Committed to the universal principles concerning human and labour rights, environmental standards and anti-corruption, DNV signed the UN Global Compact in 2003.

DNV works to continuously demonstrate responsible practices in these areas within its own organisation, as well as advancing these principles with others, through DNV’s purpose to safeguard life, property and the environment.

The examples below describe some of this year’s work on verifying sustainability performance, validating anti-corruption work, and ensuring environmental performance throughout the life cycle of ships. DNV’s work on the UN Global Compact principles within the DNV organisation is discussed throughout this report, and a principle index is given together with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) index.

Verifying Cosco’s sustainability performance
In 2006, DNV signed an agreement with Cosco, the world’s largest shipowner, to provide services to supporting Cosco’s implementation of the UN Global Compact. Cosco has established a Global Compact Social Responsibilities Management System, and this year the company released its first annual Sustainable Development Report. The report, which has been verified by DNV, covers the three aspects of sustainability – economic performance, environmental protection and social impact. Cosco is the first Chinese state-owned company that has compiled such a report according to the requirements of the GRI and the UN Global Compact. Cosco is also the first enterprise in Asia that has applied the DNV verification protocol for sustainability reporting.

Fraud and Corruption Resistance Profile
Fraud and corruption constitute a major risk to an organisation’s tangible assets, as well as to its reputation and brand value. In 2006, DNV launched a new service that provides an independent third-party validation of an organisation’s resistance to fraud and corruption. The DNV assessment develops a snapshot profile of how resistant a company is to the effects and impacts of fraud and corruption, and benchmarks this against widely accepted conventions, principles and guidelines. The assessment is built on the UN Global Compact Principle on Anti-corruption, the OECD Business Approaches to Combating Corrupt Practices, Transparency International’s Business Principles for Countering Bribery, the COSO International Control Framework, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Ship recycling
During the past few years, DNV has participated in the ongoing work of developing legislation and methods for safe and environmentally friendly ship demolition or recycling. This work is an important recognition of the fact that traditional ship recycling has in many ways a negative impact on both the personnel carrying out the work and the surrounding environment, while at the same time providing employment opportunities to people in areas of the world with high unemployment. We are happy that the ongoing work has been welcomed by clients looking for ways of disposing of ships in an ethical and safe manner. In line with the lessons learned, we will continue to participate in the work of international organisations such as the IMO, as well as focusing on ship design and the increased use of less hazardous materials.