Dear Reader,
 
In 2016 Norwex continues to deliver solutions that can provide a brighter future for our families and form the basis for a healthier live as Norwex creates safe heavens by reducing chemicals in our homes. Our mission remains unchanged:

Improving quality of life by radically reducing chemicals in our homes
 
We continued to development products that support this mission. Besides these products, we reach out to people through our movement. The Norwex Movement is a meeting place of people of all walks of life, all over the globe, coming together to create a more sustainable chemical-free environment for our families and our planet.

The new website supporting this is www.NorwexMovement.com

This website is part of the Norwex Movement. The Norwex movement exist to help people everywhere create safer heavens in their homes by raising awareness about planetary issues that affect all of us.

As Norwex grows, so does its manufacturing. Volumes produced kept increasing so Norwex committed to a new and bigger facility that will guarantee the growth for the coming years.

Our values, Integrity, Trust and Respect, stay the same and form the backbone for a healthy corporate culture within Norwex.

Sincerely,

David Peeters
Chief executive Norwex China

Norwex fully and passionately supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Norwex is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a work environment free from discrimination. We provide equal opportunities to all applicants and employees with regards to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disabilities or other factors unrelated to a person’s job performance ability.

Norwex’s core values: Integrity, Trust and Respect.

All human beings deserve respect just because they are human beings. To receive respect confirms the individual’s worth as human being.

We have policies in our Executive Manual for the breach of core values:
If an employee is in breach of the company core values, this will regularly have formal consequences, and will also result in loss of annual performance bonus.

The UN Global Compact’s Human Rights principles are part of our company regulations and part of our Employee trainings. Staff and managers will adhere to the UN Global Compact Human Rights principles, promote the consciousness of upholding human rights, support and respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Violations of regulations in our Employee Manual will have formal consequences.

Our policies are implemented in our day to day operations. All of our staffs are treated fairly, Norwex cares about its staff. As an example, every Wednesday, we organize a breakfast meeting for all staff so that they can communicate and get to know each other better. Also, In order to guarantee good food quality, we regularly arrange food surveys.

We promote a work-life balance through providing entertainment facilities for staff that live in the dormitory.

In Apr 2015, Norwex China Charity Committee was established with the purpose of helping internal employees and supporting external charity organizations. Norwex Charity Committee have organized two charity sales since 2015 and donation were made to external Charity Organizations as well as to internal employees facing personal tragedy.

Additionally, Norwex supports many charities worldwide and Norwex China did a contribution to the local Zhangjiagang Charity Fund in August 2016.

We have regularly informal conversations between General Manager and staff to promote a free and open communication between management and staff. We share company information and update all staff in regular newsletters and company Intranet.

On our local Intranet, there is a page exclusively for the UN Global Compact where information, training material and this COP are posted.

To protect each of our supplier’s staff, Human Rights are part of Norwex China’s Manufacturing Agreement and Norwex China will conduct supplier audits to ensure that we are not indirectly involved in human rights abuses.

Norwex undertakes regular Environment, Health & Safety Meetings concerning company compensation, working time, working condition & company benefits. EHS Training for all staff have been finished in Apr, 2015 and this training will be part of new hire orientation and annual training plan. Till the end of September 2016, we have accumulated 1370 consecutive accident free days. Lung check-up was added to annual physical examination to rule out the possibility of disease caused by the working environment.

Norwex China strictly adheres to the Chinese Labor Law.

Each individual in Norwex enjoys equal pay for equal work, and we ensure that the hiring procedure is objective, transparent and equal.

Norwex normal workweek: 40 hours, in emergency or unusual situations, Norwex workweek can be extended to 60 hours, including overtime. All workers take at least one day off every seven-day. All overtime is voluntary.

In addition to their compensation for regular hours of work, Norwex workers are compensated for overtime hours at the premium rate required by applicable laws and regulations. Norwex also offers vacation time, leave periods and holidays consistent with applicable laws and regulations. Employees are paid timely and clearly conveyed the basis on which they are being paid.

Norwex employees are also free to leave work or terminate their employment with reasonable notice.

Norwex does not use any forced and compulsory labor or uses child labor and we support the principle of freedom of association. Principles 3 through 6 are incorporated into Norwex China’s CSR Code of Conduct, which our suppliers are obliged to follow, and Norwex China will audit our suppliers to ensure we are not indirectly violating any of the 4 labor principles.

The UN Global Compact Labor Principles are part of our company regulations and explained during new hire orientation day. Violations of our Employee Manual will have formal consequences.

The UN Global Compact Labor principles have been introduced in our internal training and Intranet website.

Norwex has a human resource team in place to ensure the principles are implemented and supported, to be included in the new hire training for new employees and is available to assist and support staff and managers in questions regarding any of the 4 principles.

Norwex China labor union is there to ensure that the Global Compact’s principle number 3 is consistently followed.

The number of lost legal disputes with staff is zero and no labor disputes/strikes per calendar year. There have been neither disputes in relation to forced and compulsory labor or complaints about discrimination.

Norwex is committed to consider the environmental impact of the business and selling its “clean without chemicals” concept and state of the art “organic and other personal care products.

Norwex has an ecological approach to our mission and is considering the impact on humans, other animals and the environment and how these parts interact and impact each other. Norwex is as such striving to improve the quality of life rather than just improve the indoor environment or the well-being of a few individuals.

Norwex is producing environment friendly products. Microfiber allows for the removal and or reduction in the use of cleaning products and chemicals, reducing their inherent pollution to our habitat. Norwex uses antibacterial technology in our own fiber to give our products an excellent cleaning function.

Norwex is continually seeking better technologies for producing products as well as the characteristics of the products itself.

The UN Global Compact’s Environment principles are part of our company regulations and added to our Manufacturing Agreement.

The UN Global Compact’s environmental principles are part of Norwex China’s CSR Code of Conduct and we audit our suppliers to ensure Norwex China is not indirectly involved in the abuse of our environment and any unnecessary pollution.

Norwex China recycles industrial waste from the production of its products, and we have recycle programs for daily use items in the office.

We send warning letters to our suppliers based on supplier audits for violating our CSR Code of Conduct with respect to environmental protection.

We have purchased a laser guided auto-cutting machine that also reduces the cutting waste.
The cutting waste is collected and recycled and re-used.
Our dyeing factories all have upgraded their water-purification systems.
Although our production output over the years has gone up considerably, the energy, gas and water cost were relatively stable thanks to saving initiatives and efficiency improvements.

In order to face the continuous growth of Norwex, Norwex China is building its new facility. Plenty of ‘green’ elements will be built in to this new factory. There will be partial solar heating, low consumption lighting and highest environmental standards for products (such as paint), just to name a few of the initiatives.

Norwex is against corruption and supports the UN convention against corruption, and we have anti-corruption policies, which are in the Integrity Statement that all staff and suppliers of/to Norwex China have signed.

Norwex’s Core Values are: Integrity, Trust and Respect.

Integrity is the quality of being honest and morally upright. Incorporating integrity into our core values means we must conduct our business in a strictly legal way, we do not do anything illegal.

The UN Global Compact Anti-corruption principle is part of our company rules and was added into our Executive & Employee Manual.

Every Norwex staff is required to sign the Integrity Statement the first day they work for Norwex, which is a part of the employee contract.

Every Norwex supplier is required to sign the Supplier Integrity Statement together with the supplier contract the first day they work with Norwex.

Staffs who are working for Norwex now all have signed the Integrity Statement. Any claim of corruption is extensively investigated internally and by our legal departments. Until September 2016, we have had no confirmed cases of such misbehavior.

We also did not find any suppliers violating our CSR Code of Conduct with respect to graft and corruption in 2015 and 2016. 100% of our suppliers have signed the Supplier Partnership Agreement and Manufacturing Agreement.