Governance

As a global business, we recognize our responsibility to support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights, as defined by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

ERM supports international efforts against child and forced labor and has a specific Slavery, Child Labor and Human Trafficking Policy, which we updated last year to align with the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015. Our policy prohibits the use of child or forced labor or involvement by ERM with entities that support prohibited labor practices, including slavery, bonded labor or debt-bondage and other types of coercion or corruption.

In September 2016, ERM released our Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement. It reflects our commitment to international efforts to abolish all forms of modern slavery and sets out the measures to ensure there is no slavery and human trafficking in our business operations and supply chain.

Human rights roadmap for consumer goods company

ERM worked with a global consumer goods company to develop a human rights risk screening and roadmap. Our approach used risk criteria to assess and prioritize high-risk commodities and geographies important to the client’s business. We then prioritized where further human rights due diligence activities were needed most and recommended short-, medium- and long-term actions. We provided the client with an innovative, systematic and replicable approach to assess the effectiveness of management controls in place to address human rights issues and focus resources. In addition, the process provided fresh insight into current business practices, including barriers and enablers to improving human rights performance in the supply chain.

Responsible sourcing policy and supplier assessment

ERM is working with a global commodity trader to implement their responsible sourcing policy for goods sourced from areas known to have significant human rights issues. We developed a best practice approach to identify and assess human rights performance in high risk geographies enabling our client to identify risks, prioritize their due diligence activities and respond to stakeholders.

Mondi worked with ERM in South Africa to conduct a pilot project focused on its South African forestry operations. The pilot aimed to identify and measure the local impacts of Mondi’s social investments. Key aspects of the pilot included engaging with local government, nongovernmental organization partners, and community beneficiaries to better understand the outcomes and sharing data on the progress of local projects.

This project was published in March 2017 as a case study in the Forest Products Sector Guide to WBCSD's Social Capital Protocol available on the WBCSD website.

ERM's global Contractor Management Program (CMP) helps us evaluate and pre-qualify contractors to ensure that they adhere to the key elements of our Code of Conduct, including those pertaining to human rights, labor practices, anti-bribery and corruption, child and forced labor, as well as a wide range of other important issues such as ERM's health and safety and insurance requirements. Where key contractors do not meet our criteria, we can work with them to improve their processes and performance.

The CMP is being implemented progressively around the world, resulting in a more consistent approach for mandating contractors and suppliers to adhere to our policies and requirements and also track their compliance.

To date, CMP has been implemented in the following ERM Business Units:

• Australia and New Zealand;
• Canada;
• Hong Kong;
• Malaysia;
• Mexico;
• Sub-Saharan Africa;
• United Kingdom and Ireland;
• United States; and
• Western Europe and North Africa.