One of Saint-Gobain’s fundamental principles is to conduct its business according to the highest ethical and legal standards. In support of this, in 2003 Saint-Gobain launched a set of written Principles to guide the conduct and behaviour of all individuals and companies across the Group.
Today, Saint-Gobain’s Principles of Conduct and Action provide a common ground for our extraordinarily diverse community of 191,500 people, working across more than 64 countries. They form the basis of Saint-Gobain’s declaration of corporate responsibility.
The Principles of Conduct
These set out the basic values and standards of behaviour that are expected of all Saint-Gobain employees.
- Professional commitment
- Respect for others
- Integrity
- Loyalty
- Solidarity (teamwork)
The Principles of Action
These govern the actions of Saint-Gobain employees, teams and individual companies to help achieve responsible, sustainable growth in accordance with long-term strategy. The Principles are set out below, together with some of the key elements of each:
Respect for the law
Our companies must rigorously comply with all laws and regulations of the countries where they do business and avoid exploiting any loopholes that may exist. They must also refrain from any form of financing of political parties or activities; reject forms of active or passive corruption; and avoid any actions which might breach competition law.
Worker health and safety
Group companies must adopt all measures necessary to ensure the best possible protection against health and safety risks in the workplace.
Caring for the environment
Our companies will work proactively to protect the environment. Clear environmental targets are set for all company sites, wherever they are located, and performance is benchmarked and monitored against the best comparable sites to ensure long term, overall improvements in standards.
Employee rights
Our companies must ensure that employees’ rights are respected and promote an active dialogue with colleagues. Without limitation, they must respect the following rules, even if they are not covered by local laws: refrain from any form of recourse to forced, compulsory or child labour – whether directly or indirectly, and they must refrain from any form of discrimination with respect to their employees, at any time.
On December 10th 2008, Pierre-Andre de Chalendar, CEO of Saint-Gobain, signed the declaration of management support for human rights, an initiative organised by the United Nations.
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