Sustainability Report

BE Group is a trading and service company that offers efficient distribution and value-generating production service in steel, stainless steel and aluminium to manufacturing and construction industry in Europe. By saving time, cost and capital for our customers, we help them improve their competitiveness.

We offer efficient distribution through coordination in purchasing, transportation and warehousing. With value-generating production service, we offer further processing of the products, such as cutting and slitting, to meet the customers specific needs.

BE Group has a team working with sustainability. This team has identified a number of prioritised focus areas that are considered to be especially important for the Group. The focus areas are the limitation of climate impact and carbon dioxide emissions, requirement specification and follow-up in the supply chain, integration of sustainability work in the entire Group and an expanded dialogue with key stakeholders.

Environmental impact

With its position between steel producers and customers, it is in the area of transport in particular that BE Group is able to reduce the environmental impact. BE Group’s objective is to continuously increase the proportion of deliveries to our warehouse facilities made by rail and sea. Where this is not possible, deliveries are made by truck. We follow up and calculate the development for the transports we use in freight from suppliers to and from our facilities to our customers. In addition to this, BE Group works to continuously improve its own facilities’ energy consumption, emissions and waste management.

In recent years, we have worked to environmentally certify our units and, today, 10 out of 12 units are certified according to ISO 14001 and 76% of our purchases take place from suppliers that are environmentally certified according to ISO 14001.

Social conditions and personnel

BE Group’s Code of Conduct details the Group’s responsibilities towards its business partners, owners, employees and society. The Code addresses issues of business ethics, anti-corruption, shareholder value, child labour, equality, work environment, career issues and competence development. The ethical guidelines included in the Code of Conduct cover all employees in BE Group. All managers in the Group are responsible for ensuring that the employees follow the Code of Conduct and that they themselves act as role models. You can read more about BE Group’s Code of Conduct on our website.

BE Group conducts an annual Group-wide employee survey. The goal is to introduce a more systematic and transparent approach and to ensure that we know our strengths and improvement areas. The results are presented by department and are used in a process where every group can work with the improvement areas established.

Respect for human rights

At BE Group, we respect our employees and their human rights and all of our workplaces shall be free from harassment and discrimination. We strive to create and be an attractive workplace where everyone is treated with equal respect and dignity. We encourage a culture with equal opportunities and diversity. We also require this from our suppliers and partners. Read more about this in our Code of Conduct and in our Code of Conduct for suppliers.

Working against corruption

We strive to be a reliable partner to our business partners, suppliers and customers. BE Group requires honesty and integrity from all of the units in BE Group and expects the same from all business relationships, such as customers, suppliers and partners. BE Group works against all forms of corruption, including bribes that are prohibited. All kinds of compensation to agents, suppliers and partners must be based solely on relevant products and services. Read more about this in our Code of Conduct and in our Code of Conduct for suppliers.

Risk and risk management

BE Group identified a number of risks and uncertainty factors for the operations. These were divided into three areas: Market risks, Operational risks and Financial risks. Read more about this under Risks and risk management in the Board of director´s report.

Guidelines and policies

It is our goal to be a respected company that acts according to local laws and regulations. We follow Global Compact’s 10 principles that are based on the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization (ILO) declaration on basic principles and rights at work, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the UN Convention against Corruption.

BE Group also has Group-wide policies such as our Code of Conduct, whistle blowing policy, diversity policy for the Board (see the Corporate Governance Report), purchasing policy (drafted at the end of 2017) and Code of Conduct for suppliers. These policies are available on our intranet and every unit manager is responsible for the employees being aware of and following them.