Frequently asked questions

Being transparent about our impacts on people and the planet is an important part of our approach to managing sustainability. Although our Sustainovate targets are built on the three opportunities where we can make the greatest difference, our sustainability work addresses many more issues, too.

Here are some frequently asked questions on relevant topics in the sustainability agenda. If you want to learn more about these, or other issues, don’t hesitate to drop us a line:

[email protected]

expand_less Anti-corruption

We have zero tolerance for corruption and bribery. Although we do not work in a sector that poses a high risk for corruption, we are working hard to increase our ability to track and raise awareness of our risks among all Group companies and our suppliers. This is our approach:

  • We have a revised Code of Conduct that includes nine new standards.
  • We have an Alertline reporting system in place where people can report concerns.
  • We have eLearning and live training for employees on the Code of Conduct and for people in special functions on selected topics.
  • We have guidelines in place for those people responsible for investigating potential incidents.

Our vendors, distributors, suppliers and agents are expected to conduct their business ethically, in line with expectations outlined in our Supplier Code of Business Ethics.

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As a global company, our success is dependent on the insights of a diverse workforce. A diverse organization keeps us curious and helps us meet the needs of our customers. That’s why we are taking diversity and inclusion to the top of our agenda and we are challenging ourselves to embed this priority deep into our organization.

We measure workforce diversity primarily with a focus on gender. The gender balance remained unchanged in 2019, with female representation of 34 percent. This figure was 25 percent at senior levels (tiers 1-3). Female representation among top managers is on par with the industry benchmark, but we need to work harder to raise gender diversity in other tiers.

We are also working to raise awareness of the importance of equal pay for equal work. Meeting the UK requirement to monitor pay gaps between men and women is helping us to chart our impacts.

We know we have more work to do. We’ll be launching an updated and sharpened diversity strategy with an action plan for the strategy period. Anti-bias and diversity leadership training is ongoing at all levels of the organization. These actions will lay the groundwork for improving diversity further in terms of gender and culture in 2020.

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Gender Pay equality - In line with the legal requirement by the UK Government, we carry out Gender Pay Reporting (Gender Pay Gap Information) every year.

Electric and battery-powered products are crucial to our market leadership ambitions. They also help to deliver the low-carbon solutions promised in Sustainovate. Yet some raw materials and minerals used in electronics, batteries and diamond-cutting tools present sustainability risks that we need to understand and manage better. Cobalt, which is used in lithium batteries and electronic components, as well metals tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold (or 3TG) also pose environmental and human rights risks in places like China and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The DRC, in particular, is a key provider of 3TG, cobalt and industrial diamonds. Mining minerals in the DRC is plagued by armed conflict and human rights abuses. As for all companies, without the ability to track the source of commodities like cobolt and diamonds beyond our direct suppliers, we cannot avoid conflict minerals.

Improved transparency on cobalt was a focus for us in 2019. In lithium sourcing, we conducted risk assessments on three suppliers, of which two were able to provide traceability. We are terminating our agreement with the third supplier.

During 2020 a due diligence study will be initiated on conflict minerals and cobalt to gain better insight of our supply chain and improve our documentation.

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Paying taxes is an important part of contributing to society and Husqvarna Group aims to pay its fair share of taxes in consistency with relevant laws and regulations. Our approach to taxes and how they are dealt with across the Group is an important part for us in building trust and is further described in the Tax Policy.

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All companies have a duty to communicate transparently on how their business activities impact the climate and how they are reducing emissions. Reporting according to the TCFD framework helps financial markets evaluate and respond to climate-change risks in their investment decisions. 

In 2019, we endorsed the TCFD and took our first steps towards disclosing our climate impacts under its framework. In this way, we are aligning climate-change reporting with financial market needs to better measure and assess these risks. As a next step, we will quantify climate risks and improve our scenario process. 

See the Risk management section of our Annual report for more information.