What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2016 Responsibility Report the LEGO Group identified a range of material issues, such as product safety, climate change, waste, employee safety, the play and learning experience children get from products. Among these, promoting integrity in its operations stands out as a key material issue for the LEGO Group.

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 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 the LEGO Group engages with:   

Stakeholder Group

Consumers (children)

Customers/Suppliers

Employees

Toy industry associations

Media

Local communities

Interest groups and trade associations

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritize material issues, the LEGO Group engaged with a wide range of stakeholders. They included consumers, customers, employees, NGOs, interest groups and industry associations. To achieve engagement, the LEGO Group conducted an online survey among over 1,500 respondents. Moreover, it carried out interviews with 1,500 additional participants, to identify stakeholders’ top priorities.

 

 

What actions were taken by the LEGO Group to promote integrity in its operations?

In its 2016 Responsibility Report the LEGO Group reports that it took the following actions to promote integrity in its operations:

• Promoting compliance through the Corporate Compliance Board
• The Corporate Compliance Board (CCB) is the highest decision authority regarding non-compliance issues in the LEGO Group. The CCB promotes the proper handling of ethical issues and compliance with external regulations. The CCB is also responsible for providing relevant operational guidance and reviewing policies. In 2016, the CCB reviewed the updated Responsible Marketing to Children Policy and the Digital Child Safety Policy.

• Providing ethics training
• [tweetthis]All LEGO employees participate in mandatory training on the importance of operating ethically.[/tweetthis] More specifically, the LEGO Group offers training on the LEGO Code of Ethical Business Conduct and Corruption Awareness and Competition Law e-learning programmes. Moreover, the LEGO Group reached the target of training 100% of senior business leaders bi-annually on the LEGO Code of Ethical Business Conduct. Additionally, more than 98% of salaried employees have received bi-annual training on ethical business conduct and anti-corruption principles.

• Enhancing third party due diligence
• The LEGO Group carries out integrity due diligence screenings of third parties and continually improves its third party due diligence process. The LEGO Group addresses risks holistically, including issues concerning anti-bribery and corruption, social responsibility, human rights and environmental sustainability.

Which GRI indicators/Standards have been addressed?

The GRI indicator addressed in this case is: G4-SO4: Communication and training on anti-corruption policies and procedures and the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 205-2 Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and procedures

 

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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See upcoming training dates.

 

References:

1) This case study is based on published information by the LEGO Group, 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 the LEGO Group: 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.