In 2022, the Transparency Act came into effect. The purpose of the Transparency Act is to promote respect for human rights and decent working conditions in businesses, and to ensure public access to information. Norwegian Concept is affected by the Transparency Act and is therefore required to conduct and report on due diligence assessments, in addition to having an information duty. We have been working with due diligence assessments for many years and consider it the core of our sustainability work. Due diligence is a method for identifying, preventing, accounting for, and following up on how actual and potential negative impacts of the business are managed. By conducting due diligence assessments, we are better equipped to ensure human rights and decent working conditions.
How
We follow Ethical Trade Norway’s guide for due diligence assessments, which is based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct (2018). It involves the following six steps:
- Embed responsibility in the organization and policies
- Identify and assess negative impact/harm
- Stop, prevent, or mitigate negative impact/harm
- Monitor implementation and results
- Communicate how impacts are managed
- Ensure or cooperate on remediation and compensation where required
- You can read all about our due diligence assessments and the six steps in our annual sustainability report here. For 2023, we achieved the base level on the report, indicating that we operate in accordance with the Transparency Act.