Human Rights and Transparency Act Report 2023

Purpose

The Norwegian Transparency Act came into force on July 1st, 2022. The Act aims to increase businesses respect for human rights and decent working conditions and ensuring transparency on compliance with these fundamental rights.

This report is guided by the requirement under the Act to report on human rights due diligence and our work to ensure compliance within our business, our supply chain and with our business partners, and it reflects our commitment to promote and protect human rights.

This document includes:

• A general description of the Grieg Group structure, Grieg Group areas of operations, guidelines, and procedures for handling actual and potential adverse impacts on fundamental human rights and decent working conditions.

• Information regarding actual adverse impacts and significant risks of adverse impacts identified.

• Information regarding implemented and planned measures. 

Grieg Group organization and areas of operations

The Grieg Group is owned by Grieg Foundation (25%) and by the 3rd, 4th and 5th generation of the Grieg family (75%) through their holding company, Grieg Maturitas AS.

The Grieg Group consists of several companies worldwide and work within seafood, shipping, shipbroking, maritime innovation, logistics, and investments. Across all businesses, the Grieg Group aims to create lasting value through competence, experience, and common efforts. The mission is to restore our oceans, and we are committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In 2019, the UN Sustainable Development Goals were incorporated in the revised business strategy.  Our people are our most valuable resource. The 1691 employees within the different companies in the Grieg Group operate in 8 countries, from Norway (headquarter) to Europe, USA, Canada and Asia.

Grieg Foundation is a non-profit foundation founded in 2002 with its own board, management and secretariat. The foundations’ main purpose is to support to children and youth, climate, culture, art and health research. Grieg Foundation has donated more than 870 MNOK to national and international projects.

Grieg Maturitas AS is owned by the Grieg-familiy. This company holds 75% of the shares in Grieg Maturitas II AS, ensuring the owner’s short- and long-term interests in the Group.

Grieg Maturitas II AS holds the shares of the Grieg Group companies, Grieg Group Resources AS, Grieg Logistics AS, Grieg Investor Holding AS, Grieg Maritime Group AS, Grieg Shipbrokers AS and Grieg Aqua AS.  The company’s administration sits in Grieg Maturitas II, delivering expertise of communication, legal, IT, compliance, finance, investment, and cyber security.

The Grieg Group consists of the following companies and areas of operations. All companies have their own boards and management:

Grieg Maritime Group: Grieg Maritime Group includes several subsidiaries focusing on creating sustainable solutions for the maritime industry, including Grieg Green, Grieg Edge, and Grieg Star. The company is a co-owner of the world’s largest Open Hatch shipping company, G2 Ocean. Through Grieg Shipowning, the group owns 30 ships that sail in the G2 Ocean pool.

Grieg Aqua/Grieg Seafood: Grieg Seafood is one of the world’s leading salmon farming companies, targeting 90 000 tonnes of harvest in 2022. Our farms are in Finnmark and Rogaland in Norway, and British Columbia and Newfoundland in Canada. Grieg Seafood’s headquarter is located in Bergen, Norway. More than 750 people work in the company throughout the regions. The Grieg Group own 50.17% of Grieg Seafood.

Grieg Investor: Grieg Investor is an independent institutional investment consulting practice based in Norway. Their core business is long term investment policy, manager selection and consolidated reporting. Grieg Investor is authorized and regulated by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (Finanstilsynet). The Grieg Group owns 55 percent of the company.

Grieg Logistics: Grieg Logistics is a well-established provider of ships services, advanced digital systems, and industrial terminal operations within and outside of Norway. The company operates within the maritime sector, in addition to the Norwegian Armed Forces through a contract of logistics collaboration.

Grieg Kapital: Grieg Kapital is a unifying investment and asset management company within the Grieg Group. The company’s mandate is to preserve and strengthen the Group´s financial assets and invest in companies and sectors of interest.

Grieg Shipbrokers: Grieg Shipbrokers is the Grieg Groups founding company which was established in 1884 in Bergen, Norway. The company provides clients worldwide with a full range of services within all markets, covering chartering, contracting, sale and purchase, coupled with finance, innovative research, and analysis. The Grieg Group owns 55 percent of the company.

You can find more details of the companies within the Grieg Group and areas of operations in the Grieg Group website.

Guidelines and procedures

The Grieg Group is commitment to respecting international human rights. The commitment is anchored in international human rights and labor standards, including those expressed in the International Bill of Human Rights and the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP).

The Grieg Group is also signatory to the UN Global Compact and is committed to the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact. The Grieg Group is one of the founders of the Future-Proof Initiative. Bergen Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights have created a business and human rights collaboration platform that aim to assist businesses in complying with their human rights responsibilities. 

The Human Rights Policy outlines the Grieg Group’s commitment, approach, and responsibility to respect human rights. The human rights policy interlinks with other policy documents such as our Supplier Code of Conduct, Ethical Guidelines, Data Protection Policy, Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Policy, Sanctions Policy and whistle-blowing mechanisms. The companies within the Grieg Group need to act in accordance with the Human Rights policy’s expectations to ensure respect for human rights in all parts of their business.

The Grieg Group ensures the development of routines and policies, and collaboration and internal learning of key employees. The companies in the Grieg Group are responsible for carrying out due diligence, risk assessments related to countries, input factors and suppliers, and develop appropriate measures to manage and mitigate risks, including in their supply chains.

In 2022, a gap-analysis within the Grieg Group on human rights and decent work was conducted. Based on the analysis, new guidelines and tools for Grieg-Group companies were developed, including Process-description for human rights due diligence, guidelines for third party screening procedures, human rights impact assessment, remediation for human rights negative impacts and country risk list. The country risk list is based on the input from relevant international human rights indexes covering labor rights, child and forced labor and equality as well as transparency and corruption. The list also covers sanctioned countries by the Norwegian government.

Grieg Foundation

All projects that Grieg Foundation supports are anchored in our commitment to the SDGs. Grieg Foundation has currently five priority areas: Children and Youth, Music and Culture, Health and Research, Climate Action and Impact Investment. Many of our projects support different human rights challenges, in particular the rights of the child, right to education, right to health and gender equality. Grieg Foundation requires respect for human rights in all our projects.

There are risks to human rights and decent work within the projects that Grieg Foundation supports, especially in projects in high-risk countries. Since we are a funder and not an implementing party, we invest resources in identifying like-minded partners who are transparent and accountable. All partnerships go through due diligence processes. All projects above NOK 100 000,- are regulated by signed contracts that include compliancy requirements in relation to anti-corruption and compliance with applicable laws and regulations, as well as ethical guidelines. We require annual reporting.

There are risks to human rights and decent work within the businesses that the Grieg Group operate. Grieg Foundation is, however, completely separate from the business operations of the Grieg Group. For detailed information about Grieg Group risks, please see www.grieg.no.

Going forward

We will continue to maintain a strong focus on human rights, transparency and decent work conditions in all our projects and partnerships. Going forward we will continue to address our major risks and look for ways where we can improve our own monitoring systems and partnerships to ensure knowledge, commitment and adherence to human rights is all aspects of our work.

If you have any questions related to our work on human rights, get in touch with us at grieg.foundation@grieg.no