1. Anchoring Responsibility
Anchoring responsibility involves having relevant guidelines in place, as well as effective management systems for implementing and monitoring these guidelines. For CBK, this means having a sustainability strategy and clearly communicating it with our partners, both customers and suppliers, to ensure shared responsibility for upholding fundamental human rights and decent working conditions.
At CBK, we have clear guidelines for both our suppliers and internal processes, all of which are expected to be followed.
2. Mapping CBK's Impact
Mapping involves identifying risks of negative impacts both internally within our operations and along our supply chain. At CBK, we continuously conduct risk assessments and use risk assessment tools as part of our governance system.
As a distributor, we operate in an industry where there are potential risks for indecent working conditions, which means we must prioritize monitoring and following up on our internal procedures, providing training and guidance to our managers with personnel responsibility, and working closely with our business partners, customers, and suppliers.
We conduct risk assessments, focusing particularly on risks related to human rights, such as the right to life, health, safety, freedom from forced labor, child labor, as well as fair working conditions and equal opportunities.
3. Stopping, Preventing, and Reducing Negative Impact
To ensure responsibility and social sustainability in our operations and supply chain, we work systematically to stop, prevent, and reduce negative impacts. We are committed to actively working to create safe and healthy working conditions for our employees and throughout our supply chain.
Examples of our initiatives include:
Health, Environment, and Safety: We provide top insurance through Gjensidige, which includes treatment coverage, and we conduct annual fire drills at all our facilities. New employees undergo an introduction process that includes safety protocols, emergency exits, fire extinguishers, and gathering points during a fire.
Working Conditions: All our employees are covered by Norwegian labor laws and collective agreements, with access to company health services, pension plans, and additional benefits.
Suppliers: New suppliers must accept and follow our ethical guidelines (Code of Conduct for Suppliers), covering labor conditions, human rights, wages, forced labor, child labor, and corruption.
Procurement Process: We pre-qualify suppliers before entering agreements, and these pre-qualifications are based on risk assessments of the specific supplier or product. Suppliers are reviewed at least every three years.
4. Follow-up
To ensure compliance with our commitments, CBK conducts regular evaluations and audits of our due diligence assessments, actions, and plans. These evaluations take place through both internal audits with Samcert and external audits with RISE, as well as through monthly ISO meetings with the management team.
5. Communication
CBK strives for transparency in all our commitments and assessments. We ensure a constructive dialogue with all our stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, employees, and owners.
To communicate our work, we publish an annual sustainability report that provides an in-depth description of our efforts on social responsibility, environmental sustainability, and ethical trade. We also publish our ESG report for 2024 as a way to give insight into how we approach these issues. You can read more about our social responsibility by clicking the link below.
Read more about how we take our social responsibility here.