Human Rights

Commitment

As a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact, Billerud actively supports human rights and shall conduct its business in a manner that is consistent with the principles of the Global Compact, the International Bill of Human Rights, and the ILO Core Conventions. Billerud is committed to respect and promote human rights in our relationships with our employees, suppliers and other business partners, and we encourage our stakeholders to share this commitment.

Billerud supports the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and recognizes that while states have a duty to protect human rights, companies have a responsibility to respect the same. These principles are used as a basis for our work with human rights and to ensure that Billerud operations have positive impacts. Billerud shall work in a structured way to identify and engage with stakeholders that have an impact on and/or are affected by the Group’s operations. A transparent and responsive dialogue allows us to understand their expectations and needs, in order to ensure that Billerud develops in the desired direction.

Our human rights commitments are specified in the Billerud Code of Conduct, and in our Group Policies on Sustainability, Responsible Business, Safety and People. The Group Policies can be found here. Group Directives supplementing the Group Policies give more detailed internal rules on human rights considerations in our operations and how these shall be implemented, reviewed and monitored.

Our approach

Our approach to human rights is integrated into our existing business practices, for example as part of our health and safety work, anti-discrimination activities, sustainable purchasing practices as well as in relation to other business partners.

Billerud’s human rights commitments include constantly strengthening procedures for identifying and assessing the risk of causing, contributing to or being linked to serious human rights violations. Billerud is committed to act upon any findings to avoid, prevent, mitigate and/or remediate potential adverse human rights impacts, and to promote the protection of human rights.

Identifying and managing risks

In a global packaging company, potential negative human rights impacts can arise throughout the value chain, e.g. health and safety risks, discrimination, and risks within our supply chain in countries associated with elevated risk.

Risks relating to human rights are addressed in the group-wide ERM process, and are thus part of Billerud’s risk universe. In addition, we are formalizing a dedicated risk analysis process to identify, assess and prioritise potential prominent human rights risks.

In 2022, Billerud introduced an updated Supplier Code of Conduct that defines expectations and requirements for Billerud's suppliers, including with respect to human rights. Billerud continuously assesses its suppliers, including by using an external sustainability assessment tool operated by Ecovadis.

Reporting

Billerud publicly disclose information on our work on human rights through our Annual and Sustainability Report, Modern Slavery Act Statement as well as through selected established sustainability rating regimes.

All our employees and external partners have the opportunity to submit anonymous reports about potential breaches of the Code of Conduct and other serious wrongdoings. For this, we have established a Speak-Up line that both internal and external stakeholders can use. The Speak-Up line can be found here.