Apollo reviews corporate social responsibility with suppliers

New Delhi, India - Apollo Tyres last week discussed its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policies with its key suppliers and other stakeholders. The one-day event was held in New Delhi under the 'Beyond Business' banner.

Apollo said the event was designed to look at CSR in a strategic fashion "to ensure sustainable initiatives which have a direct impact on the long term prospect of each of our businesses. The objective of the conference was to give Apollo's key Business Partners an insight into the company's CSR initiatives, create a learning platform to showcase best practices in the field and encourage Business Partners to move towards a strategic and sustainable set of CSR activities."

Neeraj R S Kanwar, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Tyres Ltd, spoke on the need to undertake collaborative efforts in the CSR arena.

The company's executives pointed to evidence showing that socially-esponsible corporate entities tend to be more succesful over the long term, and Apollo declared a commitment to using companies which adopt socialy responsible policies as preferred suppliers.

The issues covered in the supply chain, said Sunam Sarkar, Chief of Corporate Strategy & Marketing, Apollo Tyres Ltd, incude child labour, discrimination over gender, race, religion or age; abuse of union rights; dangerous working conditions, health and safety, corruption and bribery and pollution.

While Apollo does not yet have such policies in force, the meeting provied a clear sign that Apollo wants to develop such policies with its business partners over the long term.

Attendees included representatives from international companies, such as BASF, Bekeart, Cabot, Degussa, Exxon, Flexsys, Lanxess, Farrel, Thai Baroda, Performance Fibres and from India-based companies including Tata Steel, Phillips Carbon Black, Century Enka, L&T Group, Reliance, Century Rayon, Hitech Carbon, Jubilant.