Human Rights

We ensure compliance with human rights and environmental-related due diligence obligations through clear responsibilities, principles of conduct, measures and control mechanisms. In particular, LANXESS conducts a risk analysis in accordance with the LkSG once a year and on an ad hoc basis. This includes the company's own business area as well as direct suppliers and, if there are actual indications, indirect suppliers. If risks are identified, appropriate preventive or remedial measures will be implemented.

The direct responsibility for ensuring that human rights are respected lies with the respective management at our locations. Our central compliance organisation (supported by the regional and local compliance officers) as well as other central group functions, in particular Procurement, Human Resources and the group function Production, Technology, Safety and Environment, support the implementation and monitoring of the due diligence obligations.

The monitoring of the risk management is carried out by our human rights officer. He is in close contact with the group functions and reports to the Board of Management regularly and on an ad hoc basis.

Our catalogue of measures in the event of human rights and environmental-related human rights risks includes preventive, awareness-raising, control and, if necessary, remedial measures. In particular

• LANXESS Code of Conduct and Business Partner Code of Conduct
• Contractual assurances and LANXESS General Conditions of Purchase
• Trainings
• Business Partnerassessments and audits

Our Code of Conduct, which is binding for all our employees, contains clear instructions for action with regard to inter alia human rights, occupational safety and environmental protection. Further group directives or standards  specify the requirements of the Code of Conduct.

We  expect our business partners (e.g. suppliers, customers, distributors) to conduct their business properly and to respect human and environmental rights. We have addressed our expectations in this regard in our Business Partner Code of Conduct. Our business partners  commit to comply with the principles listed therein in the business relationship with LANXESS and to communicate these principles or equivalent ones to their own business partners whom they engage in the context of their relationship with LANXESS and to promote compliance with them. If the business partner has established its own code of conduct and it is equivalent to our principles, LANXESS and the business partner acknowledgetheir respective codes as equivalent.

Beyond the legal requirements, we promote responsible behaviour in the supply chain, e.g. through the initiative "Together for Sustainability" (TfS) (tfs-initiative.com), which is driven by globally operating chemical companies including LANXESS.  TfS carries out sustainability assessments and supplier evaluations. Among other things, compliance with our Business Partner Code of Conduct is reviewed, e.g. the prohibition of child or forced labour. 

We review the effectiveness of our measures in relation to the LkSG at least once a year and on an ad hoc basis. Our aim is to continuously improve our processes.

In case of suspected cases of potential violations or if you want to submit a complaint, our compliance department is in charge for our employees and external parties/persons:

E-mail:
compliance-helpdesk@lanxess.com

Post:
LANXESS AG
Group Function Legal & Compliance
Corporate Compliance
Kennedyplatz 1
50569 Cologne
Germany

Personal meeting:
Appointment required

In addition, our employees and external parties/person may submit information (if desired anonymously) via the external whistleblower platform "SpeakUp®" (speakupfeedback.eu). SpeakUp® is available by phone or online, 24/7, in over 30 languages. The information is transmitted to our compliance department in encrypted form. 

The above-mentioned contact channels can be used to submit report/complaints about potential misconduct, violations of legal provisions, internationally recognised principles, LANXESS’ guidelines such as our Code of Conduct or other internal LANXESS regulations. You can also report concerns relating to  human rights, environmental rights, health and safety, occupational and plant safety, product safety, export controls, money laundering regulations, antitrust law, corruption and bribery, data protection and information protection. You can also report potential violations by direct or indirect business partners of LANXESS.

Reports or complaints will be processed by our compliance department, if necessary in cooperation with the responsible departments. 

We report on human rights in particular in our Annual Report (incl. non-financial Group report), Corporate Sustainability Report, the LANXESS Position on Human Rights, the LANXESS policy statement on its human rights strategy (available soon) and the LANXESS annual report on the fulfilment of our LkSG diligence obligations (available in 2024).

Further information, e.g. our statement on the UK Modern Slavery Act, can also be found under Downloads.