An Aditya Birla Group Commitment 37 Liva, our natural fluid fabric is made from wood pulp that is harvested from sustainably managed forests. Liva is bringing sustainable viscous staple fibre to the world of high fashion appealing to both designers and retailers. Birla Cellulose is dedicated to making eco-friendly innovations at every point in the value chain; from the plantations we operate and support, to the fibre we manufacture that is truly in harmony with nature, to the fashions we inspire! The Liva Accredited Partner Forum LAPF (http://lapfconnect.com/) ensures that the operations of our fragmented customer base conform to our own standards of quality. Changing the way we work with suppliers Supply chain management for the Group has traditionally been focused on our businesses making decisions to reduce costs, improve productivity, support long-term growth, protect brand reputations and reduce the risk of suppliers becoming unsustainable. Given the changes that we know are needed to be a viable player in a more sustainable world, we need to elevate our thinking to work with our suppliers in a much more integrated way. The Japanese call such an approach kieretsu. Through collaboration, promoting transparent relationships and engagement, we will seek to improve efficiencies and create sustainable practices within our supply chains. By understanding their challenges and working with them to adapt to the growing impact of their own set of “external factors”, we have to make sure that both the suppliers in our value chain and our own businesses remain commercially viable. We are in the process of developing a Group-wide approach through a Supplier Management Policy and Management Standard to set standards for systems and supplier performance management. The Group has provided guidance on areas such as writing and adopting a supplier code of conduct, data collection and carrying out supply chain assessments. Our self-assessment process places the onus on our operations to be both critical and transparent of their performance so that they are able to identify areas for progression. We expect this approach to lead to deeper relationships with our suppliers as our management teams will have sought to understand them better. In the future, we will expand our horizon scanning programme to those in our supply chain and try to help them make the same critical assessments we expect of ourselves. This will inevitably require new levels of cooperation and transparency but this is no different to what our customers are increasingly asking of us. There are currently six programmes underway across the Group to find better ways to map the full lengths of our value chains and to collect the relevant data we need to manage them better. These will eventually help us to qualify suppliers and streamline the way our products reach the end consumer. We expect the nodal factories in value chains to become brands in their own right due to their ability to promote transparently their key attributes, be they adherence to human rights practices, best practice management of resources or lack of harmful chemicals in their processes. BIRLA BUSINESS 03 Responsible Stewardship