Together for Sustainability (TFS)

• Management
• Environment
• Health & safety
• Labour & human rights
• Governance issues
• Continuous sustainability improvement.

The documented information required for Together for Sustainability TfS is based on assessment done by Ecovadis Body

It is based on the below mentioned parameters:

• Environment
• Labour and Human Rights
• Anti-corruption law

Safety, Health and Security Management

Suppliers are requested to meet certain standards and continuously improve in the following areas:

Management – Management in charge, policies, continuous improvement, management systems, risk assessment training.

– Environment: Environmental compliance, waste, air emissions, climate change, water and groundwater, wastewater, energy, nuisance (noise & odor), land use & biodiversity, soil, hazardous chemicals.

Health & Safety – health & safety compliance, product safety, transport safety, process safety & storage, occupational health & safety, emergency preparedness, medical care, security, hygienic facilities.

–  Labor & Human Rights: labor & human rights compliance, child labor, forced & compulsory labor, working hours, minimum wages, freedom of association, discrimination, special work contracts.

– Ethics and Governance: Supplier standards, memberships, business integrity, privacy & intellectual property, fair completion, disciplinary & compliant procedures

Organizations which are registered as chemical manufacturers, producers and supply chain.

– Enhance and guarantee the quality of assessment and audit outcomes.

– Creating an open environment for multiple customers on a single platform.

– Quality improvement is achieved through the selection of suitable partners.

– Participating with customers in discussions about sustainability.

– Developing long-term relationships.

– Risk reduction in regards with sustainability criteria.

– Avoidance in performing duplicate audits and assessments.

– TfS Assessment is an online evaluation based on a questionnaire and TfS Audit is an On-site evaluation done by an external auditor.

– Assessment is conducted by Ecovadis while Audit Conducted by TfS approved Certification Bodies.

– Assessment is valid for 1 Year and Audit is valid for 3 Years.

– In Assessment there is no support from Members on Assessment Findings. In the case of TfS Audit, Members can provide feedback and monitor the progress on findings.

The validity of a TfS audit depends on the audit results:
No or minor findings: TfS audit report is valid for 36 months
• Minor findings: expected to be closed within twelve months
• Minor / major / critical findings: set-up of a Corrective Action Plan required
• Major / critical findings: Follow-up audit within 12 months required

Depending on the results of the follow-up audit, a re-audit may be required. The re-Audit shall be conducted after twelve months unless specified differently in the CAP.

Validity of Together for Sustainability TfS assessment is 1 year depending on results.

TfS audit reports and assessment are only disclosed to TFS members. Data sharing will take place in accordance with the signed Data Sharing Agreement.

After the ten-day comment period, the auditor will send the audit report to the TfS Office for quality review. As defined in the signed Data Sharing Agreement, the audit report will be uploaded to a web-based platform where it can be accessed by all TfS members.

Together for Sustainability TFS service cost is determined by a variety of criteria, including internal resourcing capabilities, pre-existing management system documentation, as well as the size and scope of products and services offered by the organization.

No, it is an individual decision of each TfS member company whether to invite suppliers to an EcoVadis assessment, a TfS audit, or both.

It will take between several hours to a few days to complete the dynamic questionnaire and upload all required documents. It is dependent on the size of the supplier’s business, its level of CSR maturity, and the speed with which the requested information is made available (including access to documents).

The EcoVadis team of CSR experts will need four to six weeks to analyze all information and create the sustainability scorecard after the supplier has completed the questionnaire and submitted all supporting documents. Once the results are published, EcoVadis will send an email to the supplier.

No. EcoVadis creates a tailored questionnaire based on the size of the supplier, the industry sector, and the region in which the supplier or its subsidiary is located after the supplier registers on the EcoVadis platform.

Kindly take note that the results of all assessments are shared with all TfS member companies, both current and future. Documents provided for the assessment, on the other hand, are treated with strict confidentiality and will only be used by EcoVadis in the process of evaluating the supplier’s sustainability performance, unless specifically authorized by the supplier.

There will only be announced audits

An audit for the Together for Sustainability Initiative takes one to three days to complete. An audit can be carried out by one or more auditors. As a result, the audit time will be reduced accordingly. Please be noted that there are other factors that affect the audit duration (for example, high/low risk products/processes, high/low complexity, and (no) on-site production).