Two leading corporate responsibility business associations, AIAG and CSR Europe, facilitator of the European Automotive Working Group on Supply Chain Sustainability, announced that 14 global automakers have reached agreement on a set of standards outlining expectations for suppliers on key responsibility issues including human rights, environment, working conditions and business ethics.

Participating members aligned with “The Automotive Industry Guiding Principles to Enhance Sustainability Performance in the Supply Chain” include BMW Group; Chrysler Group LLC.; Daimler; Fiat S.p.A.; Ford; GM; Honda; Jaguar/Land Rover; PSA Peugeot Citroen; Scania; Toyota; Volkswagen; Volvo Cars; and Volvo Group.

People and the environment are the automotive industry’s most important resources. For this reason, we are working together to attain the highest standard in business integrity and in the social and environmental performance of our supply chain. …The following guidelines clearly describe our expectations towards business ethics, working conditions, human rights, and environmental performance, for our suppliers as well as their subcontractors and suppliers. We expect that suppliers will uphold these standards and cascade them down their supply chain.

The guidelines, which are based on fundamental principles of social and environmental responsibility that are compliant with local law and consistent with international expectations, were first developed by AIAG in 2009, in collaboration with Ford, GM, Chrysler, Honda and Toyota.

In Europe, the automotive companies created in 2009 a specific working group to enhance collaboration in the area of sustainability in the supply chains. Since 2012 the group has been facilitated by CSR Europe. Together with AIAG, the initial guidelines were further elaborated.

To establish these Guiding Principles, AIAG and CSR Europe worked with the 14 automakers to find the common points of agreement among the companies. Individual automotive companies may have their own standards, codes and policies that supersede the common Guiding Principles.

We built on the guidelines that AIAG and its member companies had established, expanding the principles and messages so they would apply to the broadest possible range of suppliers. This allows us to drive the sustainability agenda in the automotive sector even further.