Supplier management

As a reinsurer, our business activities have lower impacts on the environment than other industries. Through our selection of suppliers and based on specifications for the production process used by our suppliers, we are nevertheless able to indirectly influence labour practices.

Since mid-2012 our Code of Conduct for Suppliers has been applied throughout large parts of the company at the Hannover location. Reviewed on a regular basis and adjusted as necessary, it obliges all main suppliers and subcontractors to fulfil sustainability criteria, inter alia respect for human rights and observance of the core labour standards of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). We rate new suppliers based on self-reporting and using an application-supported process; those that are assessed critically in an ESG risk category are assigned to a blacklist, as a consequence of which no further orders are placed with them. The process is used as warranted by Facility Management and IT at the Hannover location.

Altogether, we procure goods for IT, the operation of our premises and the conduct of our business from some 360 suppliers. Roughly two-thirds of these suppliers are from Germany or indeed the Greater Hannover region. In addition, we purchase IT products from primarily the European Union and the United States.