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Most Swiss companies consider sustainability in supplier selection

80 percent of companies choose sustainable suppliers
80 percent of companies choose sustainable suppliers Keystone-SDA

The majority of large listed Swiss companies pay attention to sustainability when choosing their suppliers. This puts Switzerland ahead of companies in Germany, but slightly behind those in Austria.

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Specifically, 80% of companies in the Swiss Market Index (SMI) selected their suppliers based at least in part on environmental or social criteria in the 2023 reporting year. This was the result of a study by Kirchhoff Consult and Swiss auditing firm BDO.

In the Austrian benchmark index ATX, 90% of companies report such selection criteria, while in the German benchmark index DAX 40, the figure is 68%. “The integration of sustainable principles into supplier relationships is an essential lever for assuming holistic responsibility in the value chain,” say the authors of the study.

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However, sustainability is not equally important when selecting suppliers in all sectors: according to the study, sustainability criteria play a subordinate role in the automotive and pharmaceutical industries in particular.

For the study, the Swiss auditing firm BDO and the German consulting firm Kirchhoff Consult analysed the annual and sustainability reports of listed companies from the DACH region for the year 2023.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

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