Our purchasing and procurement 
Our actions
Expanscience is taking action by establishing a responsible sourcing benchmark backed by ISO 26000. There are four priority channels for 2013. In addition, a responsible purchasing policy has been defined to incorporate sustainable-development criteria into supplier specifications.
Our 2015 commitments
- • In 2015, Expanscience will have deployed a CSR action plan in over 100% of its plant supply channels.
Biodiversity and fair trade: membership of the UEBT
Since December 2011, Expanscience has been a member of the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT), an international non-governmental association which promotes ethical practices in the sourcing of ingredients that come from native biodiversity and are used to produce cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food products.
To be eligible to join the UEBT, Expanscience was audited by an independent firm. Nine key indicators were examined, including respect for biodiversity, human rights and traditional expertise, as well as compliance with ethical practices in business and fair distribution of revenues throughout the supply chain.
Two concrete examples of initiatives:
• Biopiracy : Expanscience uses local experts (ethnobotanists or academics) who systematically gather and document traditional expertise – whether it is in written or oral form – supply chain by supply chain. Expanscience then reports on this information in its scientific publications and in the introductory pages of its patents.
• Biodiversity : The company's activities must not result in changes to habitats or natural forests that have previously been unaffected by human activities. For example, in Peru, the grasslands where maca grows (a plant that is native to the high Andes, which has been used since Neolithic times for its medicinal properties and which Expanscience now uses) are cultivated for a period of two years, and are then left fallow for at least 10 years – in accordance with local practices. Expanscience does not want to encourage the introduction of non-native species: for example, for new projects, quinoa is sourced from South America – where it is indigenous – and not from Europe.
The five-year work and progress plan that Expanscience has adopted involves having its procurement practices assessed on a regular basis and "tracking" its sourcing as far upstream as possible. And in order to ensure that human rights are not breached, Expanscience will carry out a large-scale assessment in the field and take appropriate action in partnership with legal advisers, NGOs and other organisations.
Its sourcing practices will now be assessed on a regular basis, in accordance with its commitment to transparency through annual reports submitted to the UEBT and its activities being audited by third parties.
Plant sourcing
In concrete terms, a sustainable plant-sourcing manager in Mexico is in charge of developing supply channels all over the world and acts as a relay with local populations, in compliance with the protocol agreements of the Nagoya World Conference on Biodiversity. In particular, local populations are to receive legal access to plants and a fairer share in the returns derived from their use.
Supporting local populations
In Peru, Laboratoires Expanscience’s commitment to its local partner has made it easier for producers to access the banking system so as to limit the transfer of large cash amounts. In Burkina Faso, over the last three years, Expanscience has implemented around a dozen fair-return initiatives in partnership with “Ben Nafa Kabo”, a cooperative of Gassan craftswomen (UAB/G).
In addition to providing advances on crops, Expanscience offered a microloan to the cooperative in 2010 that was used to acquire a plot of land and construct a storage facility for organic crops, as well as an office. 75% of the cost of the building was financed through a donation from Expanscience, and the remaining 25% by a second microloan.
Responsible purchasing policy
Since 2009, sustainable development criteria have been integrated into specifications involving calls for tender. Among these criteria is a set of items involving REACH standards. In order to inspire and help suppliers to adopt sustainable-development principles in their practices, Expanscience includes sustainable-development criteria in its specifications and questions its major suppliers regarding their CSR frameworks every year.
KEY FIGURE
35%
of our own plant supply channels have set up a CSR action plan
