Responsible Business Partner

As a responsible business partner, we are committed to conducting our business with utmost regard to ethical business principles and act in line with applicable laws, and ethical, environmental and community norms.

We work proactively to ensure that all individuals representing Höegh Autoliners and its subsidiaries are aligned with our goals and act in a fair and ethical manner.

As part of our core values, we believe that being professional is key to everything we do and to us, it reflects running our business with high ethical standards. Abiding by high ethical standards means complying with all applicable laws, regulations and other applicable requirements in all locations where we conduct business. At Höegh Autoliners, we continuously strive to conduct our day-to-day business activities with professionalism taking into consideration global best practices, company policies and ethical standards.

Our focus on Human Rights

Höegh Autoliners is committed to upholding human rights, and we seek to raise awareness in our organisation related to human rights issues as well as reflect our focus through our Human Rights policy. Internally we do risk assessments related to our operations and employees and we extend our human rights work to our supply chain, through due diligence of suppliers as well as learning content.

You can access our human rights policy through this link.

Taking Action against Corruption

We take a stand against corruption and work in several arenas to abolish the use of corruption, bribery and facilitation payments. Corruption has a negative impact on economic development and is inherently wrong. As a shipping company, we are often challenged with corrupt behaviour in areas where our vessels trade.

We believe it is important for the shipping industry to come together and work proactively against corruption. As an international industry, we have the power to make a change and it is our responsibility to take this opportunity. In line with our work against corruption, Höegh Autoliners takes pride in being one of the co-founders and an active member of the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN). MACN is a global business network working towards its vision of a maritime industry free of corruption that enables fair trade to the benefit of society and therefore for all.

By adopting the MACN Anti-Corruption Principles, communicating progress on implementation, sharing best practices and creating awareness of industry challenges, we are promoting good corporate practices for tackling bribes, facilitation payments and other forms of corruption.

Enforcing Anti-Corruption Policy and Code of Conduct

We are committed to conducting business in accordance with the high ethical standards reflected in our Anti-Corruption Policy and Code of Conduct. To prevent corruption in our business activities, we have created, developed and implemented learning programmes for all Höegh Autoliners’ employees and agents that summarize the laws, policies and procedures to which everyone working for us must adhere.

Integrity is the most important trait in a leader and it has a massive impact on a company culture. To support this, we perform “Integrity Day” workshops in our global offices; to shed light on some of the ethical dilemmas we can all encounter in our daily lives and discuss how we can overcome these while keeping our integrity intact.

For the crew, we have in addition developed and distributed a ‘Say NO to corruption’ – leaflet to our vessels as well as signs relating to our Anti-Corruption Policy, as a reminder of our strong stance against corruption.

Sanctions

We are committed to complying with all applicable sanctions, trade restrictions and export controls in all relevant jurisdictions and regimes. Complying with sanctions and export control regulations forms an integral part of Höegh Autoliners’ global compliance program. As such, all Höegh Autoliners’ employees, subsidiaries and agents must adhere to the policies and practices. We have developed learning programs for our employees and agents to ensure they keep up-to-date with the sanction and export control regulations.

Competition compliance

We believe competition compliance is fundamental to ethical business conduct and is essential to creating a trust-based relationship with our customers, business partners and the countries in which we operate. As a result, we conduct our business in accordance with applicable competition and anti-trust laws. Both digital and face-to-face Competition Compliance learning programs have been implemented for Höegh Autoliners’ employees and agents to increase awareness and knowledge on the topic.

Privacy and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Höegh Autoliners is committed to safeguarding the right to data privacy of all our employees, customers and business partners in compliance with the GDPR. Höegh Autoliners’ Data Privacy Policy reflects the organisation’s practices on data privacy including standard operating procedures for data being processed by our external partners. In line with this, we have developed digital learning material which is extended to our employees to remind everyone of the importance of privacy and GDPR compliance

“It is important to ensure that data belonging to our employees and business associates are protected. They entrust us with their personal data, and we have a legal and moral obligation to process these data in a secure and trustworthy manner.”

A culture of compliance

To engage a broader part of the organisation in compliance-related work, Höegh Autoliners has developed gamified compliance training, which is delivered to employees via an app on their phone, and a Compliance Ambassador Program. These programs aim to promote and implement compliant and ethical behaviour throughout the organisation, especially with respect to competition law, anti-corruption and sanctions with the assistance of the Compliance Ambassadors.

The Compliance Ambassadors serve as local resources for compliance-related communication and help coordinate these activities between local offices and the legal department.

The Compliance Ambassador is a “low threshold” point of contact for colleagues who wish to discuss compliance related concerns. He or she will also channel concerns and be a role model for compliance in local and global organisations.

The gamified learning solution is covering our key compliance areas and is an engaging and rewarding way of learning about our Code of Conduct.

Working with Suppliers

Building relations on good terms with suppliers is very important to us. Thanks to effective collaboration and good cooperation, we are able to deliver high-quality services around the world.

Our suppliers are the extended arm of Höegh Autoliners and we expect them to hold the same high level of ethics as we do. In line with this, we require all our suppliers and sub-suppliers to adhere to the requirements set out in our Supplier Code of Conduct. With a joint level of participation, Höegh Autoliners and our suppliers can go further, together working against unsustainable business practices within the industry. We have launched a supplier assessment and monitoring program to be conducted on an annual basis. Through the system, we will map and assess environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our supply chain.

You can access our supplier code of conduct through this link.

The Höegh Autoliners Whistleblower reporting service

If our employees have any concerns regarding other employees’ violations of the law and regulations, this can be reported internally to either the line manager, Legal or to the Chief HR & Communications Officer. Höegh Autoliners also has a third-party whistleblowing hotline available at this link. Our Whistleblowing Policy recognizes the importance of reporting anonymously and protects the ones reporting from retaliation for raising concerns and violations. The concerns can include failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations and improper or unethical behaviour.