Safeguarding human rights across BHP's supply chain

In this edition of Prospects, BHP’s Group Procurement Officer Sundeep Singh looks at the steps we’re taking to safeguard human rights across our supply chain.

Human rights are part of the fabric of our business that we uphold through our long-standing commitment to sustainability, integrity and respect.

While many companies have strong governance practices in place to protect the human rights of their people, it can be more challenging protecting the most vulnerable people in their supply chains.

That’s why we work in partnership with our suppliers to make sure their commitments are in line with our own.

In the 2019 financial year, BHP sourced around 215,000 different types of materials and equipment in Australia alone. And globally, our supply chain consisted of around 10,000 partners and vendors, spanning across 60 countries. That’s almost a third of all recognised world nations.

A supply chain, like all chains, is only as strong as its weakest link.

It only takes a human rights violation at one supplier to cause huge and lasting damage, which is why safeguarding human rights across our entire supply chain is critical to the sustainability of our business.