Community builder with clear priorities
Peab works daily to improve everyday life for people where they live it in the Nordic region. We do this by building everything from homes, schools, retirement homes and hospitals to bridges, roads and other infrastructure.
Working sustainably is a strategic matter for Peab that should be completely integrated into our operations. Each and every employee should work sustainable in their role based on our core values, business concept, mission, strategic targets and Code of Conduct. For Peab sustainability entails running a business that both takes a long-term responsibility for its own impact and works for a good community.
We operate over a broad spectrum of community building which naturally has both positive and negative effects on the world around us. The frequency of injuries in the construction and civil engineering industry is high and our employees are exposed to risks on construction sites that can lead to accidents. The industry is also traditionally male dominated, which entails a lack of gender equality and diversity. Furthermore, the complex value chains create risks for ethical transgressions. In addition, we have a responsibility to ensure that our suppliers follow good ethics and care about the environment and human rights. At the same time our business contributes many things that are positive. Besides daily building local communities, we provide our employees with secure employment and meaningful careers with development opportunities. In the local community, we work especially for the development and education of our young people and we contribute to local development in general.
Our operations impact the environment and climate in various ways. For example, materials we use, like concrete and steel, generate carbon emissions and other components are environmentally and health hazardous. We use the earth’s finite resources and have to become better at working circularly and resource efficiently as well as caring about the impact we have on nature and fostering biodiversity. We put the same demands on our suppliers and their suppliers and have an ongoing dialogue with our customers to help them achieve their environmental and climate goals. Collaboration is a prerequisite for positive change.
As a major local actor and employer in the Nordic region it is important that through cooperation and dialogue we understand the challenges society is facing, and in particular the needs in our local communities. By comprehending this we can reduce the negative impact of our business and increase its benefit. We want to take responsibility, either by contributing to a more climate-adapted use of material, healthy competition or safe and inclusive workplaces. As one of the largest Nordic community builders we have decided to be the Best workplace and Leader in social responsibility in our industry. It is a commitment that comes with obligations.
We identify our material sustainability aspects within the framework of our four strategic targets, and in particular the two mentioned above: Best workplace and Leader in social responsibility. The targets also comprise our external and internal targets.
We take responsibility, whether by contributing to more climate-adapted material use, healthy competition or safe and inclusive workplaces.
Stakeholders guide us
Peab’s prioritized sustainability aspects and actions in the area of sustainability are based on the actual and potential impact on humans and the environment of our business as well as ongoing stakeholder dialogues. This keeps us aware of the expectations and demands of our stakeholders and what issues are most important to them. These dialogues take place in both informal meetings with customers, suppliers, employees and other stakeholders and in more structured contexts such as supplier audits, meetings with politicians and other decision-makers, owner and investor dialogues and seminars at colleges. The accumulated result from these dialogues forms the basis of our materiality analysis and sustainability work priorities. They are established by Peab’s Board and executive management, most recently for the business plan period 2021-2023, integrated into Group and business area business plans and support our work in product development and technical solutions. In the dialogues – independent of which stakeholder group – we inform about the progress being made in our operations, provide good examples and initiatives but also point out the challenges. In this way we can create and maintain constructive and transparent dialogues that lead to actual positive development.
Eight sustainability priorities
Peab’s prioritized sustainability areas form a unit where the parts affect each other. With the adoption of the new business plan for 2021-2023 at the beginning of the year we revised the prioritized sustainability aspects we identified as the most relevant to manage, monitor and report. We categorize these under the two strategic targets Best workplace and Leader in social responsibility and set targets for them to ensure that they are integrated into our operations and governance. They are based on areas where our business has a negative effect on social, environment and economic aspects and in areas where our business can make a positive difference. Our prioritized areas have not changed since we presented them in the 2021 Annual and Sustainability Report. However, we have assessed them based on a discussion about the impact of our operations on the world around us and how it affects us in return. The result is presented below.
Our sustainability priorities:
E – Climate impact
E – Resource consumption
E – Environmentally and health hazardous products
G – Ethics and anti-corruption
S – Work environment and safety culture
S – Equality, diversity and equal treatment
E, S – Quality ensured supplier chain
S – Education and development for the young
Read more about our take on sustainability priorities and how we govern these in the GRI appendix at peab.com.
Locally produced community building
The way we operate is built on our four business areas that collaborate locally which gives us good control over the processing chain. Our 15,000 employees ensure that we as far as possible use local resources in the form of our own employees, our own input goods and subcontractors. This, together with our engagement in the community and integrated climate and environmental work, forms the foundation of what we call locally produced community building.
Importance to stakeholders
Peab’s external impact &
External impact on Peab
Sustainable aspects
1. Climate impact
2. Resource consumption
3. Environmentally and health hazardous products
4. Ethics and anti-corruption
5. Work environment and safety culture
6. Equality, diversity and equal treatment
7. Quality ensured supplier chain
8. Education and development for the young
ESG
E=environment
S=social
G=governance
Peab’s stakeholders
| Stakeholder | Expectations of Peab | Dialogue examples | Value creating |
| Shareholders | Responsible ethical entrepreneurship, long-term financial value development that creates annual dividends, ongoing risk mapping and risk management, awareness and measures to reduce climate and environmental impact, responsibility throughout the value chain and community involvement through, for example, integration programs and contributions to job experience and free time activities for youths.
| AGM, analyst meetings, surveys from investors and owners, investor meetings and conversations, national and international evaluations.
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| Employees; existing and potential | Responsible ethical entrepreneurship, good work environment and high degree of safety, skills development, good leadership, equal treatment, gender equality and diversity, good work and employment conditions, awareness and measures to reduce climate and environmental impact, community involvement through, for example, integration programs and contributions to job experience for youths, responsibility throughout the value chain.
| Daily dialogue, employee surveys, work environment evaluations, work environment dialogues, student surveys, workplace meetings, union collaboration, internal training, incident follow-ups, management meetings, goal and developmental discussions, external surveys concerning employer brand, collaboration with students and the education system.
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| Customers | Responsible ethical entrepreneurship, professional businessmanship, competence, resource capacity, quality, availability, experience and expertise exchanges, good work and employment conditions, certifications, ongoing risk mapping and risk management, awareness and measures to reduce climate and environmental impact, community involvement through, for example, integration programs, internships and contributions to job experience for youths, responsibility throughout the value chain.
| Meetings in person, daily contacts, networks, partnership projects, dialogue meetings, customer meetings, fairs, customer surveys, questionnaires from customers, procurements and audits.
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| Suppliers | Responsible ethical entrepreneurship, professional businessmanship, ongoing risk mapping and risk management, awareness and measures to reduce climate and environmental impact (preferably with the supplier), responsibility throughout the value chain.
| Procurements, supplier evaluations, meetings in person, daily contacts, supplier meetings, supplier audits, sustainability dialogues and partnership projects.
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| Local community | Contributions to local community development, cost-efficient construction and housing in different price categories, ongoing risk mapping and risk management, awareness and measures to reduce climate and environmental impact, care for the local environment, community involvement through, for example, integration programs and contributions to job experience for youths, sponsoring local youth activities, responsibility throughout the value chain.
| Receiving visits, partnership projects, information meetings, networks, contacts with county boards/municipalities, environmental reports, vision work, mentoring, sponsored projects, citizen and resident dialogues. |
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Governing Peab’s sustainability work
Peab governs sustainability work through identifying, assessing and managing risks and opportunities, working systematically with continual improvements and identified key activities and projects, and measuring progress through specific targets for the Group, business areas and subsidiaries in our prioritized sustainability aspects. Parallel to central rules and management systems governing is done as far as possible locally. In 2021 we clarified the integrated responsibility for our sustainability work in our four business areas to further strengthen our local engagement.
Peab’s Board has given executive management the overriding responsibility for governing and monitoring integration of a sustainable work method into operations. Business area managers, who all report to the CEO, are responsible together with the COO, CSO and CCO for ensuring sustainability work is an integrated part of business. They have a sustainability group with expertise in sustainability and many specialists to aid them, both in the central functions and in the business areas. Executive management monitors sustainability work at every executive management meeting, reviews special events with a bearing on these issues and delves into a sustainability theme every meeting. Governance is based on the four target areas with associated external and internal targets. Some of the targets are monitored quarterly by both the Board and executive management, while others are monitored every half-year or annually. Monitoring targets and their outcome enables executive management to implement measures if necessary and then further monitor them.
Peab works to raise competence levels in our organization in our prioritized sustainable areas such as the environment, work environment, equal opportunity, diversity, ethics, anti-corruption and young people’s education and development.
Central regulations and management system for governing
Central rules and management systems for governing in Peab comply with international conventions and national laws. Peab’s fundamental, internal governing document, the Code of Conduct, is based on the UN Global Compact principles including the precautionary principle, UN’s human rights and ILO’s core conventions. It is reviewed and updated as needed annually. Peab signed Global Compact 2012. As decided by Peab’s President and CEO the company will continue to follow Global Compact. Peab follows UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) and OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. We follow the methods prescribed by the OECD guidelines.
The Board of Directors has ultimate responsibility for ensuring that our Code of Conduct is followed and communicated. This responsibility is delegated to the CEO and then down the chain of command through management to every level responsible for ensuring that the Code of Conduct along with associated guidelines and rules are complied with. Every employee is in turn responsible for absorbing the information and following the Code of Conduct. The Group’s purchasing function is responsible for checking that suppliers follow as of 2023 a special Suppliers Code of Conduct, previously the Code of Conduct.
Parameters and guidelines
Respect for human rights is a given at Peab and throughout the entire value chain and is clearly expressed in our Code of Conduct. However, the risk that human rights might be violated exists in all areas of our operations, internally and externally, particularly in the supply chain. This is therefore vital to us and embraces several of our prioritized sustainable aspects. Read more in the section on Risks and risk management on pages 81–84.
Peab has a whistleblower function for anyone, employees or external stakeholders, wishing to draw attention to deviations from the Code of Conduct or other irregularities in the business. The function, which is available on our website and intranet, is handled by Peab’s Ethical Council, which works in systematically according to specific procedures. Whistleblowers can always be anonymous. The Ethical Council reports the number of established and significant cases of breaches in compliance with the Code of Conduct/Suppliers Code of Conduct, laws, and regulations to executive management semi-annually and to Peab’s Board in conjuncture with the half-year report in the third quarter. The Ethical Council also reports on the consequences meted out. Read more about the whistleblower function in the GRI appendix.
The Code of Conduct is complemented by four policies; the Environmental Policy, Quality Policy, Information Security Policy and Work Environment Policy. These are then supplemented by a number of guidelines and supportive documents. All the policies are taught in web-based courses that employees take at regular intervals. They are also communicated to customers and suppliers and are available on Peab’s intranet and external websites.
More measures to achieve the global goals
Peab’s management regularly reviews the business based on the UN’s 17 global goals and 169 targets. The most recent review was in 2020. For the period 2021-2023 six of the goals were deemed extra prioritized since they are either areas that hold significant potential risk or areas where Peab has the best chance of promoting sustainable development.
Goal 5 which concerns gender equality, is important to Peab since we, like the rest of the construction and civil engineering industry, still have a long way to go to achieve equal gender distribution. In 2021 executive management carried out a comprehensive equality analysis and set up quantitative targets for equality to boost progress in this area. In 2022 we worked on preparing the program The Construction Year, which we launched in the beginning of 2023 in order to attract more female skilled workers to Peab.
Goal 8 includes work conditions and is highly topical since it comprises several of Peab’s prioritized sustainability aspects such as a safe work environment, good conditions in our supply chain and the path for youths into the labor force. There is also a great deal of risk associated with this area. One measure we took during the year was to further develop supply chain checks to ensure ethical and sustainable production conditions and we also produced a special Suppliers Code of Conduct.
Goal 9 that concerns sustainable industry, innovations and infrastructure is relevant in part because of its connection to our industrial and civil engineering operations and our investment in sustainable innovation. During the year we continued to, for example, develop our ECO-products and have now launched ECO-Asphalt throughout the Nordic region.
Goal 11 which concerns building sustainable cities and communities that are safe and accessible to all in many ways sums up the core of Peab. During the year we, among other things, reinforced our position as Sweden’s largest school builder, launched our preschool concept and continued to develop the sustainable housing concept NärBo. We have also continued to work on our concept for youth’s development, Peab Life.
Goal 12 concerning sustainable consumption and production is prioritized particularly because of its connection to our environmental target on resource efficiency. During 2022 we initiated several new projects and collaborations to increase reuse to include wood, windows and plaster.
Goal 13, fighting climate change, is a crucial global issue and Peab, as a major Nordic community builder, has a big responsibility in this. During the year we took several important steps towards climate neutrality through innovation and investments as well as a new collaborations to reduce greenhouse gases.
Climate risks and opportunities according to TCFD
Peab works long lastingly and systematically to reduce our climate impact and to accelerate climate transition to a fossil free society. Climate neutrality is a highly prioritized issue for our stakeholders and one of Peab’s environmental targets is to be climate neutral in 2045.
We have begun to implement TCFD’s (Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures) recommendations. We consider them a good tool for structurally reporting how we work with our climate-related risks and opportunities as well as in identifying improvement areas. Many of these are reported in more detail in our annual CDP Climate Report, along with a number of them in this Annual and Sustainability Report.
Governance
Peab’s Board and executive management regularly work with issues associated with climate-related risks and opportunities. The Group’s environmental targets are adopted by executive management and approved of by the Board. The Board has given executive management the overriding responsibility for governing and monitoring climate work. The Group’s Head of Environment is responsible for strategically driving and coordinating Group climate work together with Business Area Managers and specialists. Climate-related risks and opportunities are part of the strategic dialogue. Achievement of climate targets is monitored as a part of other results.
Strategy
Peab has identified climate-related risks and opportunities. A simple scenario analysis is the basis for identification of these. Examples of transition risks are more stringent legal requirements and higher costs for emissions. Examples of physical risks are extreme weather and floods that affect Peab’s production and solution selections.
Risk management
Peab works continuously to identify, assess and manage climate-related risks and opportunities – both physical and transition-related. We have begun the work to assess the financial effect these risks can have and assess the company’s resilience in relationship to them. The result from the consolidated risk analysis is processed by both the Board and executive management. More about risk management in Peab can be found on pages 79-82 and in the CDP Report.
Targets and measurements
Peab has three long-term environmental targets, of which one is climate neutrality 2045. Peab uses a number of measurements to monitor target achievement and climate impact, including Scope 1-2 and parts of Scope 3. These are presented in the Annual and Sustainability Report and in the CDP Report.