Annual Report 2024

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ESRS S3

Affected Communities

We have limited direct impacts on affected communities due to our business operations. However, we recognize that the most adverse human rights impacts on affected communities – including impacts on human rights defenders and community access to adequate water and sanitation – are most likely to occur through our upstream supplier relationships.

Impacts, risks and opportunities

Impacts

Water and sanitation
  • Depletion of groundwater levels, limiting community access to sanitation and clean water
  • Pollution of surrounding water bodies and soil due to the discharge of large volumes of wastewater
  • Generation of hazardous waste, e.g., chemical waste and sludge from treated wastewater

Human Rights Defenders (HRDs)
  • Adverse impacts on HRDs include cases in which threats, intimidation, violence, retaliation or reprisals against human rights defenders are committed by actors with whom we are involved,either through our own operations or as a result of our business relationships
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Key metrics & actions

We take necessary action to address any negative human rights impacts on affected communities‘ access to adequate water and sanitation, and to protect the rights of human rights defenders.

Community access to water and sanitation

We established a community complaints reporting mechanism, a channel through which suppliers should report any complaints received from local communities related to access to clean water and sanitation. The mechanism also tracks how suppliers address, follow up on, and close the issue if verified.

Supporting the freedoms of human rights defenders

We take direct action when there is clear evidence that one of our businesspartners has violated the rights of HRDs. We seek constructive engagement – both independently and with others – with governments where we believe that the rights and freedoms of HRDs have been restricted and take action to support HRDs to operate freely in such contexts.

Policies

We have adopted multiple policies, guidelines and standard operating procedures that anchor our approach to affected communities in the management of our business. An overview of these policies can be found in the topical standard of S3.