Human rights is embedded in our compliance program
Yara has made a commitment to respecting internationally recognized human and labor rights throughout our own operations, as well as in our supply chain. Respecting human rights is fundamental to sound risk management and Yara’s value creation. We value our good relations with employees and their organizations and engage with them frequently.
We support the United Nations Global Compact, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the International Bill of Human Rights, and the core conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO). In addition, we perform human rights due diligence in our supply chain in compliance with the Norwegian Transparency Act (Åpenhetsloven).
Read our policy on human rights set out in our Code of Conduct
Read our annual report on Voluntary Principles
Read our Modern Slavery Transparency Statement 2021 (pdf, 800 KB)
Commitments
Human rights management, own operations:
By 2025, conduct Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIAs) and address findings in all countries where we consider that our operations have the highest impact on human rights, focusing on Brazil in 2021, and selected operations in Africa and Asia in 2022. On track
Human rights management, supply chain:
Respect the rights of people in the supply chain by continuing our human rights due diligence activities, including audits and training, directed at high risk business partners. On track
Living wage:
By 2025, establish living wage benchmarks and conduct gap analyses for all our countries of operation. On track
Right to information
Please contact us for any information requests according to The Transparency Act / Åpenhetsloven.
Managing human rights in the supply chain
Yara sources a wide variety of goods and services from roughly 40,000 suppliers worldwide. Sourcing of natural gas and nutrients are important elements of our purchases and operating expenses. We have developed strong relationships with key suppliers to ensure continuity and profitability in our business. Managing compliance in the supply chain has long been a priority, and in 2021, we initiated work to further align our procurement and supplier management policies and processes with the recommendations from the UN and OECD. This work continued in 2022 as we prepare for the Norwegian Transparency Act (Åpenhetsloven). The figure below outlines our key policies, procedures, and intentions for the management of sustainability, human rights and compliance in the supply chain.
Human rights impact assessments
Conducting targeted human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) is an integral part of meeting our due diligence obligations. HRIAs are performed by independent external subject matter experts in locations where our operations have the highest impact on human rights, and where our leverage to remedy is considered highest. Findings from HRIAs are presented to the Group Executive Board and the Board of Directors. Mitigating actions remain a local management responsibility, and the Ethics and Compliance Department monitors implementation and reports on progress.
Each year, we update our global human rights risk assessment and rank our countries of operation, as well as countries from which we source raw materials, in terms of human rights risk exposure. This guides our focus on where to conduct more targeted human rights impact assessments (HRIA). In addition, HRIA findings form our understanding of what Yara’s main risks to people’s human rights are, as presented in our Code of Conduct. We recognize that this landscape might change, and that we continuously need to monitor the potential impacts from our operations and supply chain.
Identified risks
The 2021 Yara human rights risk assessment identified 19 high-risk countries, up from 18 in 2020. All high and medium-risk countries are monitored through our Compliance Program and specific action plans are developed to mitigate identified impacts. Previous human rights impact assessments (HRIA) have identified risk of negative impact from our operations in connection with contracted labor performing services for Yara, especially where manual labor is combined with heat exposure. Mitigating actions are in place to address these issues locally, and in cases where findings are relevant to Yara globally, actions have been initiated to implement or develop new policies to lift our standards in all locations.
In 2021 we conducted HRIA’s on our main production sites in Brazil, including selected fertilizer blending units and bagging warehouses.
See Yara's Sustainability Report 2021 for further details on risks and actions.
Business partner code of conduct
One of Yara’s goals is to develop relationships with business partners that share similar corporate values as Yara and conduct their business in an ethical and compliant manner. The Code of conduct for Yara’s business partners (BPCoC) is the Yara policy that outlines the legal obligations and the integrity standards Yara expects its business partners to uphold. The BPCoC considers the same internationally recognized and endorsed standards for human rights, business ethics, and labor conditions as our Code of conduct.
Integrity Due Diligence
Integrity Due Diligence (IDD) is the procedure for ensuring and monitoring the integrity of potential, new, and existing business partners. Yara had more than 30,000 active suppliers in 2021. Approximately 13% of the suppliers had completed the Integrity Due Diligence (IDD) self-assessment questionnaire. The purpose of the IDD process is not to reject business partners, but to identify integrity risks and to mitigate these to safeguard Yara’s interests. If adverse responses are identified in the IDD self-assessment questionnaire, we initiate a dialogue with the supplier, and are committed to influencing them to uphold the same integrity standards as at Yara. Fewer than 1% of our business partners are rejected annually.
As part of the IDD Procedure, we continuously monitor compliance in our supply chain by screening suppliers against sanctions, watchlists, and compliance databases. On a risk-basis, certain suppliers are selected for additional follow-up, including in-depth due diligence work, training and other communication efforts.
Sustainable procurement
The policy describes how we want to cooperate with our suppliers to create transparency in our suppliers’ business sustainability performance and how to improve their performance, and with that our own performance, where required. This policy guides our global Procurement organization and the implementation of a sustainable procurement program at Yara.
Supplier compliance
The objective of the Supplier compliance management process is to describe what the minimum requirements for supplier pre-qualification, qualification, and supplier compliance monitoring are, including supplier auditing, following a risk-based approach. This is a global process that allows cross-functional Procurement teams to cover increasing internal and external due diligence and reporting requirements, such as the Norwegian Transparency Act (Åpenhetsloven). The process document is currently being developed and aiming to start the implementation during the 2nd half of 2022.
Supplier audits
We conduct supplier audits and assessments in sectors in which we have identified risks through, for example, our Integrity Due Diligence process, human rights impact assessments, reports of severe accidents, or previous audit findings. In 2021, we ran a risk-based audit program related to road transport. Risk-based audits include performance evaluation of the carriers prior to audit.
A total of 21 audits were conducted across Europe. These audits cover health and safety performance, environmental policies, human rights, and operational issues. Non-conformities and observations are recorded and followed up with the companies.
Supplier GTC
Yara seeks to enter into fair and balanced agreements with all suppliers, based on consistent legal terms, and therefore it is our company policy that all supplier agreements should be based on our GTC of Purchase.
Please note that Yara may use country specific versions of this GTC of Purchase in certain jurisdictions to accommodate for mandatory law.
