At Berner, maintaining a high level of business ethics is the starting point for all our operations. We want to do the right thing and act responsibly to earn people’s confidence.  Our goal is to communicate in an open manner and listen to our stakeholders.

Good governance and ethical operating principles

At Berner, maintaining a high level of business ethics is the starting point for our operations. We want to act responsibly and do the right thing so that we maintain the trust of our employees and other stakeholders.

All of our operations are based on our Code of Conduct for employees and suppliers. Our Code of Conduct represents Berner’s values – work, integrity and humanity – as well as the generally accepted guidelines of conduct as documented in the UN Global Compact’s ten principles. In late 2019, we launched a compulsory bi-annual course on our Code of Conduct for our personnel. New employees must complete the course at the start of the employment relationship.

All Berner employees are obligated to comply with the Code of Conduct and immediately report all suspicions or observations of inconsistencies with or violations of the Code of Conduct. We encourage our employees to primarily report their suspicions without any fear of retaliation. Employees who wish to report suspected violations anonymously can do it via the WhistleB reporting channel we launched in 2019. The channel also allows our external stakeholders to report potential suspicions concerning conduct that violates the law and our Code of Conduct. The service is available at https://report.whistleb.com/berner in eight languages.

Open communications and stakeholder relationships

Our goal is to communicate on our operations in an open, timely and stakeholder-driven manner. Our communication principles are trustworthiness, openness, understandability and interaction.

We monitor the development of our reputation and awareness of the Berner brand among the general public by means of T-Media’s Trust and Reputation survey and Dentsu’s Brand Tracking survey, which is conducted several times per year.

As a company with 4 business units, we have a significant number of stakeholders. Naturally, there are substantial differences in the wishes, expectations and priorities of our various stakeholders. After the start of Russia’s war of aggression in 2022,  the communications with our stakeholders highlighted the impact of the war of aggression on our operations. Sustainability and the related expectations and requirements are becoming more important for all our stakeholders year by year.