Human rights

Our business impacts people in all parts of our value chain: the company’s employees, supplier employees as well as operators of the company’s equipment, who are typically customer employees. As stated in our Code of Conduct, we are committed to respecting the human rights of everyone in our operations and value chain.

We are committed to continuously improving our human rights due diligence process by identifying, addressing and remedying negative impacts on people. Human rights risks related to our own workforce are managed with policies, processes and follow-up tools related to safety and human resources. However, our most significant human rights risks exist in our supply chain due to its complexity and global reach.

We have strict requirements for our suppliers and other business partners on topics such as health and safety and the prohibition of forced labour. Our supplier approval process follows a risk-based approach, in which new suppliers must meet pre-requirements and pass an audit conducted by Kalmar. Simultaneously, it is important to understand where we can enhance our positive impacts on human rights.

During 2024, Kalmar initiated its human rights due diligence work as a standalone company, by conducting its first human rights impact assessment. The assessment, which covered Kalmar’s value chain and followed the framework of the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), identified impacts caused by the company; impacts that the company contributes to; and impacts that are directly linked to its operations, products or services through business relationships. In conducting the assessment, Kalmar considered various data points, including:

High-risk industries
High-risk geographic regions
Reports from the SpeakUp line
Audit reports (ISO 45001)
Internal third-party risk assessment
Health and safety incidents
Information from onsite supplier audits
Analysis of own operations and supply chain
Interviews with own employees, supplier’s employees, third party’s employees and customer’s employees

The assessment was conducted in collaboration with essential internal functions such as Sourcing, Human Resources, Ethics and Compliance, Sales and Dealer Management. The identified impacts shed light on where Kalmar needs to focus on in its human rights due diligence.

Country specific human rights requirements

Noregian Transparency Act

The Norwegian Transparency Act became effective on 1 July 2022. According to this law, companies are required to:

Establish and carry out a human rights due diligence process in their own business operations and value chain;
Publicly disclose information about their due diligence process, including steps taken and impacts identified.
Be responsive to requests for information from the general public regarding how they address actual or potential human rights issues within their organisation and supply chain.

To learn more about the due diligence process of our Norwegian subsidiaries, see the respective file.

If you want to submit an official request for information in accordance with the requirements of the Transparency Act, please use the contact details provided below.