Our relationship with our suppliers is crucial - after all, we rely on them to provide the goods and services we need to run our business. They provide an array of items ranging from turbines to office chairs, catering services to stationery, and a whole host of other goods and services. We spend over £1 billion annually, and although 80% of our spending is with 250 suppliers around the world, we also deal with many hundreds of smaller suppliers. We pride ourselves on acting in a responsible and trustworthy manner at all times, conducting our procurement activities with complete integrity.

Supplier specific Web Pages

In 2007 we developed dedicated Procurement web pages for our suppliers as a new communication channel to assist us in informing existing and potential suppliers of our Responsible Procurement policy. This has enabled the widespread communication of our values, allowing potential suppliers to familiarise themselves with our key requirements before embarking on any potential relationships with us. The web pages communicate a very clear and consistent message about our values as a company and the passion we have for sustainability. Our drive is to continue to engage with our suppliers to form viable partnerships with a common goal on sustainability issues.

Supplier Development

We have a dedicated specialist Supplier Development Team. Its role is to:

• Carry out supplier development activities with a limited number of key suppliers, as part of a programme of work
• Project manage improvement activities with selected suppliers, ensuring that both supplier staff and our employees work together to enable successful project delivery
• Use quality and process improvement techniques to identify, analyse and evaluate root causes of problems
• Implement measurable performance improvements when running supplier development projects either at suppliers' premises, or at other sites where the work is being carried out
• Report back on the performance of specific suppliers to internal stakeholders
• Identifying opportunities to reduce costs, improve service, or improve quality within our key supplier value chain
• Communicate best practice, transfer knowledge and know-how in a virtuous circle within and beyond the wider E.ON Group.

Developments in 2007

• Proactively contacted our key supplier base to communicate with them about our responsible procurement policy, which has created further opportunities for customer-supplier dialogue
• The appointment of a full-time dedicated responsible procurement manager to oversee the delivery of the responsible procurement policy
• Proactively supported and attended events such as 'sourcing sustainable solutions - meet the buyer' hosted by Action Sustainability.
• Met and shared ideas with suppliers on emerging technology as well as considered solutions that we could use ourselves
• Piloted and aligned our Responsible Procurement approach with other businesses in the E.ON Group
• Communicated and shared our Responsible Procurement approach with other procurement professionals outside the organisation, to champion this emerging area in supply chain management. we've been featured in Supply Management magazine on sustainability issues and we've also been shortlisted for the 2008 Procurement Leaders for the Supply Chain Corporate Social Responsibility award for our progress made in 2007