In an era of globalized trade and increased corporate responsibility, the importance of supply chain due diligence regulations has never been greater. The Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (“LkSG”) aims to establish a framework that also requires logistics companies to thoroughly assess and manage the risks associated with their supply chain operations. Nippon Express Europe GmbH (“NX”) acknowledges its corporate responsibility for the respect of human rights and the protection of the environment within its own company and along its supply chains.
What is the goal of this law? To protect human rights and the environment, which is already an integral part of our ESG strategy and charter of conduct.
What is required under the law?
Key steps to comply with the LkSG:
- Risk Identification
In order to identify human rights and environmental risks and breaches of duty in our own business area and with our direct suppliers, we carry out a risk analysis. The risks identified in this process are then evaluated, i.e. weighted, prioritized and examined for their probability of occurrence.
- Supplier assessment
Our suppliers have to meet our expectations of all business partners, which include binding criteria for acting responsibly according to ethical and legal standards.
- Establish policies and procedures as basis for our risk management
In our own business area, our corporate policies are an essential part of our corporate culture and our daily work. These reflect our expectations and provide the binding framework for action for all employees. In particular, our Charter of Conduct, which is binding for all employees, anchors the most important guidelines and principles for sustainable action and conduct in our daily work processes.
- Publishing of the NX EMEA Human Rights Policy
The purpose of our NX EMEA Human Rights Policy is to publicly acknowledge our corporate responsibility for the respect of human rights and the protection of the environment within our own company and along its supply chains. At the same time, the NX EMEA Human Rights Policy aims to express our expectations of our employees and suppliers in the supply chain.
- Preventive measures
If we determine that there is a risk because our business activities have a negative impact on human rights or the environment, we will seek effective and appropriate measures. To this end, we have developed internal processes that define how to proceed with the detection of risks and what appropriate preventive measures can be implemented within our own business area and towards direct and indirect suppliers.
- Corrective action
In the event of a violation of human rights or environmental legal positions by a direct supplier, NX will define appropriate remedial measures depending on the severity of the violation and will endeavour to implement them with the involvement of the direct supplier. These measures can range from a request to remedy the violation immediately, to legal action, to the termination of the business relationship.
- Complaints procedure
NX is providing state of the art possibilities to report compliance related issues and hints. This includes the
Whistleblowing System NX SpeakUp (“NX Speak Up”) as reporting channel for NX EMEA which can be found
HERE.
The rules of procedure for the grievance mechanism (“NX EMEA Complaints Procedure Instructions”) can be found HERE.
- Transparency and reporting
We will continuously document the fulfilment of the LkSG due diligence obligations internally and keep this documentation for at least seven years. Our annual reporting on this takes place no later than four months after the end of the financial year and is transmitted to the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) and made publicly available on our website.
What does this mean for NX´s supplier?
Our suppliers have to meet our expectations of all business partners, which include binding criteria for acting responsibly according to ethical and legal standards. For this reason, we have anchored the following measures in particular with regard to our direct suppliers:
Supplier selection: The consideration of social, ethical and environmental criteria plays an essential role in the selection of suppliers.
Supplier Code of Conduct: Our Supplier Code of Conduct defines the requirements and expectations with regard to sustainability criteria. We also expect suppliers to meet our human rights and environmental expectations of their business partners, e.g. own suppliers and subcontractors. Our NX EMEA Supplier Code of Conduct can be found
HERE.
Human Rights Policies: Our own commitment to strengthen human and environmental rights is set out in our
NX EMEA Declaration of Principles on Respect for Human Rights and for NX Group on a global level in the
NX GROUP Human Rights Policy issued by NIPPON EXPRESS HOLDINGS, INC.
The participation of our Suppliers in our sustainability and compliance strategy is essential to realize a high standard of protection on human and environmental rights positions.
We expect our Suppliers to share our values and standards in the way we do business.
Obtaining contractual assurances: By means of contractual clauses and by incorporating the Supplier Code of Conduct into our supplier contracts, our human rights expectations become a binding part of the contracts. In this way, we create the right to intervene to meet and implement these expectations along the supply chain.
