Supply Chain Sustainability

We have created Supplier Guiding Principles that emphasize suppliers’ compliance with all applicable laws and regulations including labor, environmental, workplace health and safety, and anti-corruption. We distribute the principles to all suppliers and ask for their agreement to honor them to reinforce and build awareness of O-I’s expectations that suppliers will conduct their business in compliance with applicable laws and in accordance with high ethical standards.

Per our Conflict Minerals policy, O-I does not purchase conflict minerals directly for the manufacturing of our products. O-I purchases materials and products through an extensive supply chain and we rely on direct suppliers to provide information to the extent that conflict minerals are contained in components and materials supplied to the company. O-I is taking steps to determine the origin and status of any conflict minerals that may be necessary to our products’ functionality or production. We publish an annual report on conflict minerals.

O-I’s Global Code of Business Conduct and Ethics applies not just to employees, but everyone O-I conducts business with worldwide, including suppliers. It states that O-I complies, and expects supplier compliance, with various laws intended to protect human rights including laws prohibiting child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking.

In 2020, we enhanced our supplier screening process by launching an initiative to monitor, verify, and improve suppliers’ sustainability performance. O-I uses a third-party, EcoVadis, to guide supplier assessment against four sustainability criteria: environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. Targeting continuous improvement, suppliers are required to develop action plans for growth opportunities.

We are in the early stages of launching a sustainable procurement training program for our buyers. We are on track to cover 100% of our procurement staff by the end of 2021​.The sustainable procurement training introduces five key areas in sustainability: respect for human rights, labor standards, health and safety, environmental impact, and business ethics. It presents sustainability as an ethical and risk imperative, specifically stressing action to address climate risk.