What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2016 Sustainability Report BMW Brilliance identified a range of material issues, such as product safety, occupational health and safety, air pollution, emissions and climate change, talent attraction and retention. Among these, respecting human rights across its operations and supply chain stands out as a key material issue for BMW Brilliance.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards              

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups BMW Brilliance engages with:

Stakeholder Group

Academic institutions

Chinese students

Dealers

Political decision-makers

Regulatory authorities

Communist Party of China

Customers

Employees

Local communities

Shareholders

Suppliers

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics BMW Brilliance invited 16 representatives of stakeholder groups to share their ideas and concerns in individual, detailed interviews.

What actions were taken by BMW Brilliance to respect human rights across its operations and supply chain?

In its 2016 Sustainability Report BMW Brilliance reports that it took the following actions for respecting human rights across its operations and supply chain:

• Protecting the health and safety of employees
• To protect the health and safety of its employees BMW Brilliance conducts health and safety training, promotes health checks, and implements needs-based health initiatives. In addition, in its Associate Handbook, BMW Brilliance informs its employees of their rights and responsibilities regarding occupational health and safety. The handbook also includes information about where to access its environment, health and safety policies.

• Eliminating forced, compulsory or child labour
• The complexity of the automotive supply chain requires special care regarding the risk of forced, compulsory or child labour and BMW Brilliance expects full compliance with Chinese Labour Law and relevant regulations in these matters, applying e a zero-tolerance policy. With a ban on forced, compulsory and child labour in all supplier contracts, BMW Brilliance makes sure that its suppliers uphold the same standards it has set for itself.

• Respecting freedom of association
• BMW Brilliance recognises the right of all workers to engage in collective bargaining to agree upon working conditions by joining a legally recognised trade union, or any other body that represents their collective interest. Accordingly, the BMW Brilliance Labour Union was established in 2007, representing all local employees and working to protect their rights and interests and to mediate disputes between employees and the company.

• Fighting discrimination and harassment
• BMW Brilliance is committed to providing a work environment free from any discriminatory behaviour and harassment, as stated in its Associate Handbook. All employment decisions are taken regardless of ethnic origin, skin colour, gender, religion, nationality, marital status, age, sexual orientation or political beliefs. Additionally, migrant workers are treated equally to any other employee, with full coverage of social welfare and protection.

• Providing fair compensation and respecting legal working hours
• BMW Brilliance is committed to providing fair compensation and to respecting legal working hours, for its employees to live in dignity and conserve their long-term health and productivity. The Human Resources department and line managers review employee leave and working hours on a monthly basis, ensuring employees take their full entitlement of annual leave during the year. In addition, BMW Brilliance applies three different work time models to keep the worked hours and monthly salaries stable despite market fluctuations, and rewards employees with total remuneration above average and aligned with the upper-third of the respective labour market in China.

• Minimising the impact on local communities
• In order to minimise its impact on local communities, BMW Brilliance considers potential social and environmental consequences in the earliest stage of product development and infrastructure planning. All BMW Brilliance infrastructure construction activities are pre-examined, and go through a national Environmental Impact Assessment. BMW Brilliance also seeks to minimise the environmental impacts of its business activities by constantly reducing its resource consumption, emissions and waste for disposal, and takes all necessary measures to fight corruption, in order to prevent personal gain or preferential treatment.

• Addressing human rights risks in the value chain
• BMW Brilliance requires its direct suppliers to meet the same social and environmental standards applied by the company. Compliance with internationally recognised human rights and with labour and social standards is part of BMW Brilliance’s General Terms and Conditions for all purchases and included in all supplier contracts. Additionally, BMW Brilliance constantly reviews its corporate policies and initiatives regarding their effectiveness in avoiding human rights infringements in its supply chain. The supplier risk management process applied throughout the BMW Group network, enables BMW Brilliance to identify and analyse potential sustainability and human rights risks along its supply chain. In its regular supplier review BMW Brilliance considers issues such as operational health and safety, child labour risks and environmental impacts.

• Preventing human rights violations
• BMW Brilliance’s employees can submit information about possible human rights violations within the company through the BMW Brilliance SpeakUP Line, anonymously and confidentially. To prevent human rights violations, BMW Brilliance also provides employee information and training, particularly on the SpeakUP programme, and carries out risk analyses and human rights impact assessments, maintaining internal monitoring and reporting structures.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:

1) Disclosure 407-1 Operations and suppliers in which the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining may be at risk

2) Disclosure 408-1 Operations and suppliers at significant risk for incidents of child labor

3) Disclosure 409-1 Operations and suppliers at significant risk for incidents of forced or compulsory labor

4) Disclosure 412-3 Significant investment agreements and contracts that include human rights clauses or that underwent human rights screening

5) Disclosure 413-1 Operations with local community engagement, impact assessments, and development programs

 

Disclosure 407-1 Operations and suppliers in which the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining may be at risk corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
• Business theme: Freedom of association and collective bargaining

Disclosure 408-1 Operations and suppliers at significant risk for incidents of child labor corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
• Business theme: Abolition of child labor

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
• Business theme: Abolition of child labor

Disclosure 409-1 Operations and suppliers at significant risk for incidents of forced or compulsory labor corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
• Business theme: Elimination of forced or compulsory labor

Disclosure 412-3 Significant investment agreements and contracts that include human rights clauses or that underwent human rights screening does not correspond to any SDG.

Disclosure 413-1 Operations with local community engagement, impact assessments, and development programs does not correspond to any SDG.

 

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References:

1) This case study is based on published information by BMW Brilliance, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

Note to BMW Brilliance: With each case study we send out an email requesting a comment on this case study. If you have not received such an email please contact us.

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2014 Sustainability Report BMW Brilliance identified a range of material issues, such as occupational health and safety, product portfolio and research and development, energy consumption, air pollution emissions and climate change, talent attraction and retention, public policy, employee development, aftersales services, corruption and anti-competitive behaviour. Among these, as the safety of its customers and other road users is a top priority for BMW Brilliance and its stakeholders – and fundamental to its sense of product responsibility –, promoting product safety stands out as a key material issue.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The organization should identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups BMW Brilliance engages with:

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Shareholders	·         BMW Brilliance’s Board of Management reports to the Board of Directors, which represents BMW Brilliance’s shareholders
Customers	·         Customer talks, surveys and interviews
Employees	·         Open door and round table discussions between employees and senior management ·         Annual consultation sessions
Suppliers	·         BMW Brilliance Supplier Days
Dealers	·         Dealer training ·         5S dealer certification programme (Sales, Service, Survey, Spare Parts and Sustainability)
Policymakers	·         Regular, open dialogue with political decision-makers, union representatives, associations and  non-governmental organisations
Students	·         “BMW  Days” ·         Launched a new Doctoral programme at the Northeastern University known as ProMotion
Society	·         “Lead the Way to a Sustainable and Responsible Future – 2014 BMW Brilliance Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Forum”

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

BMW Brilliance’s ongoing dialogue with its stakeholders is a continuous learning process for its business. BMW Brilliance uses targeted dialogues to understand various perspectives and to receive their input on strategically relevant topics. It identifies trends and key topics at an early stage which helps the company gain acceptance of its activities and decisions. BMW Brilliance wants to build long-term trust with its stakeholders. This is important to demonstrate its commitment to society and for its future business success.

BMW Brilliance’s main stakeholder groups are its shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers, dealers, policymakers, students and society. BMW Brilliance’s stakeholder engagement is reflected in its approach to key areas such as Product Responsibility, Human Resources, Corporate Citizenship, Production and Supplier Management. Dialogue with targeted stakeholder groups takes place in a wide range of formats that include dialogues, presentations, events, meetings, surveys and training. For example, BMW Brilliance conducts customer surveys and talks to understand customer expectations and needs, trains dealers to enhance their capacity and build greater customer satisfaction, arranges open discussions for employees with top management to understand their concerns and suggestions, conducts ongoing dialogue with central and local policymakers to share its expertise and interacts with students and society to jointly raise awareness about issues such as environmental protection and traffic safety.

To develop a solid basis for its sustainability management, BMW Brilliance reviewed its most relevant sustainability issues with its key stakeholders. BMW Brilliance invited 16 representatives of stakeholder groups to contribute their ideas and concerns in individual, detailed interviews. Key topics raised during the stakeholder interviews related to product safety, occupational health and safety and fuel consumption. In addition, in an internal workshop with participants from the BMW Group and different BMW Brilliance divisions, BMW Brilliance prioritised 28 potentially relevant sustainability issues according to each issue’s business impact on BMW Brilliance – considering the global context of the issues as well as where the most relevant impacts occur along the value chain. As a result, BMW Brilliance identified ten sustainability issues that are highly relevant for the company and its stakeholders. These issues are its priorities.

What actions were taken by BMW Brilliance to promote product safety?

In its 2014 Sustainability Report BMW Brilliance set the following targets for promoting product safety, based on the company’s approach to materiality – on taking action on what matters, where it matters:

• Receiving safety feedback

BMW Brilliance develops and manufactures products in strict compliance with the BMW Group’s quality management systems, monitoring its product performance and reviewing all safety feedback. If necessary, BMW Brilliance informs the responsible authorities about any customer safety issues and initiates any required safety measures. BMW Brilliance has established relevant processes and procedures to ensure it acts upon the feedback it receives from its customers and the marketplace.

• Protecting the lives and health of drivers, passengers and pedestrians through passive safety systems

BMW Brilliance’s vehicles have energy-absorbing crumple zones, safe passenger cells, restraint systems, airbags and many other passive safety features that protect the lives and health of drivers daily. In order to provide drivers and passengers with the greatest possible protection in the event of a collision, various safety elements work hand-in-hand. A networked system of highly sensitive sensors enables airbags to deploy in the appropriate situation and at precisely the right moment. Pyrotechnically activated seatbelt pretensioners and seatbelt-force limiters further minimise risk of injury. The vehicle front has various devices installed to protect pedestrians, including a shock absorber. This is integrated between the bumper carrier and panel to reduce leg injuries in a collision.

• Preventing accidents through active safety systems

Active safety systems include perfect chassis coordination, optimal traction and effective brakes. Electronic chassis control systems also contribute towards preventing accidents. One of the main ways BMW Brilliance increases safety is through driver assistance systems, which are being increasingly integrated into its model ranges. These systems provide a second set of eyes to observe what is happening on the road in order to warn and support the driver. The traffic jam assistant is another important support function. In long and monotonous driving situations, for example in traffic congestion, the traffic jam assistant helps to keep the car longitudinally and laterally positioned in the lane, easing the strain on the driver. Active battery management is also used to provide safety: the ZINORO 1E is equipped with an innovative battery safety system, which features a liquid cooling and heating system that can increase the battery adaptability and safety in various environments. In a low-temperature environment, it realises the ideal working temperature. And in a high-temperature environment, it prevents overheating. The battery management system features a self-diagnosis and management function. It monitors dynamically all key parameters of the battery such as storage, charge, discharge and operating status. In the event of an accident, it will disconnect the battery from the vehicle’s electric system. This will ensure all parts are electrically neutral and guarantee the safety of the vehicle and passengers.

• Guaranteeing product and service information

BMW Brilliance informs its customers if any potential risks and hazards related to its products exist, as well as about the environmental performance and proper use of its products and services. Information on vehicle safety and protecting customer health can be found in the respective manuals or in notes inside the vehicle (e.g. rescue card), as well as on BMW Brilliance’s official website. Additional background information on service, accessories, parts and BMW ConnectedDrive is likewise available online. BMW Brilliance ensures that any customer product and service information meets all technical requirements.

• Offering driver safety training

BMW Brilliance also contributes to protecting road users through driver safety training. The company offers 12 different training courses and in 2014 1,150 participants learned how to identify critical driving situations and respond properly. This included how to avoid such situations, if possible, in the first place.

• Using safe materials in vehicles

For each phase of the vehicle life cycle – from development through to use and disposal – BMW Brilliance’s specialist departments ensure compliance with worldwide legal requirements for product safety and human health. In the early development phase, a “Materials” interdisciplinary working group evaluates the potential materials to be used in a product to determine the risk potential and to eliminate any problematic candidates. The working group can then intervene in the selection and development process as well as in the production as needed. BMW Brilliance tests all current and future products according to the standards of the BMW Group. As well as series parts, all auxiliary production substances and process materials, such as paint and adhesives, undergo rigorous qualification processes. BMW Brilliance fully documents all chemical substances that are used in its production processes. These substances are first inspected to ensure their safety and then approved for a specific application through the company’s central recording system for environmentally relevant substances. The system also provides detailed specifications and tips on handling these products as well as on first aid, storage and transport.

Which GRI indicators/Standards have been addressed?

The GRI indicator addressed in this case is: G4-PR1: Percentage of significant product and service categories for which health and safety impacts are assessed for improvement and the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 416-1 Assessment of the health and safety impacts of product and service categories

 

References:

1) This case study is based on published information by BMW Brilliance, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page

3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx

4) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

Note to BMW Brilliance: With each case study we send out an email to your listed address in request for a comment on this case study. If you have not received such an email please contact us.