Since mid-2012 our Code of Conduct for Suppliers has been in force for large parts of the company at the Hannover location. The Code of Conduct was developed by the areas of Facility Management (FM) and Information Technology (IT) with the support of Group Legal Services. It requires, among other things, compliance with environmental and social standards and forms an integral contractual component in, for example, the tendering and contracting by Facility Management of infrastructure services as well as various construction projects.

Specifically, the Code of Conduct for Suppliers requires respect for human rights and compliance with the core labour standards of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The evaluation and selection of new suppliers by the areas of Facility Management (FM) and Information Technology (IT) also ensures that the risk of child, forced and compulsory labour can be ruled out. The Code of Conduct for Suppliers further requires that the right of freedom of association, e.g. to join trade unions and the employee council, must be safeguarded.

Based on the criteria of the Code of Conduct for Suppliers, we have also developed an application-supported process for self-reporting by suppliers and service providers. The procedure is used on a regular basis by Facility Management.

In the context of an assessment process carried out in 2014 we wrote to all IT vendors and evaluated them using a checklist. Criteria such as corporate structure, ownership structure, location of the company's head office, annual sales, size of the workforce, framework agreements, services portfolio and observance of compliance requirements were taken into account. This evaluation was stored in the supplier management system and is factored into the selection of suppliers when placing future contracts; furthermore, these criteria are also used for the regular evaluation of suppliers. Contracts with critically assessed suppliers are not renewed; an early-warning system ensures that an adequate lead time is available to select and as necessary familiarise an alternative vendor.

The evaluation of IT suppliers at the Hannover location is carried out using the service management system "ServiceNow". This system enables us to assign all vendors to one of the following categories:

• Strategic (A-Supplier)
• Bottleneck (B1-Supplier – high strategic importance but low volume)
• Leverage (B2-Supplier – high volume, low importance, easily replaceable)
• Noncritical (C-Supplier)
• Blacklist (Suppliers are in violation of our requirements and will receive no further orders).

All non-IT core vendors are evaluated along similar lines using a separate supplier management tool.

The review of suppliers in the year under review produced a positive outcome. We did not identify any suppliers at which freedom of association or the right to collective bargaining is significantly jeopardised or a substantial risk of child labour or forced / compulsory labour exists.