Supplier Day 2023: Safran rallies its suppliers around the climate challenge

Given the magnitude of the challenge, the tone was friendly but at the same time solemn when the second Supplier Day kicked off at the Safran chalet. Olivier Andriès started his address to welcome the 200+ participants by insisting on the need for Safran and every other player in the aviation industry to rise to the climate challenge while tackling the supply-chain crisis unfolding in the sector. This event – which the Safran Campus hosted for the first time in July 2022 – is a special opportunity for meetings and conversations between Safran and its suppliers. The Group’s goal is to underline its requirements and expectations vis-à-vis its suppliers while reasserting its determination to support their carbon-reduction initiatives.

Safran has set itself high CO₂ emission-reduction targets – which were approved this year by SBTi, an independent organization – and Olivier Andriès emphasized the importance of including suppliers in efforts to achieve operational as well as environmental excellence. During the first Supplier Day, Arnaud Marc (Safran’s Head of Purchasing Performance) had pointed out that decarbonization would thenceforth be one of the “key criteria” in the supplier selection process, “alongside quality, cost and time.”

Philippe Couteaux (SVP, Safran Group Strategy & Climate) and Marjolaine Grange (VP Industry, Purchasing & Performance) then spoke about the progress Safran has made on its decarbonization journey over the past year and about its requirements regarding its suppliers. Marjolaine Grange added that at least 90% of the Group’s 400 suppliers will be required to present their decarbonization action plan by end-2023. Starting in 2024, Safran will add a maturity threshold for awarding new contracts.

The meeting included a ceremony to reward the suppliers that had developed the best breakthroughs around decarbonization. Three companies were singled out among the 65 candidates: Freyssinet, Daher and Constellium. Philippe Couteaux handed Freyssinet a prize for its evaporation-concentration system to recycle production effluents. Safran Nacelles CEO Vincent Caro then handed Daher a prize for its process to optimize the use of discarded carbon fibers in new engine part production and its thermocompression system to reduce energy consumption. Lastly, Constellium received a trophy for its system to reclaim waste heat from the furnaces that heat the town of Issoire.

After the ceremony, Marjolaine Grange wrapped up the event by once again congratulating all the suppliers who had taken part in the competition as well as Safran’s purchasing teams, who are fully committed and trained in decarbonization. She announced that an online training platform in partnership with Eco Act, a company, will go live in 2023, and that a new single supplier portal for Safran will launch starting in 2024. Lastly, she pointed out that the Aero-Excellence program, which started the day before the event, will also enable suppliers to assess their action to reduce carbon emissions.