GRI 102-9, 102-11
Supply chain
All core suppliers are bound by a Quality Agreement in written form to comply with the guiding principles of the United Nations and our Social Standard. This document outlines the principles of the collaboration, with a focus on aspects such as human rights, working procedures, health and safety, environmental management, quality control, business activities, working from home and subcontracting, combating corruption, bribery and granting preferences as well as the use of minerals from conflict/high-risk countries. Compliance with these obligations is ensured via supplier audits, which are conducted in collaboration with the external firm UL. At the moment, 60 of the 63 core international suppliers of relevance are audited by UL.
The imminent application of the Supply Chain Act (Lieferkettengesetz) is already largely covered by our Social Standard.
uvex and the EU Chemicals Regulation REACH
The chemicals regulation REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals; Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006) has governed chemicals legislation within the EU since 1 June 2007. It goes without saying that we fully comply with the obligations arising from the overarching objectives and implementation of REACH regulations. After all, protecting people – and the environment too – is a definitive priority for us in connection with the use hazardous chemical substances. And it has been this way for many years. Since as far back as 2007, the uvex group has been developing an internal Restricted Substances List (RSL), for which the requirements are even stronger than the statutory requirements linked to the REACH regulation. This RSL is regularly updated in order to rapidly react to the latest scientific findings. The use of hazardous substances is therefore fundamentally prohibited in uvex products. When, in exceptional circumstances, the use of such substances is unavoidable, incredibly stringent conditions apply in order to avoid any risk to either the user(s) or the environment at all times.
Our suppliers must therefore confirm that they ensure compliance not only with the REACH regulation, but also with the internal uvex RSL too. In addition, compliance with all threshold values specified there is verified by independent laboratories on a regular basis. The test samples are obtained directly from our suppliers on site as well as from our own warehouses. We receive more than 600 test reports per year, which equates to tens of thousands of individual test results (as at 2019).