OP Financial Group will publish a new human rights commitment and policy as part of the implementation of its sustainability programme. The identification and assessment of the human rights impacts of OP Financial Group’s own operations and value chains is an important component of the human rights policy.
“Human rights impacts come about in companies’ own operations and in their value chains’ operations. In our own operations, we’ve identified the need to ensure equality in recruitment and in our workplace communities. As for OP Financial Group’s value chains, questions related to occupational safety and working conditions also came up,” says Annina Tanhuanpää, Head of ESG and Corporate Responsibility.
One way to identify impacts is to engage in active cooperation with stakeholders. OP Financial Group has set up a new ESG forum, which regularly invites various stakeholder representatives to discuss OP’s sustainability work.
Many companies struggle especially with understanding long procurement chains and with preventing adverse human rights impacts.
“It’s very important to tackle these challenges in cooperation with our customers and to improve operations in our subcontracting chains. There will continue to be a need for discussion and cooperation among the parties involved. We’ll contribute to promoting social responsibility in various ways,” Tanhuanpää says.
OP Financial Group provides support in areas across Finland, intended to address the wellbeing of people and the environment. Supporting children’s and young people’s hobbies and their financial literacy emerged as the main themes in the “Good deeds across time” survey conducted among OP’s owner-customers. This year, OP Financial Group will make charitable donations totalling nearly 4.5 million euros, intended to support children and young people.
“Being a cooperative operator, we consider supporting and listening to local communities to be very important. In addition to children and young people, we have supported seniors in terms of equal opportunities, by helping them strengthen their digital skills, for example,” Tanhuanpää says.