Founded on our code of conduct

At Peab we build our sustainable work on our thoroughly grounded Code of Conduct, which in turn is based on the ten principles in the UN Global Compact. The Code is built on Peab’s core values and comprises business ethics, business principals, human rights, work conditions, the climate and the environment. The Board of Directors adopts the Code of Conduct and it is applicable to everyone in the Peab Group and contains principles for how we ought to behave in different situations and towards each other. We also require that the Code of Conduct be respected and complied with by our business partners and anyone at our workplaces.

Peab continues to strive to have the most satisfied customers

The annual surveys conducted according to SCI (Satisfied Customer Index) are directed towards external and internal company customers and private housing customers. Their purpose is to provide a good understanding of our customers’ needs and desires and foster lasting customer relations. In 2019 the total SCI result for the Peab Group was 78 (75) on a scale of 1–100. Peab’s Finnish business achieved a SCI result of 80 with a value of 82.5 for customer loyalty and for the third year in a row had the highest rating of all construction companies on the Finnish quality rating EPSI. According to Prognosesenteret the three areas – business ethics, including the environment and the work environment (Peab’s result 83/100), reliability (83/100) and quality in products and services (82/100) – continue to be prioritized and are areas where our customers expect a great deal of us.

Demands for corporate social responsibility allow us to make a difference

One of the most rapidly increasing areas regarding customers’ demands in connection with procurements is CSR. These are primarily demands requiring that companies contribute to creating employment locally for youths, newly arrived immigrants or people who are physically impaired in connection with doing the procured work. These demands go together well with how we already work to facilitate integration and contribute to education and the employment of young people. The best situation is when we become part of project early on and can plan together with our customers, for example through partnering. In order to meet the social requirements in a procurement to an even higher degree the concept Peab Life, see the section Social for more details, was created in 2019.

Quality-ensured supplier chain through monitoring and dialogue

The Group’s four business areas are dependent on a large number of suppliers and subcontractors. Peab’s purchases make up more than 70 percent of net sales and involve more than 40,000 suppliers. This makes the work to guarantee a sustainable supply chain critical to safe business. In recent years Peab has taken long strides in the work to form quality-ensured purchasing. A key factor in this work is ensuring our supply chain which holds some of our biggest risks but also an enormous potential for development.

Peab makes the same high demands on our business partners as we put on ourselves, for example, demanding and making sure that we ourselves and those we work with maintain human rights in areas like child labor, forced labor and the right to organize. The Code of Conduct must be followed at all our own workplaces but it is also always included in written contracts with suppliers as well, which means a signed contract is an obligation to follow our Code of Conduct. Peab is also a forerunner and began following the agreement in The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise of 30 day payments to all our suppliers a long time ago. This is an important part of responsible purchasing for us.

All the suppliers in Peab’s supplier register go through a daily systematic check against predefined parameters. These parameters look at financial status and the risk of irregularities but they also check that the supplier has met social obligations like paying taxes and general payroll tax, and follows approved labor law conditions, e.g. SC2015. The result can then be found in the Group supplier register. This support will be broadened to comprise relevant parameters for our subcontractors’ supply chain. During 2019 Peab made it possible to see 66 (67) percent of purchases in the business area Construction via a system support that includes the Code of Conduct, according to the information above. In 2020 the work to implement system support in the entire Group will continue. Peab’s long-term goal is to be able to screen suppliers based on social and environmental criteria. However, this is a complex process that will take time to put in place.

In 2019 we developed a Group method for systematically reviewing suppliers through both self-assessment and onsite reviews. Peab trained internal reviewers and review teams were created based on supplier categories and areas of expertise. Suppliers were prioritized according to defined criteria that included, for example, the level of risk and purchasing volumes. All the reviews are founded on mutual development and learning dialogue. This is Peab’s approach whether or not we are doing the reviewing or being reviewed ourselves. The main purpose is to build, by working together, lasting partnerships in which the customer and supplier both care about quality, ethics and safety and promote sustainable innovation in methods and products. In 2019 we conducted nine supplier reviews.

Steering purchasing reduces risks and ensures sustainable work methods

During 2018-2019 Peab has driven intensive internal development of steering purchasing to ensure cost-efficiency and sustainable work methods. Segmentation has been a key factor and consists of three levels; Approved, Checked or Rejected. Every month around a thousand receiver-customized auto-generated reports are produced for respective employees responsible for business deals that show any deviations and monitor purchasing behavior.  The purpose is to develop our collaboration with the suppliers that create the most value and monitor the supplier categories with a potential risk.

Ethics and anti-corruption affect everyone

One of Peab’s most prioritized areas is our work against corruption. We have zero tolerance to serious ethical violations in the Group and we are committed to the work conducted in the industry to fight corruption. Peab is a partner in the Joint Initiative Against Bribes and Corruption (JIABC) which works to jointly counteract bribes and corruption in the publicly funded construction and real estate sector, and we are also represented on the board of the Community Builder Sector’s Ethical Council. Peab’s work with ethical issues and against corruption is long-range, systematic and includes all our employees. We have strict consequences but we also work with education and tools. For example, all employees responsible for business deals are required to take a course through e-­education in ethics and anti-­corruption as well as competition law and as a supplement we have produced e-education for employees without this responsibility. In 2019 1,208 (3,689) employees were trained in ethics and/or anti-corruption.

Peab’s Ethical Council ensures that incidents in the Group such as infringement of laws and the Code of Conduct receive the same consequences, regardless of context or position.

Anyone can blow the whistle­

Transparency and openness are the watchwords for Peab’s development of the business and work climate. Employees have an important role in reporting any law infringements or serious irregularities. We prefer open reporting but this is complemented by an external web-­based whistle­blower system that guarantees the anonymity of the reporter. The whistle­blower system is accessible to external reporters as well. Read more about our whistleblower function under Steering.

Events during the year

During 2019, according to GRI 2015 Anti-corruption, (0) 0 incidents of anti-competitive activities, breaches of the competition law or monopolistic behavior leading to legal action were discovered. In 2019 Peab discovered 1 (2) case of suspected corruption and 4 (6) internal incidents of suspected financial irregularities. The responsible manager handled the incidents with support from members of the Ethical Council. All of these incidents led to labor law measures.

A sustainable industry grows through cooperation

As a community builder it is a given for Peab to contribute to developing social conditions in a sound, safe and attractive construction and civil engineering industry through cooperation. In 2019 we continued to engage in the industry’s work on diversity, in the industry’s safety training park, the work with entry controls and a more secure ID06, a collaborative project for a more attractive and inclusive vocational training program and the work for healthy competition and explicit rules for all players. We always prioritize collaboration and look forward to sharing our experience and learning from others in 2020.