We’re steadily increasing the value to our business and generating mutual efficiencies with suppliers, including addressing the environmental and social impacts of our procurement decisions. The sustainability focus within our supply chain processes and partnerships supports Suncor’s purpose and demonstrates leadership in environmental and social governance.
We continue to partner with suppliers who share our values and align with our strategic objectives — seeking opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, supporting the communities where we work and live, and collectively contributing to economic growth. We engage with our suppliers on their sustainability performance by:
- collecting and assessing sustainability performance as part of prequalification and awarding of work
- data gathering to create a baseline understanding of the impacts of our supply chain, enabling us to make more informed decisions
- monitoring and auditing sustainability performance as part of our supplier performance and due diligence process
- evaluating sustainability risks and opportunities in our supply chain
- building collaborative relationships with like-minded suppliers to accelerate innovation and sustainability performance.
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Joe Vetrone (0:08):
FORGE was about bringing together 40 suppliers that support Suncor's business, as well as a number of Indigenous communities and partners that we do work with.Mark Little (0:18):
Over the last year, we redid the purpose of the company. And the purpose is to provide trusted energy that enhances people's lives while caring for each other and the Earth. And FORGE is really about how do we bring along our supply chain and our suppliers and our contractors and work with them on this purpose that we have for the company.Steve Reynish (0:39):
As we're now bringing together our community, I think you used that, where collectively we can really take a long-term view of the future and have the means to bring about some change.Peter Tertzakian (0:53):
This is impressive, very impressive. So it's easy to believe until you put it in the proper perspective. I'm just pointing out the realities of the global dynamics right now and the challenges that we face.Arlene Strom (1:09):
The scope and scale of change that's happening in our industry right now requires an organization to collectively come together, and with its partners, with all of us, to address these challenges.Arthur Delargy (1:25):
You cannot afford not to innovate because if we don't innovate, we will fail.Peter Tertzakian (1:32):
It's really important that you be the clever, the fastest, most reliable, the cheapest ship.Mark Speaker (1:39):
So we believe that our culture and the fact that we allow people to be very empowered will lead to a lot of good answers.Arlene Strom (1:48):
We have to fundamentally change the way we work.Peter Tertzakian (1:51):
It's one of the biggest challenges you've seen.Arlene Strom (1:52):
It's one of the biggest challenges I've ever seen.Peter Tertzakian (2:00):
You say, well, a barrel of oil, how do you differentiate a barrel of oil? How do I differentiate from my competitor across the street? Actually competitively, the answer is being handed to you. It's being handed to you. It's actually a gift. The ability to measure across the supply chain, your environmental, social, and governance performance is going to be the differentiator.Arlene Strom (2:22):
When we talk about ESG, it's about social impact. It's about our relationship with Indigenous communities. And it's about inclusion.JP Gladu (2:32):
We're really pleased that corporations are recognizing the importance of engaging with our Indigenous entrepreneurs because it adds to the strength and the fabric of our country having a strong Indigenous population.Martha Hall Findlay (2:43):
The more we talk about the importance of collaborating, the more we're going to be able to find those solutions collectively and together. There is no question, our supply chain is going to be a big part of what we need to do going forward.Elias Panasuik (2:57):
As a partner, to say, hey, there is a correlation between what all my teams are doing and some efficiency that we found, and we need to bring that back to a community of practice.Anne Pedretti (3:07):
And the only way to do this is to collaborate across a value chain and within the territories.Stephanie Bertels (3:17):
There is so much that you could be doing to change the situation that you are in, so much potential sitting in this room right now, if we just take a different lens.Martha Hall Findlay (3:33):
Go forward and really, really lead in the solution.Mark Little (3:43):
It's exciting to be able to embrace all of the contractor community and for us to have a more holistic discussion about how do we make the biggest impact possible and make sure that we leave the world in a much better position than if we hadn't been here.Joe Vetrone (4:00):
It's about starting a new conversation with them, creating new solutions, creating new partnerships, and forging a new path forward.
In February 2020, prior to COVID-19 gathering restrictions, we brought together Suncor leaders, suppliers, Indigenous businesses and community members, and other industry partners to participate in an interactive forum called FORGE. The two-day event took place at the Tsuut’ina Nation in Calgary and provided an opportunity to listen, learn, co-create, innovate, and accelerate sustainability outcomes together. Since then, we’ve been working with suppliers to advance more standard processes, predictable performance and continuous improvement. A few themes have emerged such as common scheduling, alignment on COVID-19 protocols, shared certification and aligned apprenticeship programs, staggered peak demand, and regional approaches for equipment and resource use for Suncor and Syncrude in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. We have also kicked off semi-annual executive meetings with engineering, procurement and construction companies with innovation and sustainability built into the agendas.
Sustainable development approach
All contractors must pre-qualify to perform work or to provide services or materials to Suncor by answering a series of questions, including sustainability-related questions, to assess if or how sustainability is embedded within their company. The questions address topics such as safety goals, Indigenous relations/participation, climate change, human rights, inclusion and diversity, community investment, social innovation, and sustainability embedding. This guides our decision-making and supports how we select suppliers.
Our Supply Chain Qualify and Select Supplier process follows the pre-qualification process and helps inform purchasing decisions. In 2020, we rolled out Supplemental* 5, which is a combination of the previously voluntary Sustainability Supplemental and Indigenous Business Supplemental. Supplemental 5 has enhanced pre-qualification questions and a higher weighting in the evaluation process than the previous two supplementals. This further supports a culture of sustainability throughout our supply chain.
To align with our sustainable development approach, all suppliers must comply with Suncor’s Supplier Code of Conduct (COC). While COCs are evolving, we’re proud to be an energy leader in this space as this work matures.
In 2020, we conducted a survey within Suncor’s Supply Chain team to assess their understanding of sustainability and identify opportunities to improve our internal sustainability culture shift. The majority of respondents understood our sustainability goals, saw the translation of our purpose and recognized it as a differentiator in the way we conduct business. The Supply Chain Sustainability team identified opportunities to continue embedding a sustainability mindset through the tools and processes across the company.;
Measuring our progress
Our suppliers are located across Canada in every province, the Northwest Territories and Yukon, and in 18 countries. In 2020, 94 companies were identified as critical suppliers and services, essential to maintain effective operations.
Working with Indigenous businesses is an important part of our supplier base. We grow involvement with Indigenous businesses through mindful supply chain spending and service delivery levels. In 2020, we developed the Indigenous Business Participation Strategy so that teams across Suncor are aligned with our approach to meeting our commitments and supporting meaningful engagement. We continue to ensure agreements are mutually beneficial and build capacity and capability.
To continuously improve the advancement of business activities, we implemented a new self-serve tool to identify current and potential Indigenous suppliers and we hold monthly stewardship meetings across all supply chain categories, outlining spend and updates on information about Indigenous business development and sustainability. This is part of our strong commitment to the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB) Progressive Aboriginal Relations (PAR) program; in 2020 we received gold-level certification for the second time.
Since 1999, we’ve spent more than $6.5 billion with Indigenous businesses. Despite a decrease in overall spending in 2020, Suncor’s spend with Indigenous suppliers increased from 8.4% in 2019 to 10.6% in 2020 for a total of $911 million. In 2019, we transitioned to tracking the percentage of Indigenous spend compared to our overall spend, as it better reflects the advancement of Indigenous business in high and low market cycles. We also track the number of new Indigenous suppliers and communities that we work with and collect the percentage of Indigenous workforce engagement with all suppliers. Beyond quantitative metrics and dollars spent, we also look at the impact business agreements are making. Indigenous business partners and communities have begun to illustrate how business creates value within communities, which further helps Suncor understand the mutual benefit of working with competitive Indigenous suppliers.
In 2020, contracts at our sites in the RMWB, and at the Edmonton and Sarnia refineries for scaffolding and insulation were awarded to BrandSafway Infinity. The funds from these contracts supported BrandSafway Infinity hiring 33 Indigenous students from across northeastern Alberta in McMurray Métis Summer Student Program.
