The Transparency Act
The Openness Act shall promote companies' respect for human rights and decent working conditions, as well as ensure the public's access to information. The new Transparency Act entered into force on 1 July 2022. The figure below shows the areas of application of the Transparency Act.
1. General
Gudbrandsdalens Uldvarefabrik AS was established in Lillehammer in 1887, and is today a leading supplier of furniture and upholstery fabrics. The company specializes in wool-based fabrics. We have the entire production process under one roof, from raw material to finished product. The company has reviewed and revised its routines in line with the purpose of the law, and updated these:
- Personnel policy
- PPP Stakeholders and context
- Purchasing
- Routine for suppliers
- Code of Conduct declaration from all our suppliers (GU supplier self assessment questionnaire)
- Assessment of other business partners
- Risk analysis
The company's organization is shown in the figure below:
2. Products and markets
The company produces and supplies furniture fabrics for drawing home furnishings and the contract market such as public environments and office landscapes. In addition, we supply materials to the transport sector (Train, Boat and Bus). The market is Norway, the EU and the USA (cruise boats). In addition, the company is a large producer and supplier of clothing fabrics.
3. Consequences
Based on our due diligence assessments and risk analysis, the company believes that there is little risk of our value chains contributing to violations of human rights and indecent working conditions. All our suppliers of input factors used in our products are in Norway or the EU. For spare parts and equipment for machines, there are also, with a few exceptions, suppliers from Europe. When it comes to risk, it will primarily be linked to our suppliers' subcontractors.
4. Measures and action plans
Based on our risk analysis, our main measure is to follow up our suppliers against our requirements for ethical guidelines. We have prepared these requirements in a "Code of Conduct" document that all our suppliers must review and sign in order to become an approved supplier to GU. The company continuously follows up its suppliers through the ISO system with periodic assessment in the "Management Review".