CASE STUDIES

Responsible sourcing strategy: Middle East aluminium company

Adding to our growing portfolio of clients in the Middle East, we worked with a leading aluminium producer in the region to develop its strategy for responsible sourcing. Our client needed to comply with London Metal Exchange’s (LME) Responsible Sourcing requirements, by way of alignment with the due diligence processes set out by the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative’s (ASI) Performance Standard.

Building our client’s responsible sourcing capabilities

The team drew on lessons learnt from our work supporting Emirates Global Aluminium. To meet the company’s requirements, Kumi:

Assessed the company’s current policies and processes for supply chain due diligence through document reviews and in-country interviews with relevant stakeholders. Critically, our team’s face-to-face engagement with relevant stakeholders enabled us to understand the company’s culture and processes to ensure that the programme was tailored to its specific needs.
Updated the company’s existing Supplier Code of Conduct, developing a new corporate commitment to responsible sourcing and designing new due diligence procedures. This included an analysis of the human rights and environmental risks associated with its suppliers.
Delivered training workshops to embed the programme into the company and to ensure relevant employees understand their roles and responsibilities.

A holistic view of supply chain due diligence

Whilst the LME requirements solely focus on mineral supply chains, we also supported the aluminium company to think more broadly about due diligence of its suppliers. The programme therefore considered not only mineral suppliers but also suppliers of manpower, security, tools, machinery and other material inputs.

As a result of our engagement, the company fully aligned with all criteria relating to supply chain due diligence in its ASI audit and has a series of new policies and procedures for supply chain due diligence. Through engaging with the company’s senior management, we also provided the producer with clear insights on how to integrate responsible sourcing at a strategic level.