Responsibility goes all down the line

A new focus for the awards this year is companies' relationship with suppliers, with HBOS sponsoring the Supply Chain Award. Phil Hodgkinson, group finance director at the UK financial services group, says the supply chain is one of the most important aspects of any business's impact in the market place.

"The supply chain typically consists of thousands of different businesses, in many different geographic regions and across many different industries. Encouraging responsible behaviour in the supply chain can therefore have a multiplier effect in terms of its impact . . . and encouraging businesses to share best practice in this area is bound to be good for business. That's why HBOS has chosen to sponsor this award," he says.

With the advent of globalisation, links between businesses and suppliers have changed, says Alyson Warhurst of the corporate citizenship unit at Warwick Business School. "The boundaries of responsibility are extending from both a legal and a stakeholder perspective, and there is an idea now that businesses have a sphere of responsibility, which is enshrined in the UN Global Compact."

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