Our commitment
Elopak respects and supports internationally recognized human rights, which is a basis for our license to operate. Our vision is to be chosen by people, packaged by nature. Hence, how we deliver is just as critical as what we deliver. This reflects our commitment to doing no harm, where we strive to positively impact our business partners and communities which we are a part of.
Elopak respects and supports internationally recognized human rights, which is a basis for our license to operate. Our vision is to be chosen by people, packaged by nature. Hence, how we deliver is just as critical as what we deliver. This reflects our commitment to doing no harm, where we strive to positively impact our business partners and communities which we are a part of.
Human and labor rights principles are embedded in our governing documents, such as our Code of Conduct, Supplier Code of Conduct and statement in accordance with the UK Modern Slavery Act. Elopak is a member of the UN Global Compact. We respect and support international standards, including that of the International Bill of Human Rights, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
We acknowledge that our human rights efforts are a journey where we work to continuously improve our performance and behavior.
Our key risks
Elopak has a risk-based approach to human rights due diligence. Through a high-level human rights risk assessment of our operations, supply chain and business relationships, we have identified our key human rights risk areas and priorities. This will better allow us to prioritize and channel our resources and efforts. Our main human rights risk areas are safe working conditions, decent working conditions throughout our operations and the supply chain and forced labor.
Our approach
Governance
The responsibility for promoting human rights and complying with local laws and legislation, lies within each business area and staff function. In Elopak, legal and compliance act as a support function towards the group and can provide insights, guidance and direction on compliance issues, encompassing human rights.
Our Ethics & Compliance Council ensure we have a cross-functional approach to manage and coordinate various compliance risk areas in Elopak, which includes that of human rights. The Council is made up of senior management from legal and compliance, human resources, operations, procurement, commercial, sustainability, finance and IT, including members from specific geographic regions. When deemed necessary, additional representatives participate in the Ethics & Compliance Council meetings. The Council is chaired by the Chief Legal & Compliance Officer which reports regularly to the Board Audit and Sustainability Committee.
Due diligence
We have a risk-based approach to human rights due diligence. We conduct due diligence as a measure to avoid harm to people which are affected by our operations. We identify and assess human rights risk by facilitating workshops in the organization with various stakeholders to collect the necessary information to evaluate our actual and potential negative impact on people in our supply chain, operations and business relationships. External sources and appropriate global indexes are included as supporting information in the assessments conducted.
We foster a culture of respecting human rights by raising awareness on the topic to our employees and through training. In Elopak, we strengthen our employees’ understanding of their responsibilities within business and human rights by offering different e-learning courses on the subject in addition to more in-depth training where relevant.
Human rights due diligence in the supply chain
In 2021 we conducted a high-level human rights risk assessment of our supply chain, identifying our key human right risk areas and human rights due diligence priorities.
Our focus is our key human rights risk areas in our supply chain, which are opposing forced labor and child labor, as well as safeguarding the right to decent working conditions and the right to health and safety.
In order to address issues more efficiently with our suppliers, we will focus on prioritized areas and categories. The priorities have been identified considering scope, scale, irreversibility and likelihood of occurrence. In addition, we have also considered:
- Geography/country risk
- Activity/risk to people – e.g. level of manual work, use of unskilled labor, hazardous work, etc.
- Elopak’s influence – e.g. spend and strategic importance
Using this approach, we prioritize the following categories: Raw material categories (board, aluminum, inks and solvents, polymers) as well as logistics and transport, followed by filling machines, catering and cleaning services in addition to maintenance.
In line with our risk-based approach, we aim to conduct more thorough human rights impact assessments for the prioritized areas with mitigating actions and follow-up plans where there is a higher risk for adverse human rights impacts.
Should we detect or be informed of human rights risks or adverse impacts in the non-prioritized areas of our supply chain, we will take appropriate action to mitigate risks there as well.
Raising concerns
In Elopak we can report a concern or grievance in several ways. Our whistleblower helpline allows anyone involved in or affected by our activities to raise a concern, via phone, email or an online form. The whistleblower helpline also includes concerns related to that of respecting human rights. The helpline is hosted by an independent external service provider. The helpline is confidential, anonymous and available in multiple languages.
