Principles
At Oxwash, we are fully committed to upholding our values of excellence, innovation, and integrity. These principles guide every aspect of our work and enable us to deliver exceptional value to our clients. Our values define our reputation, shape our business practices, and set expectations for our employees' behavior. We strive to work with suppliers who share our values and support our goals. We expect our suppliers to comply with all relevant legislation and to act responsibly, fairly, ethically, and safely at all times. These principles are an integral part of our sourcing activities and decisions.
Our Supplier Code of Conduct sets out the behaviours and high standards we expect from our third-party suppliers and their subcontractors.
Legal and regulatory standards
Oxwash requires our suppliers to comply with all laws and regulations applicable to its business in the countries in which they operate and seek commitments from their own supply chain to also meet this requirement.
Human rights
Oxwash is committed to upholding all laws relating to the protection of human rights including but not limited to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In line with our Modern Slavery policy, we are committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking from taking place in our supply chain. We expect our suppliers and their subcontractors to:
Prohibit human trafficking and child or forced labour including modern slavery
Comply with all applicable wage and working regulations
Embrace diversity, fairness and inclusion in their workforce/workplace
Support freedom of association in line with local regulations
Act ethically and with integrity and require their employees to do the same
Have robust policies in place that require their employees to adhere to relevant regulations and treat their own employees fairly and ethically
Have the ability to demonstrate robust procedures are in place to be confident that child labour, slavery or human trafficking is excluded from their supply chain.
Supply Chain Management
We have high ethical standards for our suppliers and expect them to conduct their business with integrity. This involves responsible sourcing of goods and compliance with all relevant laws. Moreover, we require our suppliers to have strong governance policies in place and we reserve the right to review them when necessary.
In order to improve the sustainability performance of Oxwash, we will be requesting our key suppliers to become members of Sedex, a platform that enables suppliers to share data and access tools. By joining Sedex, suppliers gain access to the Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) tool, which helps them to assess their own performance and ensure that they meet our customer requirements.
Living wage
Oxwash is proud to be an accredited Living Wage employer. All of our employees based in London are paid above the London Living Wage. Similarly, our employees in Swindon, Oxford and Cambridge are paid the National Living Wage. Unlike the Government minimum wage the real Living Wage is the only wage rate independently calculated based on rising living costs and applies to everyone over 18.
We strongly encourage our suppliers to adopt and pay the living wage wherever they operate and promote the adoption of the local living wage throughout their supply chain.
Bribery and corruption
We expect our suppliers to operate with integrity, comply with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Bribery Act 2010, the Criminal Finances Act 2017 and to have policies in place to prevent fraud, bribery and corruption, market abuse, money laundering, tax evasion and any other improper payments, or inducements within its business and seek to only work with suppliers that demonstrate similar commitments. Suppliers must not directly or indirectly offer improper payments or inducements to Oxwash employees that may give rise to actual, potential or perceived conflicts of interest or engage in any other unethical behaviour.
Diversity and inclusion
Oxwash is dedicated to promoting Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. We have an action plan available in our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy.
We expect our suppliers to comply with all relevant equality legislation in the countries where they operate and not discriminate against individuals based on their age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, origin, race, color, religion, or belief in any employment or hiring practices.
Suppliers must also ensure that their workforce is free from any form of harassment or threat of harassment. All forms of harassment, including physical, mental, sexual, or verbal harassment, must be prohibited and not tolerated.
Health and safety
Oxwash is committed to ensuring all employees and on-site suppliers to Oxwash are provided with a safe working environment which meets the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
We expect suppliers to Oxwash to provide a safe and healthy working environment for their employees which meets the requirements of all applicable occupational health and safety regulations and abide by all local laws and regulations including the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
Suppliers should ensure their employees receive the appropriate safety instruction and training to keep them safe and well in the workplace and have business management practices in place to address:
Health and Safety Policy Administration
Hazard identification, risk assessments and relevant procedures
Fire safety and emergency evacuation procedures i.e. disaster recovery
First aid and accident reporting procedures
Ergonomics
Clean and safe working conditions
Environment
Oxwash recognises the role we play in protecting the environment and minimising our environmental impact. Therefore, we expect our suppliers to collaborate with their supply chains to reduce the environmental impact of their operations and ensure their business practices comply with all relevant environmental laws and regulations.
We require our suppliers to comply with all applicable environmental legislation and regulations. We also encourage our suppliers to have policies for effective environmental management, participate in voluntary environmental reporting and certification programs, and support environmental initiatives such as:
Reducing consumption of greenhouse gas emissions
Reducing consumption of gas and electricity and purchasing energy from renewable sources wherever practical and possible
Reducing consumption of natural resources and environmentally damaging products and changing to recyclable and sustainable alternatives
Effective waste management, targeting recyclable waste and minimising waste to landfill
Oxwash may require key suppliers to disclose annual greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and water usage. Key suppliers may also be requested to share: Greenhouse Gas emissions targets (reviewed by SBTi)
Energy consumption monitoring and targets
Water monitoring and targets
Disclosure of the use of chemicals
Oxwash is committed to protecting human health and the environment and therefore, avoids using any chemical substances that may be hazardous to its employees or the environment. The responsibility of managing risks from chemicals is placed on Oxwash's suppliers, who are required to provide safety information on the substances they supply. Moreover, manufacturers and importers are required to gather information on the properties of their chemical substances, which will allow their safe handling, and to inform Oxwash if their product contains any residuals of high concern.
Chemicals of concern that require disclosure: PBTs: persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals
CMRs: carcinogens, mutagens, and reproductive toxins
EDRs: endocrine disruptors or hormone-disrupting chemicals
Confidential information
Oxwash expects any information received by a supplier from Oxwash to be held securely with appropriate technical and organisational security in place to safeguard that information to ensure there is no disclosure of the data to any other party without our permission.
Compliance and measurement
Suppliers must be able to demonstrate compliance with Oxwash’s Supplier Code of Conduct. Such compliance includes documented evidence and cooperation, upon reasonable notice, with any certification activity to demonstrate compliance with the Code Oxwash undertakes. In line with our procurement procedures, suppliers participating in formal tender processes may be required to provide written acknowledgement of their adherence to the Code of Conduct.
Supplier adherence and commitment to this Code of Conduct forms an integral part of Oxwash sourcing activity and is used along with all other relevant decision criteria when selecting new suppliers or renewing current contractual relationships. In addition, failure to comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct and/or local laws and regulation may result in termination as an Oxwash supplier.