Sustainability Report update 2019
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INDEX SUSTAINABILITY REPORT UPDATE 2019
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BEKAERTDESLEE
MATERIAL
BUSINESS MODEL
TOPICS
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THE SAFETY
DO GOOD.
MINUTE
SLEEP WELL.
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DETOX TO
UN GLOBAL
ZERO
COMPACT
BEKAERTDESLEE BUSINESS MODEL BekaertDeslee is a globally leading specialist for the development and manufacturing of mattress textiles and mattress covers. From its headquarters in Belgium, the company oversees a global network of 27 locations in 19 countries. Its product range primarily consists of woven and knitted textiles that are sold to mattress manufacturers in the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. BekaertDeslee works together with its customers to develop and produce mattress textiles to the customers' standard of quality in terms of both design and product features.
Assuming sustainability means offering safe, high-quality products and ensuring that business activities are environmentally friendly and socially responsible. It is an essential part of BekaertDeslee’s basic values and deeply rooted in the corporate culture through the following four guiding principles:
1. The conformity principle;
2. The prevention principle;
3. The Zero-defect principle;
4. The principle of measuring.
In 2017, BekaertDeslee defined its main CR focus areas after conducting stakeholder interviews. At the conclusion of this process, the company's activities were aligned accordingly and a road map was drawn up: Under the leadership of the top management, an interdisciplinary team prioritizes and initiates sustainability projects along the entire value chain.
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1. OUR MATERIAL TOPICS ASPECT ENVIRONMENT RESOURCE EFFICIENCY BekaertDeslee implements measures to avoid excessive use of resources. In the area of textile finishing, the company has developed an innovative technique which reduces the use of raw material components, water and energy consumption. In 2018, the new equipment was already operating at 6 locations.
BekaertDeslee aims to maximize savings in all these plants. In the reporting year, they reached savings in Turkey of 208% (2017 121%), in Romania of 86% (2017 76%), in the US of 63% (2017 86%), in Mexico of 253% (2017 243%), in Indonesia of 130% (2017 56%) and in Australia of 0% ( just started) versus the target, which remains undisclosed for competitive reasons.
REDUCING RAW MATERIALS
ENERGY
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WATER
253%
250%
208% 200%
130%
150%
86%
100%
TARGET
63%
50%
saving (raw materials, energy and water) VS undisclosed target source: energix savings 2018, monthly business reporting
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BUSINESS UNIT
Au s
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US A
ia an Ro m
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0%
Tu r
% REACHED vs TARGET SAVING
300%
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ASPECT ENVIRONMENT PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT In order to improve the sleep quality of all those who sleep on its textiles and to respond to the latest trends, the headquarters in Waregem is home to the BekaertDeslee Innovation and Design Center, where new technologies are being developed for all plants worldwide.
For example, the company contributes to the circular economy in the bedding industry by preventing mattresses from being disposed of in the landfill. Two prototypes of ‘circular beds’ have been developed – a 100% biodegradable and a 100% recyclable mattress – in cooperation with a chemicals supplier, a mattress manufacturer and a retailer.
100%
biodegradable recyclable
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Another current project is Purotex®, a textile treatment with natural probiotics which keeps the textiles clean. It is an alternative for chemical biocides which can not be removed and are a concern at mattress-end-of-life, while all natural probiotics go back to nature. In 2018 BekaertDeslee has sold 5,750,000m² of Purotex® treated mattress fabric (2017: 5,450,000m²).
5,450,000 m2 2017
5,750,000 m2 2018
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ASPECT HEALTH & SAFETY MANAGEMENT REDUCTION OF INCIDENTS AND LOST WORKING DAYS One of the company’s priorities is to ensure its employees’ safety at all production units. To that end, a worldwide reporting system has been established. It documents the incidents and lost working days as result of accidents. In addition, it records near misses. This is important for the purpose of training employees to avoid similar incidents.
BekaertDeslee analyses the average figures from the last 24 months to see whether improvements have been made or weaknesses have emerged. . The Group had a 3.09 accident rate by the end of 2018 (accidents x 200,000/work hours) and a days-absent rate of 0.19 (days absent x 1,000/work hours). New targets for 2019 are set at 3.03 for accidents and 0.18 for days absent.
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ASPECT EMPLOYEES BD COACH, THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT BAROMETER In order to receive an aggregated view on the engagement of the employees, the BD Coach engagement barometer has been introduced. It encourages regularly to answer a handful of questions. The received feedback is visualized as a heat map of nine individual drivers, e.g. recognition, relationship with managers or colleagues and personal growth, also showing the evolution over time. In 2018, 17.799 survey questions were
70%
answered (2017: 13.897) by 389 users (2017: 184) leading to an overall engagement score of 70% (2017: 69%) which is generally considered to be a positive score. Depending on the score, additional goals are derived on a company level or individual drivers.
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overall engagement score
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ASPECT HUMAN RIGHTS SUPPLIER COMMITMENT TO COMPLY 85% of BekaertDeslee’s total procurement volume accounts for yarn procurement. Therefore, the company is focusing on its collaboration with yarn suppliers along the entire value chain. In order to integrate sustainability aspects into yarn procurement, the company has been introducing a supplier declaration based on the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights since 2016. By the end of 2018, all group-wide yarn suppliers signed the BekaertDeslee supplier declaration (2017: 75%).
100% signed the BekaertDeslee supplier declaration
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ASPECT HUMAN RIGHTS EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT TO COMPLY The BekaertDeslee Code Of Conduct (CoC) informs about the company’s values and ethics. It has been translated into many languages spoken in the group, and signed by all employees. BekaertDeslee also observes the principles set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Forced labor, slavery and all practices that exploit children or expose them to harmful or hazardous conditions are strongly condemned. The minimum age for employment at BekaertDeslee conforms to the International Labor Organization Convention or the age specified by local legislation, if higher.
Furthermore, the CoC strictly forbids engaging in corrupt practices. Every employee commits to not offer, pay, solicit or accept any bribe in order to gain any commercial, contractual or regulatory advantage for BekaertDeslee or in order to gain any personal advantage, financial or otherwise, for the employee themselves or anyone related to them.
100% of our employees signed the engagement
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ASPECT SOCIAL MATTERS PRODUCT RESPONSIBILITY OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 All BekaertDeslee plants apply the OEKO-TEX® guiding principles. The label guarantees that the tested textiles do not contain any harmful substances that are a danger to human health. The European units are currently certified.
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ASPECT ANTI-CORRUPTION & BRIBERY COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT
The compliance guidelines, which were effective as of January 1st 2017, lay
out the expectations for the behavior of our colleagues. It helps them to stay focused on our company's core values.
COMPLIANCE EDUCATION
People in critical functions such as management functions, logistics,
purchasing, sales and finance need to complete a commercial compliance e-learning training. In 2019 we will organize compliance trainings for new
employees and refresher courses for those who already took the training in the past.
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2. THE SAFETY MINUTE BekaertDeslee started in May 2019 with what we hope to become a long term ‘tradition’ in our company: to start all meetings (except one to ones) with a safety minute.
WHAT IS A SAFETY MINUTE? Safety and employee health in general is far from being a manufacturing issue. Someone from the meeting group is asked to prepare or to improvise a message around health & safety. It does not have to be the main presenter or the host. It does not have to be strictly work related. It could be a personal memory of an incident or near miss event that you went through personally. What was learned, what was done as a consequence, what message then for the group? Or it could be a data driven observation (statistics – internal or external) on safety performance or behaviors. What does it mean for the group and the wider organization? This message must fit in one minute.
This ‘Low effort, High impact’ symbolic tradition in our business units will help us drive BD to be the safest workplace in our industry and in the countries we operate.
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3. DO GOOD. SLEEP WELL. BekaertDeslee introduces the SEAQUAL™ initiative to ‘the world of sleep’. Every year, 8 million tons of garbage reach the seas. 75% lies underneath the ocean’s surface, forming an immediate threat to marine life. Governments, businesses and consumers share the responsibility to preserve the oceans for future generations.
BekaertDeslee is taking part in the development of a massive ocean cleanup initiative. The SEAQUAL™ organization pays fishermen from the Spanish coasts of the Mediterranean Sea to bring the garbage they find in their nets ashore.
Scaling this initiative, additional garbage harvesting platforms will be built in The Americas, Africa and Asia. Each material, including aluminum, metal, glass or pet plastic, goes to its own unique recycling chain.
Textile technology enables us to up-cycle the plastics found in the ocean into new yarns that are used to produce our high quality mattress textiles and mattress covers.
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LET’S MAKE WAVES!
BekaertDeslee is on a mission. We feel a strong sense of responsibility to help save our beautiful blue planet for the future generations. We encourage our employees and their families around the globe to help create awareness and to become SEAQUAL™ friends. This is (among other things) done by participating in beach cleanup initiatives.
We invite all of our business partners in the bedding industry to join the initiative and to become SEAQUAL™ members, partners and ambassadors.
Our attractive range of beautiful woven and knitted SEAQUAL™ fabrics make comfortable mattresses and pillows for a good night’s sleep and a clean conscience.
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For more information visit www.dogoodsleepwell.com
4. DETOX TO ZERO BekaertDeslee proudly announces that the Polish plant successfully passed the ‘DETOX TO ZERO’ audit by OEKO-TEX®. In a pilot project, BekaertDeslee, the Belgian textile research institute Centexbel and the inspection, verification, testing and certification company SGS, have audited the BekaertDeslee factory in Poland. BekaertDeslee is the first company within the bedding industry to use this new verification system for textile factories. With this audit, BekaertDeslee illustrates its commitment to reduce toxic water pollution and thus to help to build a sustainable future.
DETOX TO ZERO BY OEKO-TEX® REPORT NO. 1800166/1
DETOX TO ZERO PERFORMANCE
91%
WASTEWATER AND SLUDGE
98%
MRSL*
91%
GENERAL MANAGEMENT
Status report issued 07.17.2018 * Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL)
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Greenpeace launched their Detox campaign in 2011 to shed light on toxic water pollution issues, caused by a portion of the global apparel and textile industries. Greenpeace has since issued numerous reports that have helped focus the industry on cleaning up most of the practices that have gone unchecked in several parts of the world.
DETOX TO ZERO by OEKO-TEXÂŽ is a brand new, smart and easy-to-use verification system for textile factories who want to comply and align with the detox campaign goals through measuring and controlling of waste water and sludge.
Detox to zero is not a classic certification system because it does not focus on a 'pass' or 'fail' status, it focuses on the engagement to improve. Continuous improvement by analyzing the situation and creating a robust plan to reduce dangerous substances in the production processes while implementing environmental protection procedures.
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BekaertDeslee is the first company within the bedding industry to use this new verification system for textile factories. With this audit, BekaertDeslee illustrates its commitment to reduce toxic water pollution and thus to help to build a sustainable future. Dirk Weydts, Centexbel
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5. UN GLOBAL COMPACT BekaertDeslee applied for membership of The UN Global Compact in June 2019. UN Global Compact encourages companies to create a culture of integrity across their business, from strategy to operations by incorporating 10 principles:
HUMAN RIGHTS Principle 1:
Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and
Principle 2:
make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
LABOUR Principle 3:
Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
Principle 4:
the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor;
Principle 5:
the effective abolition of child labor; and
Principle 6:
the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and
occupation.
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ENVIRONMENT Principle 7:
Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;
Principle 8:
undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and
Principle 9:
encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.
ANTI-CORRUPTION Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.
More than 9.500 participating companies and 3.000 non-business participants have already embraced the commitments of the UN Global Compact.
Read more on www.unglobalcompact.org.
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