rice Code of Conduct

Corporate Social Responsibility has been part of the rice DNA for more than 20 years. A strong commitment in the ethical and social field has been a major element in differentiating the company since its beginning. This commitment together with the rice Sustainability policy has been written into our rice Code of Conduct.

rice way of doing business with a heart - The rice Code of Conduct

Product- We ensure that we make products that have a high standard of product testing and product safety, and we develop products, where reusability and durability are in focus. We care about how our products are produced and under which circumstances.
Supplier- We help our suppliers to improve their facilities by helping set up new internal standards according to social accountability and sustainability.
Employee- We care about our employees and want them to feel safe and happy in their daily work. We want our employees to be dedicated to their job and to be proud of working at rice A/S.
Society- We dedicate part of our profit each year to certain selected social projects and we take a responsibility in the climate and sustainability debate.

We do business with a heart and our ambition with the rice Code of Conductis to introduce our commitment to- and policy on important worldwide topics. We wish to pursue the economic development of rice through our customers' satisfaction, but with the greatest respect for every person involved in the process of producing and handling our products - and while doing an effort in protecting the environment. In order to succeed with this, we make use of international legislation and guidelines that all promote social responsibility.

Guides and Standards for doing business responsibly

Sustainability

rice A/S has decided to follow the Sustainable Development Goals (UN), the Ocean Plastics Charter (G7 summit 2018) and the membership of the Ocean Plastic Forum as the guideline for implementing measurable future goals according to Environment and sustainability.

United Nations - Sustainable Development Goals

rice A/S has selected 5 key goals;
4. Quality education
6. Clean water and sanitaion
13. Climate action
14. Life below water
15. Life on land

G7

On September 19th to September 21st, 2018 G7 Environment and Energy secretaries from all over the world met in Charlevoix, Canada with the common goal to focus on climate change, the world oceans and clean energy.

Under the summit, an Ocean Plastics Charter was drafted, and this charter represents the whole structure of the rice Code of Conduct, Sustainability policy.

On the 10th of December, 2018, the Chairman of the Board and the CEO of rice A/S both signed an official document endorsing the G7 Ocean Plastics Charter and hereby supporting the commitment to reducing plastics pollution and moving toward a more resource-efficient and sustainable approach to the management of plastics.

The Ocean Plastic Forum

The Ocean Plastic Forum is a partner and member organization working towards developing technologies and business models for collecting plastics from the oceans, rivers, sea shores, harbors and waters globally. rice joined this partnership on January 1^st, 2019 and with this committing to taking a global responsibility in the fight against ocean plastics.

Read more here: http://www.oceanplasticforum.dk/

Social Accountability

In our effort to ensure and uphold a socially- and ethically responsible workplace - both at home as well as in our supplier countries, we use internationally renowned guidelines and initiatives that promote good business behavior within the areas of Human rights, Labor, Environment and Anti-corruption. These guidelines include the UN initiative, Global Compact, the CSR Compass, and the guidelines of the SA8000 standard.

The SA8000 Standard

The SA8000 standard is an internationally recognized guide for keeping a socially responsible workplace. The standard promotes good ethical- and social behavior with a high focus on, among other things, no discrimination, no use of physical and mental punishment and wages complying with the law. The SA8000 standard is an important tool to use as a guide in the process of auditing our suppliers and productions.

From 2002-2018, rice was SA8000-certified, but from January 2019, the rice Code of Conducthas become our commitment and communicative tool in the dialogue with our supply chain partners. This dialogue involves improving systems to manage impacts on human rights including labor-rights, the environment, and anti-corruption in the production of rice products.

Elements of the SA8000^®Standard

1. No Child Labor
2. No Forced or Compulsory Labor
3. Health and Safety
4. Freedom of Association and Right to Collective Bargaining
5. No Discrimination
6. No Disciplinary Practices
7. Fair Working Hours
8. Remuneration/Fair Wages
9. Management System

Global Compact

Global Compact is a UN initiative promoting good business behavior by defining ten principles within the areas of Human Rights, Labor, Environment and Anti-corruption.

The objective of Global Compact is to include businesses in sustainable development all over the world by mainstreaming good business behavior and creating networks of cooperation on achieving the development goals of the UN.

Global Compact defines ten principles that need to be upheld in order to be categorized an ethical business. These 10 principles are all covering the 4 main areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. By joining Global Compact, rice commits, among other things, to using the ten principles as a management tool, to take part in development projects and to produce an annual status report on the work we do on improving working conditions and development in developing countries.

It is a simple and logical system and our rice Code of Conduct as well as our CSR-strategy are based on these principles. We believe it is an achievable vision, which we are proud of being a part of.

The ten principles of the UN Global Compact:

1. To support and respect human rights
2. To make sure the company is not complicit in human rights abuses
3. To uphold the freedom of association and recognize collective bargaining
4. No forced labor
5. No child labor
6. No discrimination
7. A precautionary approach to environmental challenges
8. Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility
9. Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies
10. No acceptance of corruption

The CSR Compass

Aside from the guidelines of Global Compact and SA8000, rice makes use of the CSR Compass. The CSR Compass is an internationally recognized tool created with the purpose of helping companies exercise due diligence in relation to CSR and responsible supply chain management.

At rice, we make use of the CSR Compass to guide us through the CSR laws- and regulations in order to make sure that we practice a responsible supply chain from beginning to end. Such practice involves auditing of our suppliers on a regular basis and a thorough check-up on our production. We use the CSR Compass in this process as a guide on how to manage a responsible CSR-strategy with suppliers in developing countries, where international principles and legislation on human rights might not be fully respected. As such, the CSR Compass helps us on how to go about the auditing of suppliers and on how to uphold the principles of both the SA8000 and Global Compass in any production of rice products. (Read more about our production here)

The rice CSR Commitment

The rice Code of Conduct, is drafted using against above-mentioned guides and standards. With the rice Code of Conduct, we make the commitment to involve ourselves in important global concerns, such as above-mentioned labor conditions and human rights. Aside from the ethical approach we keep to upholding socially responsible workplaces, this commitment also involves a focus on product reusability and durability, and a focus on sustainability in general.

Moreover, this commitment involves a support of various social projects around the world that rice has participated in since the early beginnings of the company history. (Read more about our social projects here)

At rice, we strongly believe that it is possible to combine business with global social responsibility andsustainabilityat the same time. We call this “doing business with a heart”, which is our true belief and essential to our rice Code of Conduct.(Read more about our Code of Conduct here)