The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) is the world's largest sustainability initiative to strengthen corporate social responsibility. As a member, VBG Group is committed to actively work on sustainability issues and to annually report progress on sustainability work to the UN.
Having signed the UNGC, the Group has a responsibility to promote the UN's 17 goals for sustainable development and to work for ten principles that are linked to international conventions on human rights, labor law, the environment and the fight against corruption.
We describe our work primarily in our annual report. Below is a report on how VBG Group works on an ongoing basis with the ten principles.
UN Global Compact's ten principles
| Principles | Status | Read more in our anual report | ||
| Human rights | ||||
| PRINCIPLE 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and... | All employees with access to e-mail have been offered a training in VBG Group Code of Conduct, 85,4% of these performed the training | page 38 | ||
| PRINCIPLE 2: ..make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses. | VBG Group did not receive any reports of crimes against human rights in our divisions’ value chains in 2021. | page 38 | ||
| Labour | ||||
| PRINCIPLE 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; | The Code of Conduct states freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining as a basic principle. Trade unions exist in the countries where it is applicable / practice. If there is no trade union, other types of negotiations are carried out between the company and the employees. | |||
| PRINCIPLE 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour; | VBG Group has zero tolerance toward discrimination and all forms of slavery, forced labor and child labor | page 38 | ||
| PRINCIPLE 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and | Child labor is prohibited at VBG Group and at our suppliers. VBG Group did not receive any reports of crimes against human rights in our divisions’ value chains in 2021. |
page 38 | ||
| PRINCIP 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. | Our zero tolerance approach to discrimination and all forms of slavery, forced labor or child labor is clarified through information, training and internal regulations (the Code of Conduct). We impose the same stringent requirements on our suppliers and collaborating partners as we do on ourselves. |
page 55 | ||
| Environment | ||||
| PRINCIPLE 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges; | We apply the precautionary principle and avoid materials and methods that may pose a risk to the environment and health. The Group has established routines for monitoring and reporting on environmental performance and regularly evaluates potential and future risks for our operations and products. The goal is for all VBG Group's production facilities to be environmentally certified in accordance with ISO 14001 by 2022. In 2021, 11 of 13 facilities were certified. | page 29 page 32 |
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| PRINCIPLE 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and | In 2021, several initiatives have been implemented to strengthen environmental awareness. We have conducted training of leaders and key people and established a new sustainability organization. We have conducted interviews with our stakeholders. | page 8 page 41-44 |
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| PRINCIPLE 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies. | Within the Group, there are several examples of products that contribute to reduced environmental impact, such as climate systems that support electrification in both buses and off-road, as well as long transports and sliding roofs that reduce fuel consumption during transport. | page 17 page 30 |
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| Anti-corruption | ||||
| PRINCIPLE 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery. | Corruption is prevented through information, training, internal regulations (Code of Conduct) and follow-up, such as audits, employee surveys and a whistleblower service. |
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