Our Human Rights Engagement

We actively uphold human rights along our entire value chain. Within this area, we perceive the main risks to human rights are lying most of all in the upstream supply chain. Therefore, in our internal and external Codes of Conduct (CoC) we have integrated corresponding binding policies. By this we require both our employees and our business partners to uphold and promote human rights ever since.
Our own business activities and the cooperation with our business partners are based on the following principles and guidelines:

• The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• The Conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
• The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
• All applicable country-specific laws and statutory requirements.

With our commitment to the UN Global Compact we further emphasize our belief and commitment to support human rights and that we actively promote its Ten Principles in any of our own companies as well as in our business partners’ organizations.

Our CoC for Employees requires all managers and employees worldwide to adopt and uphold our company values and regulations. This ethical guideline was most recently updated in 2023 and has been rolled out globally to all affiliates.

We also support responsible business in line with ethical and legal standards beyond our direct sphere of influence. In our CoC for Business Partners we promote both compliance with occupational health and safety standards as well as with fundamental employee rights regarding working hours, fair remuneration, freedom of association, and collective bargaining. The CoC for Business Partners forms the basis for our collaboration with external partners. The implementation of the CoC for Business Partners is monitored in our Responsible Sourcing Program. It comprises a comprehensive due diligence and risk assessment and independent auditing of our suppliers – supported by our EcoVadis and AIM-PROGRESS memberships.

Supply Chain Due Diligence Training for Business Partners

 In the spirit of partnership, we also offer and encourage all our suppliers and business partners to complete the E-Learning linked below. The training includes a comprehensive overview on supply chain due diligence and how to ensure safeguarding human rights within your areas of operation. It is broken down into multiple modules and lasts about 45 minutes.  

Each module contains key messages about various business-related aspects of human rights, as well as the obligations for companies resulting from related legislation and regulation. Additionally, this training will provide you with tools and examples of how to incorporate the aforementioned requirements into your organization and supply chain.  

https://beiersdorf-sustainability.portal-lms.com/login

For us, it is of paramount importance to find out about possible irregular behavior – whether intentional or not – to respond rapidly to any systematic or material compliance and other breaches. In doing so, we protect our company, employees, employees along the supply chain, and consumers.

Through various whistleblowing channels, our employees as well as customers, consumers, suppliers and their employees, and other stakeholders have the opportunity to report potential incidents. Internally, our employees have the opportunity to contact compliance colleagues directly, either in a personal conversation, or they can report a violation via the compliance hotline. In addition, we have established an externally accessible whistleblowing system Speak up. We care. It is a protected, secure, and independent reporting channel for employees, customers, consumers, suppliers, and other external stakeholders. The platform is based on BKMS® Incident Reporting technology, which has multiple data security certifications. It is available around the clock in all markets in which Beiersdorf and its subsidiaries do business and its use is permitted under local law. Users can submit information on possible wrongdoing in more than 30 languages, remaining anonymous wherever local law permits.

Further (country-specific) information on Speak up. We care. is available on the platform: https://www.bkms-system.net/speakup.wecare