As a world-leading medical products and solutions company, we want to create value and contribute to the societies where we do business. Our desire to help patients and healthcare professionals to achieve the best possible outcomes is always at the core of what we do. We deliver on this commitment through uncompromising integrity.
"At Mölnlycke, we go beyond policies and written statements – we embed an integrity mindset throughout the company. To us, acting with integrity means being trustworthy, accountable and fair and doing business ethically and sustainably."
Zlatko Rihter Chief Executive Officer
Mölnlycke aims to act in a socially responsible way and promote ethical conduct. To ensure such conduct, we have set up a policy framework with our Code of Conduct as our guiding light. For more information on our policy framework, please have a look at the different areas below:
"Our Code of Conduct guides our daily actions and decisions, establishing the standard for our collective behaviour and culture. This helps us navigate an increasingly complex business environment and make the right decisions."
Zlatko Rihter Chief Executive Officer
A robust framework of policies ensures behaviours that are aligned with our long-term purpose and our sustainability roadmap 2030 – WeCare. Mölnlycke’s policies are owned by the relevant functions and approved by the Executive Leadership Team or the Board of Directors. Below you will find some of Mölnlycke’s most important policies.
Mölnlycke’s name is associated with high quality products, and maintaining high quality standards is key in every area of our business. The quality policy serves as the framework for our quality work.
At Mölnlycke, we respect people’s privacy and it’s important for us to process personal data ethically and responsibly, both as an employer and as a trusted business partner.
The purpose of our position statements is to provide clarity to stakeholders on areas of high relevance to Mölnlycke either in light of our near- and long-term strategic ambitions or due to the nature of our business.
Our ambition is to transform our business and become a global leader in sustainable healthcare, decoupling our growth from resource constraints and ending our dependency on virgin fossil materials and fuels.
In 2021, we committed to becoming a Net Zero company by 2050 at the latest and in 2024 Science Based Targets initiative validated our near-term GHG emission reduction targets, confirming that we are fully aligned with the 1.5°C pathway and the ambitions of the Paris Agreement.
The commitment includes our own operations (Scope 1 and 2), as well as Scope 3 upstream and downstream. Scope 3 covers around ~70% of our total emissions (in 2023); it includes for instance purchased goods and services, transportation, application and use of our products, and end-of-life.
Read more about our data privacy here
We value and celebrate the diversity of our employees, recognising that it fuels creativity, fosters innovation, and enhances our problem-solving capabilities. Being diverse makes us better in understanding the needs of our customers, allowing us to provide them with best-in-class solutions.
We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where every employee can be their authentic self and feel a sense of belonging regardless of their cultural background, mindset, personal styles, previous experiences, age, gender, religion, language, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, education, occupation, socio-economic status or any other unique trait. We empower and support employee resource groups, where employees come together to support a cause through sharing their experiences, providing mentorship, and advocating for positive change.
We believe that all employees have the right to equitable compensation, benefits, and opportunities for development and advancement. To achieve this we ensure that our internal processes are fair and equitable through continuous analysis and feedback sharing.
This position statement sets out the scope and approach of Mölnlycke’s fair competition ambition, taking into account the nature of our industry and stakeholders as well as relevant legislation.
Mölnlycke is committed to conducting business in compliance with all applicable laws and legislations and with integrity and focus on business ethics. Competition law is an inherent part of an ethical business, as competition laws monitor the distribution of economic power, to allow undistorted competition and healthy economies to grow.
Mölnlycke believes that fair competition is one of the essential principles of a well-functioning market, which benefits the development, progress and well-being of society. Mölnlycke’s Code of Conduct reinforces this principle by stipulating that “Mölnlycke promotes and protects competition” and that Mölnlycke personnel “shall comply with all competition laws and demonstrate fair and correct behaviour in competition”. To further ensure fair competition we follow our guiding principles:
The guiding principles are applicable to all entities that are part of Mölnlycke and compliance with the guiding principles is mandatory for all Mölnlycke personnel and third parties working for Mölnlycke, at all levels throughout Mölnlycke, in all activities related to their positions and functions.
Creating solutions to help achieve optimal healthcare outcomes can require complex production processes and the handling of many different substances. Mölnlycke are committed to safe use of all substances at every stage of design production. We systematically identify, classify, and risk assess all substances to ensure that any potential hazards are identified. Once identified, any hazards are carefully controlled and mitigated.
A particular focus is placed on substances that may be hazardous. We have a commitment to minimise and replace them whenever possible. This process is embedded in rigorous review and rating systems, plus portfolio-level analysis and reporting, to ensure continual removal of these substances from the organisation’s value chain. An ongoing programme of research, development and supplier interaction continues into technologies to replace hazardous substances. When replacement is not possible, hazardous substances may only be used when safe use and adequate controls can be demonstrated. This protects our teams, stakeholders and the environment.
Careful handling of hazardous substances and preventing releases to the environment are requirements of the ISO 45001 standard for occupational health and safety management and ISO 14001 standard for environmental management respectively. Mölnlycke is globally certified to the ISO 45001 and 14001 standards, and is regularly audited by an accredited body to ensure conformance.
An essential part of our vision to revolutionise care for people is promoting and ensuring respect for human and labour rights in all of our stakeholder relationships. When referring to human rights, Mölnlycke takes into consideration internationally recognised human rights as set out by the United Nations (the “UN”), the International Labour Organisation (the “ILO”), the European Union, and applicable national laws. This commitment is formalised through the Human Rights policy and position statement.
Mölnlycke’s LCA programme is performed by both internal and external specialists. Our LCAs are based on the rigorous ISO 14040-44 requirements, a continually updated company life cycle assessment database, and commercially available life cycle inventory databases.
Life cycle assessment has been used in a range of processes for a number of years. We measure and report our greenhouse gas scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, using a full cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment. This reporting forms the basis of our emissions key performance indicators and our commitment to Net Zero by 2050 at the latest.
As part of our innovation process, life cycle assessment guides the development of more innovative, sustainable solutions as we continuously strive to reduce the overall environmental footprint of our product value chains. We are also developing Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for selected products. We are keen to support the measurement of impact our solutions have in the context of our stakeholder’s organisations.
Finally, life cycle is integrated in the assessment of our major investment processes.
In all the above uses of life cycle assessment, the scope, indications, assumptions and data sources can limit the transfer or comparison of LCA results between organisations. Therefore, we commit to indicating these clearly, to enable better-informed analysis and decisions.
In order to deliver consistent long-term performance and strengthen our safety culture, Mölnlycke invest in visible safety leadership programmes, global employee training programmes and engagement initiatives, as well as maintain an integrated Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) management system.
Our corporate EHS management system drives continual improvement in all aspects of OH&S, including setting global standards, ensuring root cause analysis of all lost time incidents, high potential incidents and near misses, training, annual site improvement plans, and performing internal and external audits. Mölnlycke also incorporates learning across the organisation through monthly dedicated global EHS team meetings and best practice sharing. Our management system covers all of our manufacturing locations, is certified to the ISO 45001 standard, and is regularly audited by an accredited body to ensure continued conformance.
Improving safety performance is based on having robust processes in place and being consistent in applying and improving these processes at all our locations. The core elements of our OH&S excellence programme focus on people safety, process safety, health and well-being, as well as people and physical security.
Security at Mölnlycke is focused on ensuring the safety of people, information, assets and critical business processes against wilful security risks both on site, and whilst travelling. The level of standardisation of procedures, processes and training for personnel dealing with security at all our locations will continue to increase.
We encourage and empower all of our employees to actively contribute to creating a positive OH&S culture. Health and safety committees, composed of managers, safety responsibles and works council or employee representatives, are established at all our manufacturing locations and headquarters. These enable inclusive consultation and participation on the topics of OH&S systems, evaluation and improvement. The committees follow local regulations regarding agenda and frequency of meetings.
We strongly encourage our employees to raise their concerns should they experience or suspect misconducts (breach of the law, of the Code of Conduct or of Mölnlycke policies and procedures). To do so, employees can use the Ethics Hotline (online and phone) which is supported by an external vendor. We have developed policies and procedures to ensure concerns raised by employees are investigated confidentially. Furthermore, Mölnlycke does not tolerate retaliation against employees raising their concerns in good faith, supporting or participating in investigations. We proactively seek to address risks of retaliation by reaching out to employees who are identified as potentially exposed; we integrate more awareness in training and communication to make sure employees can recognise retaliation and know how to react.
Our OH&S performance is continually tracked and reported on a monthly basis, with thorough checks to ensure data quality. Our main KPI for safety is the lost time injury rate1 for employees. We report incidents to local authorities in accordance with national legislation.In 2022, there were zero fatalities as a result of work related injury or ill health, either among Mölnlycke employees or contractors. Mölnlycke also believes that work-related ill health2 is an important aspect of OH&S; therefore incidents are tracked and analysed, and targets are set to improve performance. This will become a KPI from 2023.
1. Based on one million hours worked.
2. The term ‘Ill health’ indicates damage to health and includes diseases, illnesses, and disorders, including those that are stress related.
Mölnlycke's ambition to decouple material use from its growth goes beyond recycling. It all starts with limiting the need to recycle. Therefore, we focus on zero waste, working in accordance with the ‘right first time’ principle and repurposing and reclaiming materials.
We’re on a journey to become a zero waste company, which involves focusing on both waste and water. We have an ambitious target of zero waste to landfill by 2030 as well as reusing water at all our most water-intensive sites by 2030 and we implement closed water loop systems in our production environments to that end.
Our waste reduction management programme to achieve the targets is based on site-specific activities designed to avoid waste being created in the first place and then minimising waste to landfill by correct segregation and disposing of remaining waste. We also identify new outlets for materials that would otherwise have been disposed of. Our actions make an important contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goal on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SDG 12). To find out more, please see our integrated Annual and Sustainability Report 2023.
Our medical solutions often contain plastic or are delivered in diverse plastic packaging, with unique intrinsic performance properties which extend the lifespan of our solutions and protect them from external factors such as damage during transport and handling, or deterioration caused by contamination. This reduces the need for additional raw materials and resources in our products and contributes to minimising our customers’ waste.
As part of our resource efficiency journey, we have an ambition to provide >95% recyclable packaging by 2030. Governments around the world are adopting legislation targeted at tackling, for example, plastic waste. By embracing the power of upstream innovation to achieve two key circular economy innovation strategies — elimination and material circulation — we stay ahead of the curve. We continuously work together with customers, suppliers, recyclers, universities, and other partners to develop innovative and circular packaging solutions that have lower holistic environmental footprints and enable our customers to be more sustainable and deliver on their sustainability ambitions. These include a growing share of lighter, recyclable, recycled, bio-based and biodegradable packaging solutions while guaranteeing best clinical outcomes.
We consider competition with the food chain when evaluating the use of bio-based renewable raw materials and always opt for ISCC certified biobased materials, guaranteeing a transparent traceability along our supply chains and meeting the environmental and social standards.
In addition, we take a proactive approach to identify, manage and remove hazardous substances in all our products and processes to ensure safe use, ahead of legislation, future-proofing our products against changes in regulations.
We substantiate our research and efforts into alternative feedstocks and circularity of our products or packaging by continually updating our product Life-Cycle Analyses and Environmental Product Declarations.
We further increase the existing activities aimed at preventing littering, including educational projects for our customers and local communities in the countries in which we operate.