Sustainability Governance

SUSTAINABILITY GOVERNANCE

BE Group’s Board of Directors bears ultimate responsibility for sustainability efforts and continuously monitors that operations meet the statutory and regulatory requirements imposed on the company. The Board of Directors has delegated the establishment of the framework for sustainability work to the Group Management Team and the Board of Directors regularly reviews the work through the Audit Committee. The Group Management Team handles strategic issues, targets, follow-up and communications. The managing director of the respective unit bears the operating responsibility and sets local goals and plans that are subsequently followed up by the Group Management Team. This work is held together by a sustainability coordinator who reports to the President and CEO.

Policy and code of conduct

BE Group is supported by several policies and guidelines in its sustainability work: such as the code of conduct, core values, environmental policy, information policy, Safety first policy, anti-corruption policy, sanction policy, the code of conduct for suppliers and the whistleblower policy. Subsidiaries shall comply with these ethical guidelines and policies and the managing director of each company is responsible for their application in the operations.

BE Group’s code of conduct provides guidelines for business ethics and anti-corruption, and this is complemented with an anti-corruption policy. The policy has been translated into the local languages within the Group and clarifies the Group’s framework and rules of conduct.

The company’s whistleblower service is published on the website and BE Group has a policy to meet the requirements in each country in which the company operates. A whistleblower committee receives and handles possible cases together with an external advisory party.

Dialogue with key stakeholders

BE Group strives to maintain an open dialogue with the identified key stakeholders to be able to meet their needs and expectations of the company. Their opinions add valuable information to develop the company. The following stakeholders had already been identified: customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers and society, where dialogue has been conducted through personal meetings, customer and employee surveys, investor meetings, networks, collaborative projects and union collaboration.

In connection with the introduction of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, additional demands are placed on stakeholder dialogues and BE Group has begun this process. Additional key stakeholders have been identified, such as banks, insurance companies and analyst firms and a first set of interviews has been conducted with selected representatives of key stakeholders.