Introducing the Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ)
The globally recognized sustainability standard for the automotive industry
Utilised by global OEMs along with many tier 1 and sub-tier automotive companies, the SAQ is globally applicable for all suppliers in the automotive supply chain including sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, assembly or retail.
The SAQ is aligned with the Global Automotive Sustainability Guiding Principles and focuses on enhancing sustainability performance in the supply chain by assessing policy and practice in the areas of human rights and environmental sustainability, health and safety, business ethics and compliance and responsible supplier management.
Drive Sustainability
SAQ 5.0 is created and maintained by Drive Sustainability, the SAQ is made available under the Creative Commons License
Drive Sustainability Partners include: BMW Group, Daimler Truck, Ford, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Scania, Toyota, Volkswagen Group, Volvo Group and Volvo Cars
What's changed in SAQ 5.0?
New questions added to reflect emerging legislation
The SAQ is reviewed and updated biennially and the most recent release of SAQ 5.0 reflects evolving supply chain requirements and emerging due diligence legislation.
SAQ 5.0 incorporates new content to reflect the growing focus on environmental and human rights practices in the supply chain and the need for companies to demonstrate effective due diligence in this area.
The easiest way to learn about the changes between SAQ 4.0 and SAQ 5.0 is to access the SAQ 5.0 Change Record. The Change Record compares all SAQ 4.0 questions with the corresponding SAQ 5.0 questions and provides an overview of the changes.
Learn more about SAQ 5.0 at our dedicated supplier briefings
For a comprehensive overview of the SAQ 5.0 update, you can watch recordings of briefing sessions delivered by SUPPLIERASSURANCE.
By watching a briefing recording you will:
- Understand the specific questionnaire changes between SAQ 4.0 and SAQ 5.0
- Understand the new SAQ structure and platform functionalities
- Receive advice on updating to SAQ 5.0
- See SAQ 5.0 in action
SAQ 5.0 - Assurance through Due Diligence
SUPPLIERASSURANCE and SAQ 5.0 provides a scalable cost-effective supply chain due diligence solution.
Using our cloud-based SUPPLIERASSURANCE platform, our advanced workflow technology involves all sustainability stakeholders at the right time in the process – buyers, suppliers, and our compliance analysts – to ensure a smooth journey from supplier onboarding to performance improvement. This approach provides significant savings on in-house resource and enables ongoing cost effective risk assessment of thousands of suppliers.
Our four step process includes the following:
INTERROGATE - buyers invite suppliers to complete an SAQ and upload evidence to support their SAQ responses. Supplier completion progress can be tracked in real time and existing SAQ results can be viewed by buyers as suppliers share their data.
VERIFY - our team of compliance analysts verify that the evidence submitted by a supplier matches their SAQ declaration. The platform highlights to both the supplier and buyer where the supplied evidence is insufficient.
RECOMMEND - once an SAQ is verified, the supplier receives their SAQ score and customized best practice corrective actions based on their verified responses. Buyers can quickly identify potential areas of sustainability risk and exposure in their supply base and compare supplier results to identify common trends.
CORRECT - buyers can issue specific due dates to suppliers to confirm when they expect the corrective actions to be completed and demonstrable. The supplier can update their SAQ at any time to demonstrate their progress.
