Our business concept is to own forest and add value to the forest. Holmen's forest holdings form the basis of our business – an ecocycle in which the raw material grows and is refined into everything from wood for climate-smart building to renewable packaging, magazines, and books.
The Group has six production plants in Sweden and one in the UK. The forests and hydropower facilities are located in Sweden. More than 85 per cent of the Group's sales are within Europe. For more information about the Holmen Group please visit About Holmen.
As signatories to the UN Global Compact, Holmen has undertaken to uphold and respect human rights in its sphere of influence. Since suppliers fall within that sphere of influence, it is important to set clear requirements for them on the issue of human rights. The Group's purchasing policy gives great weight to corporate social responsibility and the purchasing organization insists that an obligation to comply with the principles set forth in Holmen's Supplier Code of Conduct is included in new supply contracts. The Group's purchasing organization has received training regarding the purchasing policy, the code, and about the Group's stand on business ethics. The code covers all the areas touched upon by the Global Compact. Under the code, suppliers undertake to respect human rights. A particularly strong stand will be taken against all forms of child labour including but not limited to the worst forms such as slavery, prostitution, and other forms of work that risk damaging a child's health, safety, and well-being. The Supplier must also not use or benefit from any form of forced labour. Forced labour is considered to include debt bondage or other forms of slavery, forced prison labour, hard labour or human trafficking. By the end of 2021, suppliers accounting for 85 per cent of the Group's purchasing volume fulfil the principles of Holmen's Supplier Code of Conduct. In 2022, 0 (2) cases regarding breach of the Supplier Code of Conduct were reported.
Since 2017, Holmen has used an external partner, EcoVadis, to follow up on supplier compliance with the Code in the areas of human rights, health and safety, the environment, business ethics, and purchasing. The evaluation is tailored to the size of the supplier in terms of turnover and number of employees, and the supplier's exposure to risk in terms of its geographical presence.
If the evaluation shows that the principles of the code have not been complied with, the supplier must rectify the problem and draw up a plan to ensure that the problems are not repeated. The purpose of the Code of Conduct is to improve conditions for those who work in Holmen's value chain, and it is therefore important that the suppliers are given an opportunity to correct shortcomings in the business. In the event of repeated failure to comply with the principles, however, the contract with the supplier may be terminated.
In 2022 about 130 (133) strategically important suppliers were assessed through Ecovadis. 97 (92) % of our assessed suppliers are above our approval level. Of the suppliers we have evaluated and followed up in 2022, non have been found to have any risk of child labor or restriction of freedom of association.
For more information, please visit Supplier management.
This statement is made in accordance with Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes the Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement for Holmen AB, Holmen Skog AB, Holmen Iggesund Paperboard AB, Holmen Iggesund Paperboard Ltd, Holmen Paper AB, Holmen Wood Products AB, Martinsons Såg AB, Martinsons Byggsystem AB, Holmen Wood Products Ltd, Holmen Energi AB for the financial year commencing 1 January 2021 and ending 31 December 2021.
Stockholm, 7 Mars, 2023
Henrik Sjölund
CEO and President of Holmen AB