Sustainable procurement

KPN not only wants to practice social and sustainable responsibility in its own production, but also asks its suppliers to do so. We require suppliers to subscribe to our supplier's code of conduct. The code is applicable throughout the KPN Group. We pay extra attention to solvency, environment, working conditions and human rights at risk suppliers. We do not do business with producers that fail to comply with our requirements. We encourage companies to make the peripherals and hardware they supply more energy-efficient. All the paper used by KPN has the FSC mark for sustainable production.

A further specific claim we have set for our products is the Forest Stewardship Council quality mark for paper. FSC is an internationally recognized quality mark for the sustainable production of timber from forestry.

Another example of specifically ‘green’ procurement is the decision taken by E-Plus to use DHL’s GoGreen Service. Cleaning of some 300 E-Plus retail outlets is performed in line with an environmentally friendly concept.

In addition to promoting new product sustainability we also wish to put in place sustainable treatment for discarded products. In our industry this often concerns mobile phones. In the Netherlands and in Germany customers may dispose of old telephones at our stores or by sending them to a freepost address.