Norsk Hydro

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company provides evidence of linking performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives covering nature and social issues. Those covering nature include progressive CO2 reductions aiming for net zero by 2050, no net loss of biodiversity in new projects and elimination of recoverable waste by 2040. Priority social issues focus primarily on the health and safety of employees as well as gender equality goals, such as having 25% women leaders by 2025.

Stakeholder engagement
The company’s stakeholder engagement covers nature, including biodiversity, and social issues.

Impact and dependencies assessment
Norsk Hydro assesses its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its own operations. For example, the company recognises and tries to remedy as soon as practically possible its impacts from mining operations on vegetation and topsoil. Similarly, to mitigate the impacts of hydropower operations on fish populations, the company has released fish spawn in almost 40 lakes and rivers. It has also carried out rehabilitation projects to improve the habitat qualities of rivers and lakes.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company has a time-bound target for its ecosystem restoration activities, whereby it is committed to rehabilitating mined areas within two hydrological seasons after their release from operations.

Resource exploitation and circularity
The company discloses its inputs, including its material footprint.

Water
The company has a commitment to respect the right to water.

Solid and air pollution
The company has targets to reduce total amounts of hazardous waste and reports progress against them. It also discloses the proportion of hazardous waste treated to reduce pollution compared to total waste, the hazardous waste diverted from disposal and the waste directed to disposal. The company has time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Based on information from impact assessments, internal and external experts and other relevant sources, Norsk Hydro has identified and prioritised the human rights relevant to its operations which are most at risk of being impacted. As a result, the company has committed to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Norsk Hydro demonstrates that its human rights risks and impacts identification process includes a focus on the health of local communities.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
Norsk Hydro is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights. It discloses its processes for identifying and recognising the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights, and it describes how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent. The company has a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights. When acquiring or leasing land or making other arrangements, it discloses its processes for identifying legitimate tenure rightsholders and negotiating with them to provide adequate compensation. Norsk Hydro requires its business relationships to have a process for identifying legitimate tenure rightsholders, paying particular attention to vulnerable or marginalised tenure rightsholders, and negotiating with them to provide adequate compensation.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Norsk Hydro discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy. However, it does not disclose group-wide targets relating to key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain. Neither does it report consistently on progress against all its targets or disclose having individuals, teams or committees within the company responsible for the implementation of its sustainability strategy. Norsk Hydro has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise regarding nature-related topics.

Stakeholder engagement
Norsk Hydro does not disclose an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities or its process for engaging with stakeholder groups beyond its materiality assessment.

Lobbying
Norsk Hydro discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member wherever it operates. However, it does not disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with nature-positive policies. Further, the company does not report (potential) misalignment between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and nature-positive policies.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company does not disclose any assessment of its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, in its supply chain. Neither does it disclose any assessment of its dependencies on nature within its own operations. The company does not disclose any assessment of dependencies on nature of its upstream business relationships.

Key areas and species
Norsk Hydro discloses the locations that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity within its own operations, but it does not disclose this information for its suppliers. Further, the company does not disclose species populations existing in or adjacent to its own locations or those of its suppliers. The company does disclose the status according to national and international conservation lists of species identified in its own locations.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
Norsk Hydro does not have a commitment to ensure zero conversion. Neither does it disclose any activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains, or have time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. However, it does have a commitment to minimise ecosystem conversion and discloses some activities in this regard. The company is also committed to restoring ecosystems, although it does not disclose details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

Resource exploitation and circularity
Norsk Hydro does not report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance. Although the company does not have a target to improve soil health, it does disclose some activities to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices.

Water
No quantitative evidence was found of reductions in water withdrawal across Norsk Hydro’s own operations. Additionally, the company does not disclose a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal, nor does it engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. The company does report how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. The company also reports a decrease in water pollution and discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. Although Norsk Hydro regularly reports on water pollution, it does not disclose specific targets in this regard. The company does not disclose its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations.

Solid and air pollution
Norsk Hydro is reducing the production of hazardous waste. However, it is not reducing plastic use and waste in its own operations, nor does it report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal. The company reports regularly on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants.

GHG emissions
Norsk Hydro is not reducing its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. Although it has a time-bound target to reduce these emissions, it does not report progress against the target. It is also unclear whether the company’s scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction target is aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory. The company is reducing its scope 3 emissions, although it does not disclose a time-bound reduction target.

Invasive species
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive species in its own operations.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Norsk Hydro tracks its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities. However, it does not disclose a commitment to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders.

Norsk Hydro describes the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in activities covering its own operations and its business relationships. It also describes its process for assessing its human rights risks and discloses what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. Moreover, it provides a case study describing how it has acted on a salient human rights risk issue and engages with the categories of stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. However, no evidence was found that Norsk Hydro has a global system in place to act on, prevent or mitigate its salient human rights issues.

Norsk Hydro has a publicly available policy statement which shows it is committed to respecting the health and safety of workers. It also discloses a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage. However, there is no evidence that the company describes how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates or how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers. Norsk Hydro has an opportunity to disclose the coverage of collective bargaining agreements as well as how it works to support the practices of its suppliers in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

There is no evidence that the company describes the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. However, it does include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. There is no evidence that Norsk Hydro has a publicly available policy statement or policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach, although the company does specify that it does not make political contributions. It also discloses a global tax strategy.