Supporting suppliers with sustainable commitments

SILAB has formalized a responsible purchase policy named “Purchasing Carefully” on all its good and services purchase, both in France and abroad.

These commitments are centered around the same pillars as Actively Caring 2030:  

• PROFIT: structuring the organization to achieve maximal quality within a continuous improvement approach while securing the activity, 
• PEOPLE: developing sustainable and ethical partnerships, 
• PLANET: mastering the environmental impact of purchase thanks to concrete actions. 

In order to embody these commitments daily, purchasers are trained and have objectives in sustainable purchase. Thus, they become players of this strategy to address the company’s economic performance challenges and integrate social and environmental criteria.

SILAB Responsible Purchasing Charter is part of its Code of Conduct continuity and aims to supervise ethical, social and environmental commitments applicable to the activities of our suppliers and service providers. The document formalizes mutual commitments between the company and its partners to serve a sustainable performance strategy, transforming positioning into concrete actions.

Thus, SILAB expects its partners to: 

• respect the United Nation Global Compact 10 principles, 
• demonstrate exemplary behavior and ethical and transparent practices, 
• provide working conditions that are safe, inclusive and respectful of employees, 
• measure environmental impact of their activities and implement actions aiming to reduce them. 

The company set an ambitious objective to mobilize 90% of its impactful partners. In 2025, the company counted 124 impactful partners comprising suppliers (upstream of the value chain) and distributors (downstream) that are selected according to the annual turnover they made with SILAB. 

Percentage of impactful partners signatory of responsible commitments (%)

Mastering natural is the core business of the company. This expertise implies a high level of specifications to address quality, security and sustainability demands.

Hence, SILAB Botanical raw materials are:  

• rigorously selected, 
• analytically identified and characterized,
• traced,
• assessed to measure and reduce their impacts and risks. 

For more information, discover the Dossier Sourcing Botanical raw materials sustainably

SILAB wishes that relationships go further than traditional vertical relationships to grow into a true mutual commitment turned toward sustainability of our respective activity and respect of the next generation. 

SILAB establishes responsible and sustainable relationships with its partners: 

• Selection: partners are chosen according to objective criteria including operational requirement (quality, costs, delays…) and sustainable performance, 
• Communication: SILAB communicates with clarity, transparency, and regularly on mutual challenges in order to promote performance and innovation, 
• Business relationships: meetings are organized in order to better understand the activity of its partners, promote communication and strengthen links, 
• Financial balance: careful consideration is given to respecting payment terms and limiting mutual dependency, 
• Support: various support measures can be provided by partners, 
• Mediation: SILAB has appointed a mediator to take part in the relationship, if need be. (contact: Lucie BAILLY, CSR manager, activelycaring@silab.fr)  

In November 2025, SILAB invited its 62 French suppliers to a dedicated seminar on its Saint-Viance site. This landmark moment was the opportunity to share our strategic vision and open the door to our laboratories, our production units, and our logistic center.

SILAB supports its partnerships in modernizing their tools as shows the advance provided to a producer to help the purchase of a dryer or the advance provided to another producer to purchase an hygrometer in order to guarantee the quality of the materials.  

This contribution may lift what restricts investments and contribute to securing suppliers’ cash-flow. Through these contributions or advances, the company helps materialize structural projects essential for the durability and sustainability of their supply chains.  

Beyond financial support, the company provides technical support to its partners.  

Here are a few examples: 

• Diagnosing plant biodiversity :

Within the biodiversity preservation strategy framework, SILAB conducted BeeOmonitoring by implementing beehives at four French partners’ sites in 2023. 

By analyzing collected pollen, local plant life was mapped, and potential deficiencies were detected. Hence, targeted action plans are in progress, including hedge or honey plant plantation. These implementations strengthen pollinators’ resiliency against environmental pressures.  

• Analyzing soil health:

SILAB conducted soil analyses of our Botanical raw materials suppliers in France and abroad in order to measure the biological state to date with the nematofauna et microorganism study. The aim is to improve soil health by implementing appropriate actions.

By financing the entire diagnoses, SILAB sustainably supports its suppliers in improving their environmental practices, thus guaranteeing its supply chains’ resilience and ecological security. 

• Conducting farming trials:

With its Agronomic studies and research center, SILAB notably develops cultivation programs to strengthen its partnerships with producers thanks to technical support and regular follow-ups. 

For more information, discover the Dossier Sourcing Botanical raw materials sustainably

• Preventing risks:

A SILAB expert went to our French suppliers to conduct a risk analysis on the site in order to establish a precise diagnosis and define an operational action plan. By sharing this technical savoir-faire, SILAB helped its suppliers to reinforce activity security.  

Assessing suppliers and partners is not an end but a lever to ensure our supply chains’ conformity and encourage operational excellence. We rely on internal tools and international standards.

SILAB implements a specific survey centered around Quality and CSR with its suppliers.

Key topics like the environment, fighting against corruption, traceability, and security are systematically discussed.

This tool enables the company to concretely analyze their policies, implemented actions, adhesions, certifications, and sustainable initiatives. 

Beyond this survey, regular communication enables us to update information so that it can be taken into account in the supplier evaluation.

Intended to SILAB suppliers and service providers, this complete annual assessment is directed by the Quality service which centralizes all data, and is based on four topics: quality, purchase, supplies, and CSR.

Integrating this CSR section enables SILAB to measure and objectively quantify the maturity of our partners in terms of sustainable development while assessing their official commitments, concrete actions and risk management.

Objective: 80% of impactful partners with a matured CSR by 2030

Percentage of impactful partners assessed as mature (%)

Since 2025, SILAB has been implementing progressively the SEDEX questionnaire with its impactful partners in order to secure purchase and master risks of its value chain. This tool enables the company to identify and prioritize partners displaying the most noticeable sustainable challenges. The process is structured around four steps:  

1. Pre-assessment: assessing partners according to their activity and their country to identify those potentially at risk, 
2. Analysis: consulting partners in order to identify CSR recognitions considered sufficient to mitigate risks,  
3. Assessment: integrating partners at risk on SEDEX platform in order to convey the Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) covering Ethical, Social and Environmental topics. Existing policies and actions are thus taken into consideration to estimate residual risks, 
4. Securing: implementing an adapted action plan to reduce the identified residual risks.

The objective is to achieve 80% of secured impactful partners. 

Percentage of secured impactful partners (%)

To be in line with continuous improvement, suppliers can be audited on quality topics but also on their sustainability.  

For Botanical raw materials, SILAB uses either its responsible sourcing system (RSS) and the sustainability audit evaluation grid developed internally, or international standards such as UEBT or Fair For life. 

For more information, discover the Dossier Sourcing Botanical raw materials sustainably