Governance
Governance and Compliance
While "governance" refers to corporate management as a whole, the term "compliance" refers to the totality of all measures that ensure the compliant behaviour of a company and its employees. To this end, we have developed a compliance system, the centrepiece of which is our corporate guidelines. These guidelines stipulate that our actions must not only be in accordance with the law, but also with core social values. The corporate guidelines provide our employees with orientation with regard to their fundamental legal and ethical obligations and give them the security they need for correct behaviour in the workplace.
Compliance with rules
We firmly believe that the integrity of all actions is an essential prerequisite for sustainable business success. As a globally active company, the Alzchem Group is subject to numerous legal provisions - not only German law, but also the regulations and directives of the EU and the legal provisions of many other countries. All business matters and processes must therefore be organised in such a way that they comply with all regulations within whose scope the Alzchem Group conducts its business activities. Our employees are prohibited from issuing instructions that deviate from our corporate guidelines.
Fair competition
The Alzchem Group is committed to fair competition. This also includes respect for the independence of public officials. For this reason, we strictly prohibit all forms of corruption, such as active and passive bribery, accepting and granting advantages and so-called facilitation payments. Through its actions, Alzchem wants to avoid the appearance that its employees are using extraneous means to influence their business and dialogue partners. For this reason, gifts, favours, hospitality or other benefits may only be granted or accepted in the Alzchem Group if they do not exceed the scope of business practices in the region concerned, are not of an unreasonably high value and are within the scope of what is permitted by law, in particular labour law.
Dealing with business partners
Alzchem treats all business partners in a fair and legally impeccable manner. The selection of suppliers and service providers is carried out by the purchasing organisation in an orderly process according to objective, comprehensible criteria. Where possible and reasonable, contracts are awarded on the basis of competitive bids. When selecting suppliers, Alzchem also ensures that they accept Alzchem's own "Code of Conduct for Suppliers". Incentives offered by Alzchem, such as performance-related commissions, rebates, price reductions or free deliveries of goods, must not only comply with the relevant legal requirements at all times, but must also be clearly documented. In order to prevent prohibited actions, payment for goods and services is only made directly to the respective contractual partner. Payment in cash is prohibited, except in minor cases.
Equal treatment
No employee, job applicant or business partner may be discriminated against or favoured on the grounds of race or ethnic origin, gender, religion or ideology, disability, age or sexual identity. Values such as human dignity, tolerance and respect are not only fundamental values of an open, pluralistic society. They are also guidelines for our entrepreneurial thinking and actions and therefore for our corporate culture.
Reporting violations
To strengthen our compliance system, we have set up a whistleblower hotline with an external reporting centre in addition to the option of reporting to the Compliance Officer. This enables all Alzchem employees and third parties, such as business partners or customers, to report legal violations or other breaches of rules within the company, anonymously if desired. The use of the whistleblower hotline does not incur any costs for the whistleblower or any disadvantages in relation to Alzchem, provided that the whistleblower has not violated laws or company guidelines. The employees of the reporting centre are bound to confidentiality. They will treat the identity of the whistleblower and the information provided by him/her confidentially, also in relation to Alzchem, if this is requested by the whistleblower. The Reporting Centre, the Compliance Officer and Alzchem will follow up the information with due diligence and thoroughly investigate the underlying facts.
The Whistleblower Hotline can be contacted at the following address either via the online form or by e-mail, telephone or in a personal conversation:
Online form: https://alzchem.hinweisgeberexpertemeldeplattform.de/
E-mail: info@hinweisgeberexperte.de
Telephone: +49 89 21 52 74 33 (weekdays between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm)
Dealing with human rights
We are Alzchem. Alzchem* is an internationally active chemical company. Innovative, competent and reliable, Alzchem successfully positions itself with proven and new products in known and future markets in the world of specialty chemicals. We have a precise idea of what we want to achieve: On the basis of our integrated network and with innovative chemistry, we supply customer-oriented applications to selected markets. To realize this vision, we build on clear principles of conduct:
- We strengthen mutual trust through reliability, fairness, prompt information and open communication as well as by obtaining and giving
feedback. - We pursue the goals of Alzchem with entrepreneurial action. We take responsibility for our decisions.
- We strive for the highest quality in everything we do. For us, mistakes are an opportunity and an obligation to learn.
- We work together to find constructive solutions and implement decisions together.
- We develop attractive offers in dialog with our business partners. We are always aware of our responsibility towards society and the environment.
- Agility and speed are important success factors. With their help, we can adapt to constantly changing requirements and benefit from them.
The principles of conduct express the fact that Alzchem does not align its business activities solely with its economic interests, but stands for value-based business conduct. This also includes respect for human rights and compliance with environmental due diligence obligations - primarily by Alzchem and its employees, but also by its business partners.
We consider the protection of human rights to be a central element of our corporate responsibility. We base our commitment to respecting human rights on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labor Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We are committed to respecting the internationally recognized human rights in these declarations and to upholding them in our business activities and along our value chains. In particular, this includes the prohibition of child and forced labor, the prohibition of all forms of human trafficking, slavery and discrimination and the strengthening of freedom of association. We are also committed to compliance with occupational health and safety, the continuous payment of living appropriate wages and the prohibition of environmental pollution, forced eviction and the use of security forces if their use entails the risk of human rights being disregarded or restricted. We are also guided by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
This policy statement clarifies our company-specific commitment to respecting human rights, as already reflected in other company guidelines and in particular in our corporate guidelines, our Supplier Code of Conduct and our USGQ policy on the environment, safety, health and quality.
The principles set out here apply to the business activities of all Alzchem Group companies and their employees. In addition, we also expect our suppliers and other business partners to commit to upholding the principles set out here and to implement appropriate processes to respect human rights. This also includes that our partners provide information on how the aforementioned principles are complied with when requested to do so by Alzchem.
We comply with applicable law in all circumstances in our business conduct. In cases where international human rights are restricted by local laws, we strive to promote the principles behind international standards without conflicting with local laws. Where local laws go beyond international standards, we comply with them.
As a globally active company in the chemical industry, we have the opportunity to strengthen the protection of human rights and the environment in a variety of ways. However, we are also aware of the potential human rights and environmental risks associated with our business activities.
As part of our regular risk analyses, which we carry out for our business units and our supply chains, we identify risks that we consider to be priorities due to their potential severity and our ability to influence them. In our case, these are currently in particular the health protection and occupational safety of Alzchem employees, environmental protection, product safety and the (non-)observance of human rights in the supply chain.
We incorporate the results of our risk analyses into the relevant business processes, in particular into our supplier management system. Where risks exist, we implement suitable preventative measures. These are in detail:
- Measures to ensure the health and safety of Alzchem employees: The health and safety of our employees is our top priority. By implementing uniformly high standards (including OHRIS certification) at all our sites, we are continuously working to create a safe and healthy working environment. Our employees regularly take part in training courses to promote and develop their safety-conscious behavior.
- Environmental protection measures: We operate our plants in compliance with all applicable regulations and standards, were one of the first companies in Germany to adopt a climate roadmap approved by shareholders to reduce greenhouse gases, continuously measure our progress in environmental protection and publish this annually in an environmental statement.
- Product safety measures: As part of our product stewardship program, we continuously review the safety of our products in terms of health and environmental risks.
- Measures to ensure compliance with human rights in the supply chain: We take human rights and selected environmental criteria into account when selecting and evaluating our suppliers and implement appropriate control measures. This also includes training and audits of our suppliers.
In cases where we have directly caused or contributed to human rights violations through our business activities, we are committed to implementing appropriate remedial measures. If our contribution to a violation, for example due to a business relationship, was only indirect, we will use our influence to implement appropriate remedial measures. In such a case, we also reserve the right to terminate the business relationship with the partner concerned.
Possible compliance violations, which also include human rights violations and environmental violations, can be reported either via our Compliance Officer or via our Whistleblower Hotline (https://alzchem.hinweisgeberexpertemeldeplattform.de/en). The whistleblower hotline is available to our employees and business partners worldwide around the clock, all year round, by telephone, email and online. It can also be contacted by any other stakeholder, such as the neighbors of our production sites. Reports via the whistleblower hotline can also be made anonymously. Whistleblowers, in particular Alzchem employees, may not be disadvantaged for submitting a report via the Whistleblower Hotline, unless the report was made improperly.
The whistleblower hotline provides the possibility of a complaint procedure within the meaning of Section 8 of the German Supply Chain Act; the associated rules of procedure determine how information received via the whistleblower hotline is handled.
Responsibility for compliance with the human rights obligations set out here lies with our Compliance Officer, who, as Human Rights Officer, is also responsible for the successful implementation of our human rights strategy together with his organization.
We will continuously and cooperatively develop our human rights and environmental due diligence obligations. This includes regularly reviewing and, if necessary, updating this declaration of principles.
Digitalisation and sustainability
On the way to a sustainable industry and a more sustainable society, digitalisation is an important tool. With digital solutions and technologies, which we are developing in a variety of projects, resources can be used more efficiently, supply chains can be better tracked, energy and time can be saved, and the circular economy can be implemented more consistently. The opportunities and possibilities offered by digitalisation in research and development, in production and along the entire value chain strengthen our innovative power.
The processing of large amounts of data combined with high computing power (AI, Big Data) opens up optimisation potential and helps in the development of new and sustainable solutions. For example, with the help of descriptive analysis, i.e. by recognising simple patterns with statistical key figures and graphical methods, it was possible to precisely predict the grain size of one of our products. In training, we have completely switched to digital solutions by introducing tablet PCs in order to save paper on the one hand and to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of our trainees and strengthen their IT skills on the other. For example, the recording of measurement data can be done completely via the tablet and also regulations and all documents with notes can be securely stored here. Through the targeted use of digital technologies, we will continue to develop sustainable solutions in the future, further optimise our workflows and make our production processes safer, more efficient and more resource-friendly.
