Ensto accelerates its human rights work in a new training program
Ensto has begun its journey in the Business & Human Rights Accelerator, a program in which participants learn about the human rights responsibilities of business and establish an ongoing human rights due diligence process.
The six-month-long program has been developed by the United Nations Global Compact in cooperation with Shift. Over 800 companies are participating in the program around the globe.
“Ensto is committed to upholding ethical behavior and respect for human and labor rights. Our goal is to further integrate ethics into our own operations and across the supply chain, and this program provides us concrete tools to enhance them,” says Kirsi-Marja Ura, SVP of HR, Brand & Communications, Marketing, Sustainability, and the ambassador of the program at Ensto.
The program offers a deep dive into due diligence of human rights
According to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), companies must respect human rights and work to avoid infringing on the human rights of others in their operations. The human rights impacts of business can concern stakeholders such as workers in value chains, surrounding communities and consumers.
Despite this, around 46 % of the world’s biggest companies are unable to prove that human rights risks in their value chains have been assessed or mitigated. In Finland companies are committed to respecting human rights in principle, but concrete actions and monitoring ought to be performed more systematically.
In the new Business & Human Rights Accelerator, participating companies will learn the practical ways to identify, prevent, mitigate, and remediate human rights risks throughout the value chain.
“All businesses must respect human rights, regardless of company size, industry, or location. We are glad to have such a large group of companies participating in our new human rights program. The great interest towards the program shows that human rights are being placed into the core of sustainability work”, says Marja Innanen, the Executive Director of UN Global Compact Network Finland.
A goal of the program is also to deepen business cooperation and dialogue concerning human rights due diligence. Company representatives will meet face to face in workshops, participate in international deep dive sessions as well as study independently online.
29 companies accelerating their human rights work from Finland
In addition to joint global training sessions, all companies also take part in national groups. Ensto is part of the Finnish group, which is organized by UN Global Compact Network Finland.
The Finnish participants are Cargotec, Castrén & Snellman, Coor Service Management, Ensto Group, Fiskars Group, Huhtamäki, Ilmatar Energy, Kemira, Kesko, Konecranes, Lune Group, Matkahuolto, Miltton Group, Neste, Nokian Tyres, Olvi, OP Financial Group, Outokumpu, Paptic, Sanoma, SOK, Sponda, Tokmanni, Tradeka, Varma, Veikkaus, VR Group, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Wärtsilä.
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