electricity in our supply base and working with our suppliers on establishing strategies for emissions reductions (see section: Climate action). We strengthened our due diligence in assessing our supply base on several factors, including climate, forest management and water pollution and worked on capability building as part of our Onward Sustainability Program, hosting sessions led by J&J experts on our broad environmental expectations, as well as a session on climate action.
Human rights in our supply base
We evolved our human rights due diligence program through EcoVadis assessments, environmental and social audits,37 and deeper engagement with suppliers. We also continued to work with American Express Global Business Travel (AMEX GBT) and ECPAT by creating a training video for business travelers on how to identify potential signs of human trafficking. As a member of the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative working group, we engage suppliers on human rights risks related to raw materials. We continue to work with other partners to address supply chain human rights risks, including Impactt and Shift.
37 Environmental and social audits were conducted onsite using the Sedex SMETA Pillar-4 framework.
