To our stakeholders:

I am pleased to confirm that LABELCO A/S continuously supports the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact with respect to human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

With this communication, we express our intent to unceasingly advance those principles within our sphere of influence. We are still committed to making the Global Compact and its principles part of the strategy, culture and day-to-day operations of our company, and to engaging in collaborative projects which advance the broader development goals of the United Nations, particularly the Millennium Development Goals.
We, as an organization, recognize that a key requirement for participation in the Global Compact is this annual submission of a Communication on Progress (COP) that describes our company’s efforts to implement the ten principles. We support public accountability and transparency, and therefore commit to report on progress through this annual report according to the Global Compact COP policy. We also commit to share this information with our stakeholders using our primary channels of communication.

Sincerely yours,

Birthe Kjærholm
Chief Executive Officer

To show commitment to the UN Global Compact, and as a way of communicating it to our employees, our human rights commitment and policies have been included in our employee manual. LABELCO A/S recognizes its responsibility to meet, follow and respect human rights.
Furthermore, LABELCO A/S obeys to the rules of Denmark and of the EU. Both of these require by law that we as a company follow and respect the human rights. Additionally, it should be mentioned that customers and suppliers of LABELCO A/S are all located within the EU, and not in developing countries.

When LABELCO A/S was first accepted to join the UN Global Compact, five goals were set to make sure the company maintained focus on not only day-to-day work tasks, but also on the values of the UN Global Compact. The Human Rights goal was: As a company, we want to increase our effort when it comes to Children in Denmark with a negative social inheritance. We want to increase our financial contribution with 20 % and we want to increase the commitment of our employees.

To implement human rights policies, LABELCO A/S has introduced initiatives to make sure human rights are followed and respected.

Our company now sends annual questionnaires to our suppliers asking them to account for their own and their suppliers’ compliance of the human rights. LABELCO A/S keeps an eye on its suppliers and initiates a serious dialogue if a questionnaire is completed to our dissatisfaction.
Also, a set of key values have been perpetuated in our employee manual:
LABELCO A/S shall always be known as a company that stands for quality in everything we do. Respect for the individual: aim to treat our customers, your colleagues and other people that you are in contact with in your daily job as you wish to be treated yourself. Positive attitude: try, in your daily work, to think in opportunities instead of limitations. This applies to customers as well as colleagues. It is about seeing the glass as half full instead of half empty. We all have a responsibility to being part of creating a positive atmosphere. A smile and a good attitude is contagious. Thoughtfulness: Use our resources with thoughtfulness. This applies to finances, raw materials, materials, the time you spend on your tasks and to all other resources. Knowledge sharing: think about if you are holding in work-related knowledge that would be useful for your colleague to know about to be able to do his/her work even better. Help each other – learn from each other. Persistence: We do our jobs and we do our best – we do this by showing engagement and will in our work. Independence: We work independently and try to go as far as we can with our tasks and the solutions to these. Honesty: We are honest with each other. It sounds simple, but it means that we for instance let each other know if there is something we think can be done in a better way or if there is something we are unhappy with. Confidence: Our employees shall contact a member of the management team If they have witnessed something that goes against the values, rights, health and/or safety of the company and its employees. Who reports what to the management will remain in absolute confidence if the reporter wishes so.

Furthermore, when it comes to our goal of increasing our effort towards helping children from a negative social inheritance, different means haven been used. We started by choosing a very specific focus point to work from. It was decided that our help should go through and to Børnelejren på Langeland (the Children’s camp on Langeland). We started by setting money aside to donate to the camp. Then we started an initiative to 1. Collect items that the camp were in need of and 2. Gather a group of employees to go down to the camp to volunteer for a weekend. We held an orientation meeting for all employees about the engagement, and pamphlets and books were handed out for free about the camp and the children who were able to go there and have some vacation time. Items were collected for the camp and a sign-up sheet was made available for employees to sign up for the volunteer weekend.

To monitor and measure the outcomes of our goals, LABELCO A/S has created a table listing the following entities: Goal, Strategy, Tactics, Operational, Follow-up 1, and Follow-up 2. That is, following our commitment to the UN Global Compact, we made a set of goals that we wanted to fulfill before this COP was due. Then, we explained how we strategically, tactically and operationally wanted to approach and fulfill the goals. Additionally, two follow-up dates were set - spread out evenly over the year. These follow-up dates were set to make sure the initiatives that were set to help us reach the goals, were working as imagined. Our goal with regards to human rights was: As a company, we want to increase our effort when it comes to Children in Denmark with a negative social inheritance. We want to increase our financial contribution with 20 % and we want to increase the commitment of our employees. Our strategy was as following: We want to try and put a side a greater amount of money to donate to the cause. The amount has to be 20 % larger than what we have previously given. Furthermore, we want to get our employees engaged in the project. Our tactics went as follows: We want to focus on the Childrens Camp on Langeland. This is where we want to donate money to. The Childrens Camp on Langeland has volunteer weekends several times a year and we want to try and engage our employees and have them sign up for these weekends. Operationally: We have to conduct an orientation meeting about the topic, pamphlets shall be given out and a sign-up sheet shall be available to sign up for the volunteer weekends. The plant manager has to try and get a larger amount of money from the budget to go to the Childrens Camp on Langeland.
The first follow-up meeting was held on November 19th 2013. The conclusion of this meeting was that the initiatives and the strategy was working. There was an agreement that we had to keep working the same way as we had done up until then, and the results would start to show.
The second follow-up meeting was held on April 9th 2013. There, it was made clear that part of the goal had already been fulfilled: LABELCO A/S had donated an amount of money at least 20 % larger than what had been donated to the cause earlier. The follow-up also showed that the fundraising we had started among the employees had been fairly successful, making for both gifts for the children as well as practical things for the camp. However, we learned that our initiatives to get employees to go to the volunteer camp had not worked. We did not get any sign-ups, and were told it was because it was too far away and for a too long period of time. This was also how this goal ended; only partly reached as we did provide the financial support that we had set as a goals, however, we can do more to engage our employees in social responsibility and volunteering. This will be a continuous goal for us.

LABELCO A/S has the following policies when it comes to labour rights:
LABELCO A/S guarantees that all employees can form and join a labour union of their own choice without fear of intimidation or attempt of revenge. This is according to national law.
LABELCO A/S is a member of the Employer’s Association of Graphics which demands that the company only hires printers with a printer’s education. Their education consists of a 4-year long course that requires professional experience as well as study at a vocational school.
The public sector assesses health and safety methods at our company. The local community is, through local media, informed with the intentions of the company to respect the UN Global Compact. The company’s CEO has held a speech about LABELCO A/S’s commitment to the UN, and the project manager has attended a seminar about implementation of the principles in the UN Global Compact, together with other company representatives from all over Scandinavia.
LABELCO A/S does not use, is not involved in and does not obtain any benefits from forced labour, hereunder slavery and child labour.
LABELCO A/S makes sure that its suppliers and their suppliers are not using, involved in or receives benefits from forced labour by requiring that they, through questionnaires, confirm that they are not involved in any of these arrangements.
LABELCO A/S disassociates from the use of child labour. LABELCO A/S does not use, is not involved in and does not gain any benefits from child labour. Because the suppliers and customers of LABELCO A/S only are located within Scandinavia and the EU, the company has not reacted with policies and procedures for countries, regions, sectors and economic activities where there is a higher risk for child labour. Child labour is, according to EU law, prohibited, and it can be assumed that companies within the border of Scandinavia and EU obey to this law. Nevertheless, LABELCO A/S sends questionnaires to its suppliers wherein they are asked to confirm that child labour at the supplier and its suppliers does not occur. Should it happen that LABELCO A/S starts a new partnership with a company outside of the EU, LABELCO A/S will be proactive when it comes to making sure the company in question does not have, is not involved in and does not gain benefit from child labour.
LABELCO A/S is a member of the Employer’s Association of Graphics. The requirements for the company to have formalized policies and procedures that makes qualifications, abilities and experience the basis for recruitment, placing, training and development of employees at all levels, are obligatory by law in Denmark.
Responsibility for equal employment-issues is delegated to the CEO. The documentation of recruitment, training and promotion gives open proof of the possibilities for employees’ progress.

LABELCO A/S has become much more aware of its own responsibilities to act proactively when it comes to labour policies and potential labour violations. Prior to the UN Global Compact, LABELCO A/S did not have any official policies with regards to this matter, and the company did not make any official efforts to find out if its suppliers were involved in any sort of labour violation. As far as labour policies goes, they are all undertaken by national law. Therefore, LABELCO A/S has taken these issues for granted. However, after our commitment to the Compact, we have introduced two new policies to the employees. These two policies address forced labour and child labour. They have been made available to all employees, and our suppliers have been made aware of our policies, and have been forced to take a stand on the issues as well, through our supplier questionnaire. We have even determined our cooperation with a supplier due to the fact that the questionnaire was answered to our dissatisfaction in terms of forced labour.

The issue of how our suppliers are living up to our questionnaires and our partnership agreements is evaluated annually and continually when relevant. We look at the answers in the questionnaires and make sure our suppliers live up to our standards when it comes to labour rights.

LABELCO A/S is very dedicated to its role in helping environmental protection and advancing its role in environmental opportunities.
LABELCO A/S has several policies and procedures on environmental protection:
LABELCO A/S has a waste sorting system in which paper, cardboard and minor flammable waste each are sorted out in different containers. This way, each type of waste can be recycled as appropriate, and the non-recyclable is handled safely.
In addition, LABELCO A/S is extremely active in increasing the use of the recyclable paper PP-liner which we use for the base in our label “sandwich” construction. Our customers can order their labels on PP-liner. When they do this, they can sell the PP-liner, after using the labels, to companies that recycle it. Our salesmen are very aggressive in suggesting this type of basis paper when doing business with new as well as old customers.
As for specific company goals, LABELCO A/S made the goals of increasing our use of PP-liner, instead of unrecyclable basis paper, with 15 %. Also, LABELCO A/S made the goal to introduce digital pay checks to its employees in order to reduce the use of paper.

To implement new initiatives, we started working towards the goal of increasing our use of PP-liner, instead of unrecyclable basis paper, with 15 %. Our salesmen have initiated a more aggressive approach to selling the product as it is better for the environment and it benefits the customers because they can reuse the waste they get from the labels. Our salesmen have been better at seeing opportunities for using PP-liner and they have more effectively introduced the idea to our customers. The goal was almost reached: we have increased the use of PP-liner with 14,49 %. This is a number that we are very happy with, but that we plan on increasing further.
Also, with the benefit of a new accountant with a modern approach, it was no problem to digitalize our pay checks. This goal was reached back in December 2012.
Furthermore, LABELCO A/S has started cooperating with a company that specializes in optimizing companies’ approach to recycling and handling of waste. This cooperation has resulted in new ideas to recycle and handle waste in a much more efficient and cost effective way, that also expands on our recycling. In addition, LABELCO A/S has been introduced to ideas as to how its silicone paper waste can be recycled, but the implementation of this is still being worked on.

The monitoring and evaluation of LABELCO A/S’s environmental performance takes place at the management review meetings that take place every 3rd month. This is where the initiatives that have been taken in order to complete the goals are evaluated, and the management group looks at the numbers that have been reached so far and decides if further measurements should be taken.

LABELCO A/S supports the international fight against corruption. LABELCO A/S is determined to uphold high standards for integrity and work ethics among our employees and across our fields of activity. That is why we have a policy that states no-tolerance when it comes to corruption in all of its forms. This anti-corruption policy and its behaviour codex include all employees. The purpose of the anti-corruption policy is to ensure and support behaviour and a work-ethic that is characterized by the highest standard for personal and organisational integrity. The anti-corruption policy offers a guide in how LABELCO A/S’s employees shall react if they are faced with corruption and corrupt behaviour, and at the same time marks out guidelines for the work in preventing corruption.

The policy was a new initiative for LABELCO A/S, as corruption in all its forms is illegal in Denmark, and therefore, the company had not previously thought of making a particular policy on the subject matter. However, work was put in to form a thorough and relevant policy that could be applied to LABELCO A/S’s day-to-day work life. The policy includes a description of what corruption is, as it can seem like a very foreign term for many of our employees who normally would not think of such an issue being relevant in their day-to-day work life. Hereafter, the policy itself is described and it is made clear what to do if one encounters this sort of behaviour.

The monitoring of corruption is continuously performed in the management group where any such behaviour or reporting thereof is brought up at the management review meetings that take place every 3rd month. The evaluation of our overall effort is evaluated annually and new goals are set up.