Liisa in Hyvinkää
Liisa in Hyvinkää
Article 6 min read

Turning human rights commitments into everyday procurement practices

One of our four sustainability commitments – We create a fair, inclusive, diverse and engaging working environment - is all about people: We foster a working environment where people enjoy their work, feel respected and trusted, and are provided with challenging and interesting responsibilities and career opportunities. We believe that diverse teams create the best results, and that everyone should feel they can be themselves. At Konecranes, we address human rights risks and support fair practices in our policies and set requirements for our suppliers and distributors. We do this through systematic human rights due diligence.

What does human rights due diligence mean?

Human rights due diligence is crucial for a company like Konecranes to ensure that we and our suppliers respect human rights . For a global company working with a broad supplier network, fostering responsible business conduct means taking a structured and ongoing approach to identifying, preventing and mitigating potential human rights impacts and risks in both our own operations and across the value chain. At Konecranes, this work is guided by the company’s Code of Conduct, Human Rights Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct, which set expectations for employees and business partners and support a consistent due diligence approach. 

While human rights due diligence is often described through policies and frameworks, its success depends on how it is put into practice in everyday work. It is not a single action or checkpoint. It is a continuous process that includes setting expectations, assessing impacts and risks, prioritizing actions, engaging relevant stakeholders and following up over time. At Konecranes, we respect internationally recognized human rights, as well as the importance of effective concern-raising mechanisms and remedy.  We spoke to Liisa Heino to hear how Konecranes turns commitments into concrete action, specifically in the procurement area, because supplier relationships, sourcing decisions and ongoing supplier engagement all play an important role in building responsible supply chains.
Liisa Heino
Liisa Heino

Risk management starts with knowing our suppliers

Liisa Heino is responsible for group-level social responsibility topics at Konecranes. “In the supply chain context, human rights due diligence is largely about risk management, meaning that we aim to recognize the most relevant topics in the supply chain and in case we notice actual or potential negative impacts, we aim to implement processes and tools for preventing and mitigating them,” Liisa explains. “We work to ensure that suppliers understand the company’s expectations and that potential issues are identified and addressed as early and effectively as possible.” 

From a procurement perspective, this work is closely connected to how suppliers are selected, onboarded and managed over time. “Our supplier selection and onboarding process follows a risk-based approach that determines the depth of the process and the mandatory measures that suppliers must take. At Konecranes, we work closely with procurement colleagues in different parts of the organization, sustainability, compliance and ethics, legal and other areas of the business to align expectations, share expertise and respond to evolving requirements. This kind of collaboration is essential, because human rights topics often cut across different processes and responsibilities. A strong due diligence approach depends on having the right people involved at the right time and on building a shared understanding of both risks and practical solutions.“

Liisa Heino in a meeting
Liisa Heino in a meeting

Building processes and dialogue

At Konecranes, the group-level human rights work is very much creating and developing processes that aim to improve due diligence. For example, further developing and automizing human rights risk modelling and follow-up of mitigation measures, helping procurement teams embed the company’s expectations into supplier relationship management or collaborating with other internal teams to create training materials both for Konecranes employees and suppliers.

Supplier engagement is another important part of the picture. Responsible sourcing is not only about setting requirements, but also about maintaining dialogue and supporting continuous improvement. In practice, engagement with suppliers can include communicating Supplier Code of Conduct expectations, learning new best practices, discussing identified risks and following up on areas where improvement is needed. This makes due diligence a dynamic process that is built through relationships more than through policies. 

“Audits are one way for us to really look at how our suppliers work in practice and also a channel for suppliers' employees to be heard,” Liisa notes. “We follow the closure of audit findings together with suppliers through the corrective action planning process, with a goal to stop and mitigate identified negative impacts.” She continues by mentioning “It is not always easy for a supplier to solve nonconformities, such as excessive working hours. We can support for example by sharing good practices and by avoiding last-minute orders, which can cause overtime pressure for a supplier .”  

The company also takes part in shared initiatives. “We know that we cannot change the world only by ourselves. For example, because so called conflict minerals are used in many devices, including electronics found also in our products, we take an industry-level approach and are members of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI).

Liisa in Hyvinkää HQ lobby
Liisa in Hyvinkää HQ lobby

Work that continues – and matters

As expectations around responsible business continue to grow, human rights due diligence remains an evolving area of work at Konecranes. “This is a journey. I see that we have come a good way, but we still have a lot to do. Big part of this work is grounded in everyday decisions and cooperation: aligning internal teams, engaging suppliers and keeping human rights considerations visible in various processes,” Liisa Heino says. “We have a lot of small suppliers and sometimes we are the first large international customer to require social responsibility and visit the supplier for an audit. In these cases, things often really get better for the supplier employees – for example safety-related topics improve or employees start receiving the holiday compensation they are entitled to. This gives you the feeling that the world just improved a tiny bit.” 

“What motivates me is the possibility to make the world a little better through my own work — to do something meaningful for people.” That is what turns policy into practice — and what helps strengthen responsible business conduct across the value chain.

Sustainability Review 2024 image
Sustainability Review 2024 image

Sustainability reporting

Konecranes released Sustainability Statement in accordance with the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and European Sustainability Reporting Standards with a limited third-party assurance. The Sustainability Statement is targeted primarily at investors and it has been published as part of Konecranes’ Annual Report.  

Read Konecranes Sustainability Statement 2025
Resource type:
Article
Related Services:
Sustainability