Healthy for the business
Human rights declarations were originally worded for governments, so companies have been left to themselves to define and respect the responsibility that comes with being an active participant in global society.
Various initiatives
Novozymes’ focus areas within human rights relate mainly to employment standards and anti-discrimination, which are covered by our minimum standards. Our efforts in the area are multi-faceted.
Once a year, all Novozymes' business units conduct a self-assessment, which includes describing the relevant management systems, to document that these minimum standards are being met. Identifying good practice in various areas and sharing experience in the self-assessment helps improve local efforts. We also require companies that supply raw materials for our enzyme production to carry out self-assessments to ensure they meet these minimum standards.
Since 2006, audits to ensure that our business units meet the minimum standards have also been integrated into our internal audit program. Novozymes’ internal audit panel selects business units for auditing to assess whether they meet human rights and employment standards.
Novozymes' largest business units have also worked with local strategies for social responsibility since 2004. Human rights are featured in some of these strategies, which by their nature differ because conditions and cultures vary worldwide.
Finally, every year at Novozymes, we report on progress in areas related to human rights and employment in our annual report. This report is a part of our obligation as a member of the UN’s Global Compact, and it provides insight into the frameworks and internal and external initiatives that Novozymes has established to further promote the principles of the Global Compact. Our ambition is to ensure respect for human rights throughout our entire supply chain, although it is of course more difficult to control activities outside our direct areas of responsibility.
Novozymes supports the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights covering all rights. We have assessed the rights and areas that are most central to us in terms of geographic location, sector and business activities. Because our production and business activities are global, we have chosen to focus on employment standards especially. We have passed a code of minimum standards based on international conventions that apply for all employees and business units.
Read more about Novozymes’ human rights standards at:
http://www.novozymes.com/en/MainStructure/AboutUs/Positions/Human+rights.htm
It means something
Our work with human rights results in more than just a clean conscience. In our experience, being a good international citizen can open doors and build important relationships.
Thomas Nagy, Executive Vice President for Stakeholder Relations at Novozymes, says, “Today, global companies must be aware of the role they play in the local communities where they are based. Partly because vital partners adopt a positive approach to cooperation when they realize that we respect people and the environment. When we act responsibly, by creating good conditions for employees and by being positively involved in local development, local partners and stakeholders are naturally more open to working with us.”
Novozymes adopted the Global Compact in 2001, and we are obliged to document our CSR efforts by setting goals and integrating human rights considerations in our work. Every year, Novozymes’ annual report describes the company’s progress on implementing the ten Global Compact principles.
Read more in The Novozymes Report 2007 at:
http://report2007.novozymes.com/Menu/Novozymes+report+2007/Supplementary+reporting/Global+Compact
It attracts employees
Annual employee satisfaction surveys also establish that Novozymes’ employees attach great importance to corporate social and environmental responsibility.
“Working with human rights, for example, makes our workplace more attractive. And this makes it easier to attract and retain the skilled employees needed to achieve future goals,” says Thomas Nagy. “So there are good reasons for investing in human rights work and sustainability in general.”
Increasing interest and pressure from investors
Investors also focus on companies that respect human rights – especially as serious work on human rights is an important part of corporate risk management. Documentation that shows that a company meets and integrates core human rights is intrinsic to many analysts’ sustainability assessments in indexes that determine investor decisions.
According to investment analyst Rodrigo Amandi from SAM-Group, the world’s first sustainability analysis company, investors today expect companies to address human rights issues.
“More and more investors are requesting sustainability assessments because they show whether a company has considered its vulnerable points. In today’s globalized world, media headlines describing how companies exploit employees in far countries can hit home markets hard. It can destroy your image, and make it difficult to employ skilled employees etc., and ultimately that can scare off investors,” says Rodrigo Amandi.
Sustainability investments are a growth area. The trade association Social Investment Forum estimates that socially responsible investments now account for one of every nine dollars under professional management in the U.S. Overall, socially responsible investments totaled USD 2.71 trillion in 2007, up 18% on 2005.
