Supplier Relationships

upply Chain Management (SCM) is the internal organization responsible for the company's procurement of goods and services nationwide. Areas of focus are supplier diversity and development, corporate travel, food services, supplier management, mail and transportation services, records, recycling, document management, forms management, equipment management and support, office supply orders and internal client relations.

The majority of Bank of America purchases are made through a centralized process, so it is important to leverage SCM functional responsibility and integrate environmental impacts into its decision-making, processes and delivery. To that end, SCM integrated implementation of the Bank of America Environmental Commitment into its department objectives, making SCM management responsible for progress relating to the Environmental Commitment.

In 2002, SCM management adopted an Environmental Sustainability Mission and Guiding Principles/Strategies.

ENVIRO-TEAM
The Bank of America Enviro-Team partnered with The Natural Step, an international advisory and research organization, to hold a sustainability workshop. The objectives were to educate the participants in sustainability and provide them with a broader context and a framework for the environmental work they are currently engaged in. Enviro-Team members, made up of associates from Supply Chain Management, Corporate Real Estate and Technology & Operations, are aligned to each of our major cross-functional commodity councils to help drive out the environmental strategy and to educate the commodity council members on environmental sustainability. The team developed an Environmental Training Toolkit for training commodity councils.

See The Natural Step case studies at: http://www.naturalstep.org/learn/case_summaries.php

Also, the Enviro-Team created an internal Web site to inform Bank of America associates of the Enviro-Teamefforts.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
The Bank of America request for proposal (RFP) form explains the bank's Environmental Commitment to suppliers and vendors. This form also conveys the bank's expectation that suppliers and vendors adhere to environmentally beneficial policies, including the use of recycled paper goods. Furniture, computer equipment and carpet RFP templates solicit specific data regarding the environmental impacts of these products. A supplier scorecard includes the environment as a category for measurement.

CONTRACTS
The contract pro forma requires environmental reporting data from suppliers and vendors, including, where applicable, a quarterly report on paper usage and recycled content in products the bank uses. The contract includes a section that informs suppliers of the bank's Environmental Commitment and of the bank's expectation that suppliers also adhere to environmentally beneficial policies including the use of recycled paper products.

The bank also requests a written description of how the suppliers' policies, practices and procedures support the Bank of America Environmental Commitment. For example, Bank of America outsources its facility management. The Property Service Guide used by facility partners was specifically modified in 1999 to solicit support for the bank's recycling programs. Facility partners entered into agreements, each requiring the partner to adhere to environmentally beneficial policies and practices and to encouraging its subcontractors to do the same.