Human rights

Human rights

Renewable energy projects may trigger environmental and social impacts. We endeavour to minimise our negative impacts, maximise local benefits and ensure constructive dialogue with all project stakeholders. In all our work, we pay special attention to the human rights we are at risk of impacting and to the most vulnerable groups.

Management approach

Scatec respects all internationally recognised human rights including the International Bill of Human Rights and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

Policy and governance

Our human rights policy is aligned with the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to prevent, address, and remedy human rights abuses committed in business operations. The policy confirms that Scatec’s responsibility to respect human rights applies to our business enterprises wherever we operate and pay special attention to the human rights risks of certain groups, such as indigenous people, minorities, women, children, migrant workers and other vulnerable groups.

In addition, Scatec’s Code of Conduct sets out the essential requirements for ethical business conduct within our company, which applies to all employees, hired consultants and directors, including our subsidiaries, joint ventures and affiliates. In addition, we do not enter any contractual relationship with a third party without appropriate integrity due diligence.

Due diligence
We follow standardised processes in all our projects to identify, mitigate and monitor our environmental and social (E&S) risks and impacts including human rights under the IFC Performance Standards (PS) framework. We conduct human rights due diligence as part of our overall E&S due diligence process. Project risk registers, Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIA), Environmental and Social Due Diligences (ESDD), Environmental and Social Action Plans (ESAP), Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMP) contain human rights aspects. When initial assessments point to potential human rights risks, focused Human Rights due diligence assessments are conducted to gather deeper understanding of the risks the development of project can trigger and mitigation measures.

Salient human rights risks
A saliency assessment was undertaken where human rights risks, across 25 specific operational and value chain areas, were identified and categorised according to severity and likelihood. Refer to the below summary:

Indigenous peoples’ rights
Displacement / Loss of livelihood
Forced, compulsory and child labour
High-risk raw materials
Access to water
Right to a healthy environment
Protection of human rights defenders
Abuse of force – security
Health and safety
Freedom of association and collective bargaining

Access to remedy
Scatec has both a whistleblowing channel and grievance mechanism in place in line with the IFC PS and UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The whistleblower function is available to all employees, suppliers, partners and customers of the company through internal channels and our corporate website. The function is operated by an independent third party and available in eight languages. All whistleblowers have the option to be anonymous.

Our grievance mechanism is targeted towards individuals, communities and companies who have feedback or concerns regarding our projects. It is a channel to present issues to the administration of the projects and is directly supervised by our global sustainability unit. Each grievance is logged in our system, allocated to the responsible person and systematically processed according to our grievance procedures. We aim to have a response time and initiate action to resolve the grievance in a maximum of 15 working days. The mechanism is available at each local project site and in five different languages on our website: English, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and Ukrainian. The mechanism provides a valuable platform for engaging with communities.

We report on the number of grievances received and resolved, as well as whistleblowing reports received and outcomes after investigations aligned to our internal processes. Although there are no specific cases relating to human rights in 2023, further details of our human rights work is summarised in our Transparency Act Statement 2023 available on our corporate website.

GRI 410-1: Security personnel trained in human rights policies or procedures

Scatec’s human rights training programme for security personnel was launched in 2020. We collaborated with a third party with international best practice human rights experience to create the training pack for security guards, to be rolled out at all our project sites. The training pack was presented, narrated and recorded by an expert and subtitles to the recording translated into seven languages.

All Scatec facilitators were trained to present this training to our external security service providers and staff at their respective locations. In 2023, all new security service providers were trained projects where Scatec has operational control.

In addition, the interactive corporate training for all employees provides background to human rights and focuses on business and human rights and the specific role human rights play within Scatec and its operations. The corporate training is mandatory for all employees and rolled out during on-boarding for new joiners. To ensure greater awareness of human rights impact and our work in our own operations and throughout our value chain, we will convert our current corporate human rights training into a gamified e-learning during 2024.

Key definitions used in our reporting:

E&S impact assessments: Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs), due diligence or baseline studies to identify potential environmental and social risks and impacts of our activities (in accordance with the IFC Performance Standards and Equator Principles). All studies performed include a review of environmental and social risks that are linked to human rights, within the following areas: socio-economic, land acquisition or restriction on land use, stakeholder engagement, grievance mechanism, labour force, third party contractors, health and safety, emergency preparedness, supply chain, security, indigenous people and cultural heritage.

Security guards: Personnel of companies appointed by Scatec to provide security services to the project site.