Dear Reader,

Our commitment to our mission statement goes together with compliance to the highest ethical standards and integrity.

2015 saw us further strengthen the belief in our mission “Improving quality of life by reducing chemical in our homes.”

We continued to develop products that support this mission and we also created an interactive website, www.norwexrace.com.
This Norwex RACE is part of the Norwex movement.
The goal of this Norwex Movement is to help people learn about the negative effects of chemicals in our bodies and on our planet, and provide them with the information they need to protect their family.
The Norwex Movement is people from all walks of life, all over the globe, coming together to create a more sustainable, chemical-free environment for our families and our planet. By making small, conscious choices, collectively we can improve our planet—and leave a lasting legacy for generations to come. Our goals include:
• Advocating for stronger and stricter laws worldwide regarding chemicals and testing them for safety before consumers use them.
• Raising awareness and education about chemicals and our environmental challenges.
• Working to build awareness about our use of plastic and the dangers of plastic in the environment.
• Evaluating your personal impact on the environment and determining ways we can reduce our footprint on the planet and leave it in even better shape that we found it.
• Asking everyone to make small, conscious choices to improve our planet.

Our values, Integrity, Trust and Respect, stay the same and form the backbone for a healthy corporate culture within Norwex.

Sincerely,

David Peeters
Chief Executive Norwex China

Company introduction

In 1994, still in the pioneering days of a new product called Micro Fiber, a local cleaning company received a sample of this cleaning product and soon realized its enormous potential on the cleaning market. Soon thereafter, the Norwegian operating company, Eidsvoll MiljØprodukter, went into further developing micro fiber as a material used in modern cleaning products.

A holding company, Norwex Holding AS, was established in 2000 to enable Norwex group to expand internationally and to further our product development.

Norwex came to China in 2005, when we set up a Representative Office in Shanghai. With further development in 2006, Norwex China was set up as a company.

In October of 2009, Norwex incorporates a manufacturing company in Zhangjiagang – Norwex China Factory.

We are here to protect the Intellectual property of Norwex worldwide and to prevent “copycats’ from emerging, to establish efficient production, product development, quality control, and to open up markets in the Far East and Asia.

Norwex fully and passionately supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Norwex is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a work environment free from discrimination. We provide equal opportunities to all applicants and employees with regards to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disabilities or other factors unrelated to a person’s job performance ability.

Norwex’s core values: Integrity, Trust and Respect.

All human beings deserve respect just because they are human beings. To receive respect confirms the individual’s worth as human being.

We have policies in our Executive Manual for the breach of core values:
If an employee is in breach of the company core values, this will regularly have formal consequences, and will also result in loss of annual performance bonus.

The UN Global Compact’s Human Rights principles are part of our company regulations and part of our Employee trainings. Staff and managers will adhere to the UN Global Compact Human Rights principles, promote the consciousness of upholding human rights, support and respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Violations of regulations in our Employee Manual will have formal consequences.

Our policies are implemented in our day to day operations. All of our staffs are treated fairly, we have a suggestion box, staffs are allowed to give suggestions and ask questions on company policy, working condition, food quality, working time etc.

We promote a work-life balance through providing entertainment facilities for staff that live in the dormitory. We organize a group outing, where staff can meet with coworkers in a relaxed and informal way, this year we send team to Hong Kong.

We also encourage our staff to develop interesting charity events. All the raised money goes to children in need in China.

In Apr 2015, Norwex China Charity Committee was established with the purpose of helping internal employees and supporting external charity organizations. Norwex is supporting Orphanage Without Walls (OWW), one of Children of Shambala (CoS)’s charitable projects in China. A donation was made and 2 to 4 orphans are invited to work as internship in Norwex, learning job skills and factory management.

We have regularly informal conversations between General Manager and staff to promote a free and open communication between management and staff. We share company information and update all staff in regular newsletters and company Intranet.

On our local Intranet, there is a page exclusively for the UN Global Compact where information, training material and this COP are posted.

To protect each of our supplier’s staff, Human Rights are part of Norwex China’s Manufacturing Agreement and Norwex China will conduct supplier audits to ensure that we are not indirectly involved in human rights abuses.

Norwex undertakes regular Environment, Health & Safety Meetings concerning company compensation, working time, working condition & company benefits. EHS Training for all staff have been finished in Apr, 2015 and this training will be part of new hire orientation and annual training plan. Till the end of July, 2015, we have accumulated 1000 consecutive accident free days. Lung check-up was added to annual physical examination to rule out the possibility of disease caused by the working environment. We also had first aid training in 2014.

Norwex China strictly adheres to the Chinese Labor Law.

Each individual in Norwex enjoys equal pay for equal work, and we ensure that the hiring procedure is objective, transparent and equal.

Norwex normal workweek: 40 hours, in emergency or unusual situations, Norwex workweek can be extended to 60 hours, including overtime. All workers take at least one day off every seven-day. All overtime is voluntary.

In addition to their compensation for regular hours of work, Norwex workers are compensated for overtime hours at the premium rate required by applicable laws and regulations. Norwex also offers vacation time, leave periods and holidays consistent with applicable laws and regulations. Employees are paid timely and clearly conveyed the basis on which they are being paid.

Norwex employees are also free to leave work or terminate their employment with reasonable notice.

Norwex does not use any forced and compulsory labor or uses child labor and we support the principle of freedom of association. Principles 3 through 6 are incorporated into Norwex China’s CSR Code of Conduct, which our suppliers are obliged to follow, and Norwex China will audit our suppliers to ensure we are not indirectly violating any of the 4 labor principles.

The UN Global Compact Labor Principles are part of our company regulations and explained during new hire orientation day. Violations of our Employee Manual will have formal consequences.

The UN Global Compact Labor principles have been introduced in our internal training and Intranet website.

Norwex has a human resource team in place to ensure the principles are implemented and supported, to be included in the new hire training for new employees and is available to assist and support staff and managers in questions regarding any of the 4 principles.

Norwex China labor union is there to ensure that the Global Compact’s principle number 3 is consistently followed.

The number of lost legal disputes with staff is zero and no labor disputes/strikes per calendar year. There have been neither disputes in relation to forced and compulsory labor or complaints about discrimination.

Norwex is committed to consider the environmental impact of the business and selling its “clean without chemicals” concept and state of the art “organic and other personal care products.

Norwex has an ecological approach to our mission and is considering the impact on humans, other animals and the environment and how these parts interact and impact each other. Norwex is as such striving to improve the quality of life rather than just improve the indoor environment or the well-being of a few individuals.

Norwex is producing environment friendly products. Microfiber allows for the removal and or reduction in the use of cleaning products and chemicals, reducing their inherent pollution to our habitat. Norwex uses antibacterial technology in our own fiber to give our products an excellent cleaning function.

Norwex is continually seeking better technologies for producing products as well as the characteristics of the products itself.

The UN Global Compact’s Environment principles are part of our company regulations and added to our Manufacturing Agreement.

The UN Global Compact’s environmental principles are part of Norwex China’s CSR Code of Conduct and we audit our suppliers to ensure Norwex China is not indirectly involved in the abuse of our environment and any unnecessary pollution.

Norwex China recycles industrial waste from the production of its products, and we have recycle programs for daily use items in the office.

We send warning letters to our suppliers based on supplier audits for violating our CSR Code of Conduct with respect to environmental protection.

We have purchased a laser guided auto-cutting machine that also reduces the cutting waste.
The cutting waste is collected and recycled and re-used.
Our dyeing factories all have upgraded their water-purification systems.
Although our production output over the years has gone up considerably, the energy, gas and water cost were relatively stable thanks to saving initiatives and efficiency improvements.

Norwex is against corruption and supports the UN convention against corruption, and we have anti-corruption policies, which are in the Integrity Statement that all staff and suppliers of/to Norwex China have signed.

Norwex’s Core Values are: Integrity, Trust and Respect.

Integrity is the quality of being honest and morally upright. Incorporating integrity into our core values means we must conduct our business in a strictly legal way, we do not do anything illegal.

The UN Global Compact Anti-corruption principle is part of our company rules and was added into our Executive & Employee Manual.

Every Norwex staff is required to sign the Integrity Statement the first day they work for Norwex, which is a part of the employee contract.

Every Norwex supplier is required to sign the Supplier Integrity Statement together with the supplier contract the first day they work with Norwex.

Staffs who are working for Norwex now all have signed the Integrity Statement, and we didn’t find any corruption in our business in 2014.

We did not find any suppliers violating our CSR Code of Conduct with respect to graft and corruption in 2014. 100% of our suppliers have signed the Supplier Partnership Agreement and Manufacturing Agreement.