Dec 22, 2015 11:12 GMT

BT has announced an exciting new initiative with Sagemcom to test and ultimately roll-out the BT Better Future Supplier Forum’s Sustainability Assessor tool.

The high level assessment tool allows suppliers to measure their own sustainability practices against the best companies in the world. In the final stages of development, BT is delighted that Sagemcom, manufacturer of the BT Home Hub, has agreed to be the first company to pilot the Sustainability Assessor.

Erik Raphael, Director BT Devices and BT WiFi, said: “This is a very exciting and important development that moves us a step closer towards ensuring supply chains around the world are embracing the most sustainable business practices possible. The Sustainability Assessor means we can extend the benefit and learnings of the Better Future Supplier Forum even further into our supply chain. This simple tool helps suppliers measure just how sustainable they are compared with the best in the world.”

Florian Tremblay, Sustainable Development Expert at Sagemcom, said: “Sagemcom is proud to have been named among the first companies to receive and use this tool. Wide-ranging while capable of being individually tailored, the Sustainability Assessor has the ability to improve the sustainability of the supply chain. By providing useful feedback to suppliers regardless of their performance level, the tool will educate and support individual companies in a tailored and effective way.”

Set up in 2012, the award-winning BT Better Supplier Future Forum is focused on driving innovation in sustainable business practices. This latest initiative is a seven step process that asks the supplier a series of simple questions concerning the company’s existing sustainability measures. The answers are then assessed and a comparison made with previously identified best practice case studies.

The Sustainability Assessor also provides recommendations on how the supplier can improve its business practices and gain competitive advantage over its industry rivals through an improved reputation as a good corporate citizen.

From January 2016, Sagemcom will be running the pilot programme with a selection of its own suppliers to test the Assessor’s results against Sagemcom’s own knowledge of the companies in question.

According to Florian Tremblay, “This will be an important final stage in the Assessor’s development, and Sagemcom is pleased to collaborate with BT to ensure that the finished tool is as accurate and effective as possible. Following the successful completion of this phase, the Sustainability Assessor will be rolled out to Sagemcom’s supply chain at large. Through this action, Sagemcom will make an important step towards achieving its objective of implementing sustainability at all stages of its global supply chain”.

** **About Sagemcom

A French high-tech group of international dimensions, Sagemcom operates on the broadband (digital home, set-top boxes, Internet routers, telephony and multimedia terminals), smart city (smart meter, smart grid, smart site, smart infra, smart services) and Internet of Things (founding member of LoRa Alliance) markets.

With a revenue of around 1.3 billion euros, Sagemcom employs 4,200 people on five continents. Sagemcom aims to stay a world leader in communicating terminals with high added value.