What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2021 Annual and Sustainability Report Kongsberg identified a range of material issues, such as climate and environment, responsible business conduct, human rights, cyber and information security. Among these, creating economic value for its stakeholders stands out as a key material issue for Kongsberg.

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 s 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 Kongsberg engages with:

To identify and prioritise material topics Kongsberg engaged with its stakeholders through the following channels:

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Investors	·      Investor and analyst meetings ·      Quarterly results presentation ·      Ownership meetings
Employees and members of the board	·      Meetings with trade unions and other cooperation forums, general meetings, departmental meetings ·      Board meetings and other events ·      Employee surveys
Business partners	·      Customer meetings, supplier meetings, conferences, fairs and events ·      Customer surveys
Financial institutions	·      Regular meetings with banks, insurance companies etc. ·      Quarterly results presentations
Trade associations	·      Recurring meetings ·      Membership of employers’ associations and trade associations ·      Participation in industry forums
Education and research institutions	·      Collaboration initiatives ·      Research programmes
Voluntary organisations	·      Dialogue ·      Participation in the Coalition for Responsible Business (KAN)

What actions were taken by Kongsberg to create economic value for its stakeholders?

In its 2021 Annual and Sustainability Report Kongsberg reports that it took the following actions for creating economic value for its stakeholders:

• Creating economic value for employees
• In 2021, Kongsberg paid MNOK 7 760 for employee salaries.

• Creating economic value for shareholders
• In 2021, Kongsberg paid MNOK 2 736 in dividends.

• Creating economic value for lenders
• In 2021, Kongsberg paid MNOK 72 in interest to lenders.

• Creating economic value for governments
• In 2021, Kongsberg paid MNOK 632 in taxes.

• Creating economic value for communities
• In 2021, Kongsberg spent MNOK 14.5 in social investments.

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

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed

Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.1, 8.2
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• Targets: 9.1, 9.4, 9.5

 

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

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References:

This case study is based on published information by Kongsberg, 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 following link:

https://www.annual-report.kongsberg.com/globalassets/pdfs/2021/annual-report-and-sustainability-report-2021.pdf

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