In the year 2009, we started to provide our most important suppliers with details about our business principles. We have been conducting intensive discussions with suppliers , from whom we procure 20 percent of our purchasing volume. We will be continuing this process over the coming year. Our objective is for this system to cover 50 percent of our purchasing volume.

A standardised procedure for risk analysis is used to assess all the product groups we purchase on the basis of criteria relating to the environment, health and other relevant matters that can exert an effect in the manufacture of the products sourced by us. This procedure allows us to identify the product groups and the corresponding suppliers where it is particularly important to identify potential breaches of our guidelines and take measures to counteract such infringements.

In the year 2010, we will standardise the assessment of the product groups most subject to risk across the Group. We will work closely together with our parent company and use our risk analysis to identify the five product groups most subject to risk. This will enable us to intensify our efforts with suppliers of these products in the global supply chain.

Telefónica S.A. is a founder member of GeSI (Global e-Sustainability Initiative) and together with Motorola leads the working group "Supply Chain".

Since 2004 in collaboration with Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), GeSI promotes a common initiative in the ICT sector with the aim of creating and developing tools to integrate social and environmental criteria into the supply chain. One of the tools is the E-TASC (Electronic s-Tool For Accountable Supply Chains www.e-tasc.com) which is a system for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies to implement a standards-based approach for improving supplier compliance with codes related to labour, health, safety, ethics and environmental activity.

To help enhance supply chain corporate responsibility issues capabilities, GeSI-EICC developed two training courses for suppliers in Shenzhen (China) with the participation of 200 people from 75 different companies.In addition to that, in 2009 GeSI launched two new online training courses. These helped supplier managers, buyers and factory managers to better understand CR issues and the need to integrate CSR into supply chain management.

GeSI and EICC 2008 worked together to publish a Report on the extraction of substances like coltan and looked into how negative social and environmental effects can be reduced. After discussing the results with important stakeholder groups, the joint working group of GeSI and EICC commissioned the non-profit organisation RESOLVE to develop a transparency model for the materials used in the IT industry. A pilot project is focusing on tin, tantalum and cobalt.