Human rights due diligence is an ongoing risk management process that a prudent company needs to follow in order to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how it addresses its adverse human rights impacts. UPM implements a group-wide human rights due diligence programme for identifying and addressing actual and potential human rights risks and impacts in our own operations and value chains. The programme defines an ongoing due diligence process with distinct risk assessment approaches and procedures applied to our own operations and the global sourcing activities.
UPM’s human rights journey
Starting from supply chains
We started systematic work on human rights due diligence already back in 2013. Our initial focus was on identifying and managing potential human rights and labour related risks in our supply chains. Developing our own safety performance was also high on the agenda.
Since then we have progressively strengthened our sourcing processes and embedded human rights considerations as integral part in our risk assessments as well as supplier qualification and audits. Our Supplier and Third-Party Code sets the minimum requirements for our suppliers. Our risk-based approach helps us prioritise the most severe human rights risks in our supply chains for further action.
We have increased our focus on supplier audits performed by our own, trained auditors and the geographical coverage of audits is wider than earlier. We have also conducted audits together with qualified external auditors in certain higher risk geographies to benchmark our suppliers’ employment practices against international standards (e.g. the ILO recommendations). Since 2018 we have been a member of Together for Sustainability (TfS), a chemical industry initiative that promotes and improves sustainability practices within supply chains.
Focusing on own operations
In 2017 we focused on identifying salient human rights issues in our own operations and conducted a human rights self-assessment covering all of our 75 operational sites globally. The self-assessment covered topics such as management systems, workforce demographics, working conditions, discrimination, local sourcing, contractor management, and community engagement, and formed a solid baseline for our own operations around the globe. The work was conducted in collaboration with Shift, the leading centre of expertise on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Following this assessment, we were able to identify UPM’s salient human rights issues at the group level.
Building on this work, we have adopted a continuous human rights risk assessment approach where all UPM businesses conduct regular human rights risk assessments on their own operations and prioritise focus areas and actions accordingly. This approach strives to ensure that we identify risks and impacts that may be particular to a specific business area, country or unit only, and takes into account changes in our operating environments.
Raising concerns is encouraged
In line with our compliance system and human rights due diligence programme, we have a mechanism in place to report any cases relating to human rights through the UPM Report Misconduct channel. Following the 2019 revision of our Code of Conduct underlining a proactive speak-up culture, our Report Misconduct channel was renewed in 2020. The UPM Report Misconduct channel is operated by an independent external service provider in a system called SpeakUp. The channel is globally available on our website for all stakeholders (including our own employees) in multiple languages, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Submitting a report is fully confidential and can be done anonymously.
Increased transparency
In 2021 we published a report summarising our human rights approach and due diligence practices. The report has been compiled by the UPM Responsibility team and it is regularly updated. Annual updates on our human rights responsibility can also be explored in UPM’s Annual Reports.
Renewed social responsibility targets
Our social responsibility targets were renewed in 2021. We have strengthened our commitments to ensure fair, equitable and competitive rewarding for employees and introduced new targets for living wage and gender pay equity. Our new target on diversity further demonstrates our drive in building diversity and inclusion into the workplace. All our targets for social responsibility are founded on the principle of respect for human rights.
Focusing on supply chain risks and contractor management
In 2022 we piloted a new framework for identifying high sustainability risk suppliers in our global supply chains. As we work with more than 20 000 B2B suppliers globally, the tool is designed to help us in identifying the most severe environmental, social and human rights risks associated with the products, materials and services we source from different geographies, and prioritizing relevant suppliers for further focus and action.
In 2023, we continued our work on contractor management and initiated a project to develop UPM’s model to manage contractors’ social responsibility performance.
