At SOS International, we believe in being an ethically responsible company. To us, this means moving beyond and doing more than complying with legislative requirements. We believe this is the most sustainable business conduct.
We are supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals and have identified six goals which support and guide our efforts within our three signature areas:
- Climate and Environment
- People and Health
- Ethics and Security
How we work with sustainability
We work on continuously improving our sustainable business conduct. A central element is to communicate and ensure employee engagement.
In our annual sustainability report you can read more about our sustainability-related policies, actions, and results. These reports constitute part of the management review in the SOS International annual report.
We support the global movement of sustainable business practices
The Sustainable Development Goals support and guide the work we do within our three signature areas.
The six UN Sustainable Development Goals we have identified
The purpose of SOS International has always been to help people and this goal supports our efforts to continuously fulfill this purpose.
We believe that diversity among our employees and management gives us the right competences and knowledge.
We wish to support and protect the well-being of our employees by providing a safe and healthy work environment where we focus on both the physical and the mental health of our employees.
We take care of the environment by reducing our use of resources as well as reusing the resources we can, e.g., in procurement processes or by sorting our waste
We improve our positive impact on the climate by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from our business activities.
At SOS International, no form of corruption, bribery or fraud will be tolerated in our organisation or in our supply chain.
We support the global movement of sustainable business practices. That is why we have been supporting the UN Global Compact since 2017 and work on continuously aligning our business conduct with the 10 universal principles of the UN Global Compact.
Read our “Letter of Commitment” here
Read more about UN Global Compact here
Climate and Environment
Natural disasters and extreme weather conditions due to climate changes increasingly affect our business. E.g. when assisting end-users travelling to areas where flooding, hurricanes and forest fires have become an increasing problem.
In SOS International we pay close attention to climate changes and we are committed to manage our environmental impact where it is significant and relevant. As part of our environmental strategy we strive to continually improve our environmental performance by:
- Developing services and products according to our environmental impact assessment
- Measuring and monitoring our carbon footprint and continuously working to make data measurable in order to develop our green accounts further
- Considering the use of recycled materials in procurement decisions
Read more about activities related to our ISO14001 certification and our environmental policy for our Mobility Division:
The ISO14001 certificate underlines the efforts that are carried out every day to improve the environmental performance in our roadside assistance services.
E.g. SOS International monitors and develops services according to environmental impact and strives to reduce the company’s carbon footprint by focusing on:
- Phone fix: We constantly develop the competences of our employees making it possible to advise and guide the end-users to fix the problem over the phone instead of sending out a towing vehicle.
- Repair on spot: We repair the car on site instead of towing it to a station.
Mobility Division: The purpose and scope of this policy is to ensure that SOS International continually strives to enhance the company's environmental management system and overall environmental performance for the SOS Mobility Division.
The scope of the environmental management system therefore encompasses all activities and stakeholder interests (internal as well as external) related to SOS International's roadside assistance services.
Learn more about our environmental policy here
Climate Days
Insects for lunch as part of our Climate Days where we put focus on climate challenges and SOS International’s environmental profile.
People and Health
The more than 1200 employees in SOS International represent 30 different nationalities and speak more than 37 different languages assist end-users all over the world every day 24/7.
The well-being of the employees is essential to the success of our business and SOS International focuses on the right to a healthy and safe workplace.
Equal Opportunities
SOS International provides equal opportunity for all employees and does not discriminate at any level of the organisation on the basis of race, skin colour, gender, age, religion, beliefs, ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation, political views or any other legally protected characteristic.
The different characteristics and perspectives are regarded as an important asset which increases the quality of all services.
Prevention at the workplace for the people working in SOS International is essential to the sustainable development of our business.
In SOS International we have a catalogue of various policies, initiatives and offers available to the employees, for example:
• A Duty of Care policy with a broad range of security measures for employees and relevant consultants (read the policy here)
• Employee councils on all Nordic locations
• Workplace risk assessments
• SOSialise – employee organisation for all our Nordic SOS employees arranging social and sports events
• Safety measures e.g. available defibrillators both inside and outside our office buildings
• Numerous employee offers including health checks, coaching on how to live a healthy life, flu vaccines, discount on Fitness memberships etc.
The purpose of the policy is to ensure that SOS International addresses its Duty of Care responsibilities towards our employees and relevant consultants working for SOS International.
Duty of Care refers to the legal and ethical responsibilities or obligations of SOS International towards people in the following situations:
- Before, during and after travelling for SOS International (with particular focus on travelling to high risk destinations).
- In acute arisen or severe emergency situations when working in the home country or abroad.
SOS International offers a broad range of safety and security measures for employees and relevant consultants when working in their home country and abroad. These measures are designed to prepare, plan and care for staff to work and operate in a safe and secure manner.
All relevant processes and instructions related to SOS International's Duty of Care responsibility are documented in the Total Quality Management system with designated roles and responsibilities.
In order to prevent and minimise both unfortunate situations and crisis situations from occurring, SOS International provides end-users with check lists and useful advice when travelling abroad.
This is one of the ways we protect and act responsibly towards the end users of our services.
You can read more on SOS Safe Travel
The different characteristics of our employees are regarded as an important asset which increases the quality of all services.
Ethics and Security
Our Code of Conduct and a number of internal policies guide and dictate our approach to business ethics and security.
When assisting end users all over the world it is essential to conduct fair business practices in all activities and to ensure the security of our employees, end-users, IT systems and data.
Business ethics and principles on anti-corruption are basic components of our management system, governance structure and policies.
E.g. SOS International will not tolerate any form of, and will not engage in any form of, corruption or bribery for the purpose of influencing decision making in violation of law.
Our anti-corruption principles are included in the:
- Conflicts of Interest Policy
- Gift and Representation Policy
- Sponsorship and Donations Policy
In order to save costs and damages for our customers, fighting fraud is high on the agenda in SOS International. Our group accounting, team of auditors and related control environments with e.g. segregation of duty and other controls undertake and support our work with fighting fraud.
Furthermore, the SOS International investigation department works hard to detect fraud and save claims costs on behalf of our customers.
Read more: Is there a fraudster in the house
Information Security
SOS International’s certified information security management system is an assurance to our customers and other stakeholders that we are committed to:
- Ensure data protection by continually improving security
- Ensure 24/7 operation setup through resilient business continuity management
- Mitigate information security risks
We are certified in ISO27001 on information security management and have an internal Information Security Board to govern our information security activities.
Data Protection
Protection of privacy and data protection is essential in SOS International.
Personal data is treated in accordance with legal requirements regarding the handling of personal data. SOS has established a personal data program which monitors compliance with current requirements and the upcoming requirements from The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in our organisation.
Employee Safety and Security
Our Duty of Care policy is implemented to safeguard the security and well-being of our employees who work all over the world to assist and help end-users.
E.g. security training for employees travelling to high risk countries takes place on a frequent basis.