[ESRS S4-1; GRI 2-23, 2-25, 3-3c, 416-1, 416-2, 417-2]
Policies
For further information on the Lenzing Global Code of Business Conduct and Lenzing Global Supplier Code of Conduct, please see the “Business conduct” chapter. For a more detailed information on the Group Policy for Safety, Health and Environment (SHE), see the “Pollution” chapter.
Established policies at Lenzing not only form part of its strategy for product assurance and safety, but also structure the effort to produce high-quality products.
Quality Policy
Lenzing emphasizes innovation and technology for high-quality products, collaborating closely with its key suppliers for consistency. The company adopts a customer-centric approach, involving all employees in standards enhancement. To provide immediate technical support, global centers of excellence are established. Continuous improvement is driven by customer feedback and benchmarking against competitors. Lenzing sets challenging annual targets, monitors compliance with regulations, and employs third-party certifications for standards and products.
Product Safety Policy
With this policy, Lenzing is committed to high quality, environmental and working safety standards that are followed in the product manufacturing process. In addition, Lenzing is committed to the maintenance of the internal database of intentional product ingredients, with safety, health and environmental data. Also, a rigorous product testing and labeling plan according to the applicable international standards, certifications, norms and legislation that ensure product safety. Furthermore, Lenzing avoids animal tests1 of the products or ingredients, unless they are required by law or there is no alternative. If testing on animals is unavoidable, it is kept to a minimum following the principles of animal welfare as defined by the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement).
Clean & Hygiene Guideline
Lenzing’s Clean & Hygiene guideline establishes rules for the manufacturing sites with the purpose of prevention and avoidance of any kind of contamination of the products created, as well as definition of design and maintenance principles for a clean working environment.
Channels to raise concerns
[ESRS S4-3; GRI 2-25]
An online-based whistleblower system was introduced in 2017 and is designed so that employees, customers, suppliers, and other third parties can voice their concerns. This platform allows individuals to report issues such as corruption, bribery, conflicts of interests, antitrust violations, and breaches of capital market law. Known as the BKMS® whistleblower system, or “Tell us”, it is accessible on Lenzing’s website, ensuring anonymity. Upon receiving reports, a team of legal experts evaluates the incidents, and forwards them to the Group Compliance Officer or the Local Compliance Officer if necessary. The anonymous reporting feature ensures that individuals can share their concerns without the fear of retaliation. For further details, please refer to the “Business conduct” chapter.
Actions
[ESRS S3-4; GRI 3-3d, 413-1, 413-2]
A summary of the “Actions taken” can be found in the management approach at the beginning of this chapter.
Product assurance for (in)direct customers
Independent third-party certifications are in place to certify standards, products, and management systems to ensure compliance with customer and regulatory requirements and to assess strategic fit with Lenzing’s corporate strategy.
In this respect, Lenzing operates a quality management system based on ISO 9001:2015. Additional quality management systems such as FAMI-QS and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP), are in place for specific business segments. All form the basis for the relevant work processes and reinforce efforts to achieve complete customer satisfaction.
The PSRA department manages a variety of external third-party certifications on a global level in relation to product safety for different applications (e.g., food contact, skin contact compliance) and sustainability (e.g. biodegradability) and assesses new certification requests. These certificates serve to ensure transparency and demonstrate the safety and compliance of Lenzing fibers as well as their compatibility in their application fields. The information on all the Lenzing Group’s product certifications is available on this website.
Product safety for consumers and end-users
As mentioned above, the PSRA department is globally responsible for the safety of Lenzing fibers in their intended uses and for compliance with the laws, regulations, and standards that apply to the fiber businesses.
Therefore, in addition to the external third-party certifications, risk assessments for intentional ingredients are carried out and the impact of business-specific regulations, standards, and requirements is continuously monitored and assessed. PSRA prepares appropriate declarations/confirmations for customer enquiries on relevant topics and is either personally in contact with industrial associations or informed by Lenzing representatives on new topics and developments having an impact on business and product safety.
Impact and risk assessment on product quality and safety
Lenzing’s strategic direction for product quality and safety demonstrates its commitment to sustain a leading position in the market by providing a positive impact in the terms of product consistency, functional performance, customer centric service, product transparency and product safety confidence. In addition, Lenzing supports the fulfillment of its business and sustainability targets by continuously improving manufacturing processes and proactively monitoring future regulatory requirements. This focus allows Lenzing to sustain a premium product portfolio in a competitive landscape where several fiber producers launch alternative offerings. These activities have resulted in an additional positive impact in brand reputation and general acknowledgment by major customers of Lenzing’s high standards. In addition, Lenzing’s product portfolio due to its environmentally friendly production processes ensures to be well positioned against future legislations related to the plastic usage reduction, product circularity and the increasing use of recyclable raw materials.
The versatility of Lenzing’s product portfolio application enables its entry as an alternative component in fields predominantly covered by natural and/or synthetic fibers. Although, Lenzing’s share in such applications is constantly growing, the regulatory and performance requirements landscape is mostly directed by the traditional components and their characteristics. Stricter regulations considering the traditional components may have a negative impact by creating unnecessary challenges to the respective applications in the usage of Lenzing’s products. This risk is managed by Lenzing’s proactive participation in the relevant associations.
Opportunity management: Product quality and safety activities
The new production sites in Prachinburi (Thailand) and Indianópolis (Brazil) have demonstrated a steady improvement of their quality metrics in line with their ramp-up plans. Fiber production sites in Nanjing (China) and Purwakarta (Indonesia) successfully commissioned modal fibers and viscose fibers line products to satisfy regional customer needs as well offering more environmentally friendly products. The global quality continuous improvement program, which consists of site-relevant quality improvement projects, continued throughout the year, delivering additional benefits for Lenzing products at all manufacturing sites.
In 2023, several of the remaining Fiber Quality strategic initiative projects were completed (e.g. customer segmentation) while new strategic initiatives have started rolling out existing processes to pulp and biorefinery and co-product sites (e.g. non-conformity management, complaint management). This year was marked by changes in Lenzing’s Integrated Management system with the transition under a new ISO certification body, and introduction of new management systems to obtain the SURE and Bureau of Indian standards certifications.
Risk analyses and assessments for new intentional and non-intentional ingredients are carried out by performing formal compliance reviews. In addition, a broader and systematic testing for the confirmation of low concentration or absence of substances, as defined by external associations has been introduced and is an ongoing measure. Business-specific regulations, standards and requirements are continuously monitored, assessed and documented. In the reporting year, these assessments did not trigger any additional measures in order to be compliant with the high internal standards. As a consequence Lenzing’s products did not require any improvement in relation to health and safety impact.
To support Lenzing’s commitment to transparency and customer/consumer communication, an improvement of the internal processes related to value chain security and due diligence in raw material sourcing was established to improve communication speed and clarity towards customers.
1 “as per definition of directive 2010/63/EU”