Our activities impact in different ways on different types of stakeholder. One important part of our sustainability work is to be receptive to the wishes and opinions of others and to make our information as clear and transparent as possible. At Group level we communicate with the capital markets, and mass media. At individual company level, we communicate with employees, customers, suppliers, local authorities and the company’s near neighbours. We have identified the stakeholder groups below as particularly important in terms of our environmental and social responsibility.
As far as the environment and corporate social responsibility are concerned, we have identified the following key stakeholder groups:
Customers
Sustainability has become increasingly important in the supplier chain, especially for companies like ours, which has some of its production facilities in developing countries. In 2011, for example, our customers have made demands relating to phasing out certain chemical substances, declarations that our products meet the criteria laid down in specified environmental legislation, the introduction of environmental management systems, and evidence of our social responsibility work. It has become relatively common for customers to follow up such demands through questionnaires, site visits and audits. Approximately one third of our production plants were subject to this kind of follow-up in 2011.
Authorities
It is relatively common for representatives of various authorities to visit our units to discuss matters relating to the natural and working environments.
Employees
The main emphasis of communication with employees during the year was to provide additional information about ‘Our Values’ and to discuss how to turn words into actions. Our ambition has been to reach every employee with this information, and all units now have access to the material in their own language.
Shareholders and investors
We expanded the scope of our communication about sustainability issues during the year, partly to make things easier for market analysts, fund managers and other stakeholders, since many investors now include sustainability issues in their analysis of a company’s overall performance. NIBE has been audited in several such contexts and in 2011 we also reported our performance to the Sustainable Value Creation Initiative. The results showed improvements in some areas compared with previous years, but pointed to shortcomings in others, such as following up the sustainability performance of our suppliers and providing more information about social responsibility.
Suppliers
Based on our own quality and environmental management systems, we make requirements of our suppliers in terms of their environmental, social and quality-related performance. These issues form part of our supplier assessments and are followed up through questionnaires, site inspections and audits. In 2011, roughly one in four of our companies carried out some form of follow-up on suppliers’ sustainability work.
Society
We maintain close contacts with local schools and universities, non-profit organisations and other institutions in the communities where we have factories and offices. In many instances we provide financial or other support. In 2011 almost 1,000 pupils and students visited our plants, and around a dozen of our units are involved in more extensive social responsibility activities, such as providing opportunities for undergraduate degree projects, practical work experience and vocational education.