In February this year, Vinge became a member of the UN Global Compact, a UN framework which gathers more than 9000 companies and organizations globally around ten principles concerning respect for human rights, employee rights, the environment and anti‑corruption
During the autumn of 2017 and up to now, Vinge has been part of the working group which was given the task of establishing a Swedish Global Compact network. The official network was launched on 22 March at a first annual meeting where a new board was elected including, among others, Théo Jaekel, Senior Specialist: Human Rights and Supply Chain at Vinge. The principal speaker at the meeting was Lise Kingo, Executive Director for UN Global Compact in New York. A panel consisting of company representatives from Folksam, H&M, Arla and Ellevio also participated and discussed how their companies can implement the ten principles in practice.
“We have integrated our services within CSR and compliance as a natural part of our full‑service offering to clients. Increasingly onerous legislative requirements and greater expectations from investors and clients entail that companies need to be more systematic in their CSR and compliance work. For Vinge, it is important that we also practice what we preach. A membership of Global Compact and compliance with the ten principles is thus quite self‑evident. In addition to advising clients, we will also thereby acquire a greater overall perspective of the firm’s internal CSR work.”
“Partly the discussions concerning how important the central elements of trade and industry are in order to achieve Agenda 2030 and the UN’s global CSR objectives, and, in part, that changes are required to entire business models in order for this to become reality. As a new member of the board, I also recognize the requirement of creating a network which is not simply part of the crowd, but, rather, which provides value to the members in the form of more intimate co‑operation and actual exchange of experience.”
“Global Compact is a strong foundation for companies in relation to what principles should guide the company’s operations. However, specific and effective measures are also required in order to translate the principles into practical work. An initial step is to adopt the relevant policies and establish processes for compliance within the entire organization. However, policies are not worth more than the paper they are written on if you do not follow them up and review them in the form of audits and dialogue. As a result of the Global Compact’s international focus, the membership can help companies to establish long‑term partnerships with suppliers and customers in order to thereby create the preconditions for continued improvement.”
