Teaming with suppliers to advance our sustainability goals.
As we maintain a primarily fabless production model, we rely on our suppliers for the manufacturing, assembly, and most of the testing of our integrated circuit products. Our suppliers are expected to uphold the same corporate responsibility standards as we do, including in the areas of human rights, responsible sourcing of minerals and raw materials for our products, product material compliance, emission reductions, and responsible use of water and energy.
Assessing our suppliers for risks and monitoring their performance.
We believe our products should be distinguished not only by their capabilities but also by the ways they are designed and produced. As we maintain a primarily fabless production model, we rely on our suppliers for the manufacturing, assembly, and most of the testing of our integrated circuit products. Our suppliers are expected to uphold the same corporate responsibility standards as we do, including human rights, responsible sourcing of minerals and raw materials for our products, product materials compliance, emission reductions, and responsible use of water and energy. This commitment is supported through applicable language in our contracts.
As a Full Member of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) we have adopted the RBA Code of Conduct as our own Supplier Code of Conduct (SCoC) and expect our suppliers to adhere to the code. The standards set out in the RBA Code of Conduct reference international norms and standards. Both our CoBC and SCoC reinforce our expectations on human rights and labor issues, health and safety, the environment, business ethics, and management systems across our supply chain.
We conduct periodic business reviews with our semiconductor manufacturing suppliers regarding conformance to our SCoC. Our primary semiconductor manufacturing suppliers must complete annually the RBA Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ), a risk assessment tool enabling the evaluation of labor, human rights, health and safety, environment, and business ethics risks. SAQ results help inform our supply chain auditing, inspections, and capacity building strategies.
We also conduct assessments of selected non-primary manufacturing suppliers and suppliers that are new to our supply chain for adherence to our SCoC and other requirements, including product environmental governance and responsible sourcing of minerals. Supplier audits and assessments are conducted by RBA-approved independent third party firms as well as our supply chain management teams. Our supply chain management team includes RBA Lead Auditor-trained personnel who conduct on-site assessments of selected suppliers.
Environmental management in the supply chain
We strive to ensure that our primary manufacturing suppliers are aligned with environmental standards, including conformance to applicable environmental laws and adherence to various environmental initiatives and RBA’s Code of Conduct. Each of these suppliers is also required to have an ISO 14001-certified environmental management system.
We also continue to monitor potential climate- and water-related risks within our supply chain. We assess current and future water risks at the global and local levels, using the World Resources Institute (WRI) Aqueduct™ tool.
We conduct an annual survey of our suppliers on important issues, including water, energy, and other relevant climate-related information, to evaluate whether they are taking the appropriate steps to align with our sustainability goals.
We build on these engagement efforts year-over-year by expanding our survey to include additional direct suppliers as well as indirect suppliers to better understand their environmental impacts.
We discuss with several of our primary semiconductor manufacturing suppliers the Company’s net-zero commitment, opportunities for deploying renewable energy, and projects to realize GHG emission reductions. We seek similar opportunities with other suppliers.
Respecting human rights.
As a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact, Qualcomm is committed to upholding human rights in our own operations and the operations of our suppliers. We prohibit child labor, human trafficking and forced labor in our operations, and we expect our suppliers to do the same.
To avoid the exploitation of migrant workers in our supply chains, we encourage our suppliers to use only ethical recruitment agencies that have been audited through the Supplemental Validated Audit Process.
Sourcing minerals responsibly.
We are committed to the responsible sourcing of minerals, including tantalum, tin, tungsten, gold, and cobalt in accordance with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas. We strive to provide products from responsible sources, including conflict-free sources within conflict-affected and high-risk areas (CAHRAs), and support industrywide efforts to drive transparency in the supply chain.
We evaluate smelter and refinery (SOR) data on an ongoing basis and provide an update on our sourcing and due diligence for tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold in our annual Conflict Minerals Report.
Correcting deficiencies and building sustainability capacity.
Our semiconductor manufacturing suppliers have shown effectiveness in many areas of corporate responsibility, especially in product environmental governance. To ensure their continued effectiveness, we’ve designed corrective action processes that include potential removal of deficient suppliers from Qualcomm’s supply chain.
We believe helping our suppliers build greater knowledge of corporate responsibility issues, such as human rights, responsible minerals sourcing, and selecting less harmful substances for manufacturing, can create and improve the corporate responsibility of all our supply chains. We share our knowledge through on-site visits, business meetings, emails, and other efforts.
Our primary semiconductor manufacturing suppliers include:
Addressing concerns about our supply chain management.
We encourage anyone who has concerns about Qualcomm’s supply chain management to contact our ethics hotline. The business conduct hotline is publicly available 24/7 to everyone, including employees of suppliers and you can also contact us directly using the contact form.
