Corporate Responsbility
Our group’s business model
We have a passion for engineering, and we supply knowledge and turnkey large-scale dynamic test systems for various industries.
MTS’s main capabilities include Test systems, Technology & Solutions and Service.
Our ambition is to develop individualised and innovatory solutions which add substantial value to our customers. We have specialized in customer segments within the wind industry and the aerospace industry.
Our sustainability governance
Sustainability governance at MTS is anchored with the management team, who as an integrated part of on-going decision and management procedures, assess risks within relevant sustainability areas and where relevant define objectives and needed development initiatives.
Our managers and specialists with the right qualifications implement development initiatives and we encourage all MTS people to take part in and contribute to plans and development.
Sustainability governance at MTS is aligned and coordinated with the sustainability governance, codes and values of our ultimate parent company Illinois Tool Works Inc., Illinois, USA (hereinafter “ITW”).
ITW’s sustainability strategy and associated policies and guidelines are built around four key elements: ”Our Governance & Ethics”, ”Our People”, ”Our Communities”, and ”Our Environment”. It is the ITW group’s vision to be one of the world’s best performing, highest quality and most-respected industrial companies. An integrated part of this vision is to continue to support communities and employees to make a difference in the world around the group.
As a fully owned company within the ITW group MTS is covered by ITW policies and procedures.
1) Focus area: Environment and climate
Our policies and principles
Our “Environmental & Sustainability Policy” states that we are committed to operating our businesses in a way that demonstrates our dedication to global environmental and climate change sustainability.
This commitment is reflected in the following three priorities: 1. Improving our environmental performance on an ongoing basis; 2. Working with suppliers who operate with similar dedication to global environmental sustainability; and 3. Partnering with our customers in innovating solutions that address their needs for environmentally responsible products.
We are responsible for establishing, monitoring, and adjusting sustainability initiatives that are aligned with ITW’s global environmental sustainability priorities in a manner best suited for our business.
The commitment includes considering as appropriate long-term sustainability implications for the business and its operations and managing the business’s supply chain efficiently and responsibly.
The commitment also includes examining ways that the business can lessen any negative impacts on the environment, reduce waste and preserve natural resources.
In our commitment to the environment we monitor environmental data relevant to the business, including emissions, energy usage, water usage, waste and other applicable data.
Our actions during 2022
As stated in our policy, climate change is an important issue for us to address. During the year we have continued to install automatic light switches and replaced conventional light sources with LED lightning.
Our supplier contract on carbon-neutral electricity for our site in Denmark is still in force, which means that our own electricity consumption in Denmark is emission-free.
Four charging stations for electric cars are installed at our Danish head quarter, which means that customers and employees have four charging stations at their disposal. Moreover when cars are replaced is to electric and plug-in hybrid cars.
As in previous years disposal of waste from our customer projects are done via the customers’ normal disposal channels, and disposals from our own operation sites are done by recognized vendors from whom we receive declarations for responsible handling for most parts of the waste volumes. Starting this year cardboard is sorted at the source.
When it comes to hazardous waste we have appointed one of our engineers to be overall responsible for this area. Hazardous waste includes e.g. oil for hydraulics, batteries, chemicals etc. Establishing communication with colleagues on integrating hazardous waste management into project planning and execution, is part of this task. Furthermore we have improved our handling of chemicals during the year and waste is now separated in 10 different categories which increase recycling.
It is still an integrated part of the project manager’s systematic work processes to have focus on optimizing both material consumptions and the amounts of waste when we organize projects for our customers. It is our experience that this focus reduces both material consumption and overall costs.
Where possible and relevant we involve in end-of-life handling of our customers’ wind turbine test benches. To our knowledge we are the only supplier handling test bench end-of-life in this way.
We still cooperate with a professional service company specialized in refurbishing IT equipment. Obsolete laptops, servers, screens, cables, accessories etc. is sold to the vendor. This ensures an extended overall use-period for the equipment, which contributes to lowering resource consumptions. In contribution to minimize energy consumption, it is still our policy that laptops are replaced at least once every three years.
Our overarching design rule, “that we rather spend more hours designing the solution, if this will save construction materials – than the other way round”, is still in force, and we believe that this is a sound environmental principle
When designing wind turbine test benches for our customers, it is still a mandatory rule to us always to ensure that the electricity produced during test runs is fully consumed by the test equipment or subsequently utilized in the grid.
During the year we have established a virtual meeting room at our offices in Berlin, Germany and Prague, the Czech Republic. We encourage our employees to use virtual meetings when possible, as this can save time and costs for travel, energy consumption and carbon emissions.
In continuation from previous years, we still use and extend our usage of virtual reality technology – both as part of service tasks and as part of product development and learning. We have implemented the use holographic glasses, which allows remote dialogue, learning, service etc. Benefits include faster service, reduced travel time and costs, reduced energy consumption and CO2 emissions from travelling and improved customer satisfaction. The technology is used several times every day around the year.
It is our vision to work towards being able to perform parts of the test procedures as digital simulations, and thereby partly replace the need for physical tests. We have made progresses within this area. Digital pilot test simulations have been performed and we have established further project objectives including applications for financing the development costs. Benefits from replacing physical tests with digital simulations include reduced development time, reduced energy consumption, reduced CO2 emissions and less material consumption.
Our rain erosion test equipment has been equipped with water collection and tank facilities, which means that our water consumption has been reduced.
Our results
Our efforts and plans during the year have contributed to reducing resource and material consumptions and to increasing recycling of materials, as well as the waste’s potential negative impacts have been reduced. Furthermore the waste deposit have been reduced significantly during the year.
Energy consumption, CO2 emissions, water consumption associated to our business activities have been limited and reduced as results from the actions we have taken during the year.
We will continue to focus on this area in the same way as the previous years.
Our risks and management procedures
Risk within this area include e.g. unintentional development in or handling of resource/material consumption, energy consumption, carbon emissions and waste amounts.
Our policies and procedures, our organisational setup and management principles provide a good basis for monitoring and managing the risk within this area.
2 + 3) Focus area: Human rights, ethics, and anti-corruption
Our policies and principles
Our “Human Rights Policy” states that ITW is committed to human rights in the workplace. This commitment includes respecting all individuals and encouraging and supporting all of our colleagues in their efforts to contribute to their full potential. In addition to being embodied in our core values, this commitment is reflected in ITW’s Principles of Conduct and our Supplier Code of Conduct. Among those principles are those relating to providing a workplace that protects employee well-being and safety, equal employment opportunity and fair treatment of all employees. Our commitment also includes compliance with applicable laws regarding slavery, human trafficking, child labour and data protection/privacy.
Our “Global Anti-Corruption Policy” prohibits bribery in all its forms. This ban applies to attempts to secure improper advantage in any area, permits or other favorable treatment; offers of any form of undue reward, all means of channeling undue payments or other benefits, ITW employees receiving something of value in return for giving an improper advantage to a third party. The policy further addresses Gifts and Entertainment, Facilitation Payments, and Lobbying.
Our “Supplier Code of Conduct” states that we expect Suppliers to operate using the highest ethical and legal principles. Suppliers are responsible for ensuring that any employees, affiliates, distributors, subcontractors, agents or other representatives of Supplier providing products or services to us or to our customers on behalf of us read and comply with this Supplier Code of Conduct. Areas such as inhumane treatment, child labour, forced labour, safety, well-being in the workplace, labour rights, discrimination, fair competition, trade secrets and responsible sourcing are included in the Supplier Code of Conduct.
Our “Code of Conduct” states that we operate our own business with a demonstrated commitment to the highest level of ethical conduct. This commitment is reinforced by strong policies and practices related to fair, ethical and honest business dealings, robust governance, and compliance with applicable laws, while demonstrating respect for human rights at our own business and throughout our supply chain. Our core values of Integrity, Respect, Trust, Simplicity and Shared Risk are the foundation for our Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct also includes different means of speaking up, including a whistle blower function.
Our actions during 2022
During the year all employees are trained in “Code of Conduct” and “Anti brebery”. Continued from previous years all employees in our group have confirmed that they are aware of and focused on complying with our Code of Conduct. Going forward this confirmation will be renewed on an annual basis.
Furthermore we have implemented a new procurement systems that improves the vendor’s obligations and ensures the right certifications.
As in previous years our management team together with other relevant risk position employees have signed the principles of our Global Anti-Corruption Policy. We enforce strict control procedures on all payments, which is an important part of lowering our risk within the corruption area.
A whistle blower scheme is established covering our entire group. The scheme can be used by both internal and external stakeholders. No inquiries have been received during the year.
Establishing the foundation for the highest level of customers’ safe use of our delivered products and solutions is important to us. From our side this is addressed through e.g. that we train customer employees, and that we draft high-quality user manuals as part of the deliverables we transfer to our customers. In addition, our service deliverables for customers on most of our delivered test equipment includes elements of training and education of customers’ employees.
In 2022 we have still aimed at prioritizing suppliers that are ISO-certified and thoroughly validated by independent external parties, as this contributes to lower potential CSR issues in the supply chain. The large majority of our procured products and services are contracted with suppliers that origin within the EU, which also contributes to lowering the risk profiles.
Our results
The above described sourcing principles, the performed trainings, our employees signing policies, our drafted product manuals, and our training of customers’ employees have contributed to lowering the potential risk levels within this area.
We will continue to focus on these areas in the same way as the previous years.
Our risks and management procedures
Risk within this area include e.g. involvement in corruption or cartel cases, collaboration with dubious business partners, human rights breaches, lack of sufficient customer trainings or instructions, and low ethical standards.
Our described policies, organisational setup and management principles provide a sound and efficient basis for monitoring and managing this area.
4) Focus area: Social and employee topics
Our policies and principles
Our “Safety Policy” states that we are committed to strive toward our goal of zero accidents, with the understanding that every accident is preventable. We have an effective and “fit for purpose” safety management system. We are committed to shared ownership for safety, recognizing that both us as an employer and our employees are responsible for safety. We are collectively accountable for conducting our operations in a safe manner for the protection of ourselves and one another. We are committed to proactive accident prevention, and we have established a routine and structured process to identify and eliminate hazards before accidents occur. We are committed to continuously improving our safety performance, and we regularly monitor and assess safety improvement progress, toward our shared goal of zero accidents.
Our ”Code of Conduct” states that we do not discriminate or harass colleagues, applicants, or business partners, and that we are committed to maintaining a healthy workplace for our colleagues, business partners and visitors to our business locations. We never tolerate violence, threats or physical intimidation in our facilities.
Our ”ITW Culture” defines who we are as a company and how we lead. We are focused on ensuring our culture is deeply and consistently applied across the company while giving our colleagues flexibility within the framework to achieve success.
Further our “ITW Culture” states that we invest in our colleagues through professional development, challenging on-the-job experiences and long-term career growth opportunities. We recognize and reward colleagues who perform well, and we want to offer attractive compensations and benefits.
Our actions during 2022
During the year the rules for use of safety equipment is tighten and the use of signage is improved significantly during the during year. In additions to this a quarterly safety inspection is performed at our production sites to avoid accident at work.
Furthermore a first aid training session has been held for 30 employees.
As in previous years our work environment committee, composed of 8 representatives from both employer and employee sides, addresses topics within both physical, psychological and health work-related areas, including e.g. harassment, discrimination, lost time injuries and near-misses. The committee meets on a regular basis throughout the year and works based on an annual issue plan. The committee identifies, evaluates, and mitigates on both retrospective and forward-looking concrete topics throughout our group. We have decided to allocate more resources into the committee’s work going forward.
It is important to us, that all employees and managers enjoy going to work, as we believe this makes both better results and happier employees. Therefore, we regularly conduct mandatory employee satisfaction survey among all employees, latest in fall 2022. The result from the survey shows a general high employee satisfaction and the results from the survey are incorporated into our development plans in general and results also form basis for more specific improvement initiatives. The focus areas for 2023 for strengthening the employee satisfaction are reducing absence rate and reducing staff turnover.
We consider a good physical work environment to be an important issue. Therefore, installing PC screens that meets each employee’s needs for adjustments, adjustable tables and chairs, correct lighting etc. is an ongoing effort.
When workload or other circumstances impacts an employee negatively, we take open dialogues with the employee to identify and agree on the best solution. Solutions can include reduced worktime for a period, replanning etc. It is highly prioritized for us to prevent stress situations for our employees, and we focus on having early dialogue with employees that might be threatened by stress. We offer help from a professional stress coach in relevant cases.
Ongoing and updated training and education programmes for our employees is important both to the individual employee and to MTS as an employer. We offer programmes that focus on both professional and personal development objectives. Parts of our employees need renewals of certificates and approvals to be able to work on our customer projects, while other employees need cutting edge education within their specific professional engineering area.
Planning of and agreement on which education/training programmes that are relevant to the each employee is done as a systematic part of the annual employee development interview.
Mandatory individual development interviews have been performed with all employees. We use an external IT solution for documenting discussions and agreements, and all interviews are performed based on systematic structures and templates. Interview outcomes form basis for the employee’s professional and personal development.
Educating and training apprentices is an important focus point to us, and currently we have five apprentices among our employees. We also offer students within relevant area such as mechanics, electronics and machinery to spend their practice terms with us, as well as we collaborate with a number of student while they are writing their bachelor or master thesis. A large part of the apprentices and students apply for a job with us after they have finalized their educations, which we are very proud of.
As part of on-boarding new employees as well as training current employees, we are in the process of launching a number of guidance videos. The videos will guide employees on our principles and procedures, and in this way make things easier and more efficient for all.
Participation in and support for events and promotions at relevant education institutions is part of our ongoing activities. An example is our office on the island of Funen/Denmark, that collaborates with the nearby university.
The MTS employee club initiates a variety of social activities, including football, cycling, swimming, physical training, cultural events etc., and the company provides financial contributions.
As a permanent arrangement we now have established a voluntary possibility for employees to work partly from home. Homework can be performed one day per week, and a large part of our employees use this possibility on a regular basis. Employees are in general very satisfied with the arrangement, as it provides a more flexible way of combining work and free time. Digital equipment for this purpose has been bought and installed in some employees’ private homes. Working from home saves time and energy consumption for commuting.
Following our practice in previous years we have performed a number of courses and trainings for our employees. Where relevant equality and anti-harassment has been an integrated part of these courses and trainings.
Our results
Impacts from the above described efforts and objectives are a high employee satisfaction rate and a good employer image, and further that we have been able to attract and retain talented employees and managers.
We have however experienced a minor increase in absence rate during the year. However we still believe it is on an acceptable level. We believe that the main reason is after-effects from the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though we are working on reducing the absence rate together with external consultancy and focus on stress management.
We will continue to focus on the this area in the same way as the previous years.
Our risks and management procedures
Risk within this area include e.g. unintentional development or handling of accidents, occupational health and safety and employee satisfaction.
Our described policies, organisational setup and management principles provide a good basis for monitoring and managing this area.
KPI
During the year we have started collecting data for waste, energy consumption, and water consumption. As we are a project company where projects are produced both internally at our own production sites and externally, we are still working on finding the correct ratio for measuring the effect on our initiatives.
In sections above named “Our results” we have presented the KPI registered.
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Underrepresented gender
At MTS we believe that gender equality and diversity help increase our innovation ability, generate better results, make better decisions, and make us an even more attractive employer.
Currently we employ people who origin from several different countries, who have different educations and backgrounds, who have different work experiences, and of all ages. We welcome and respect all current and new employees regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disabilities, sexual orientation etc. is
Our policies and principles
Board of directors: Our target for the underrepresented gender on the Board of Directors at MTS Systems Danmark ApS is by the end of fiscal year 2024 to have at least one out of a four members of the Board of Directors to be a woman.
At the end of 2022 the Board of Directors consisted of three male members and one female member. This means that the target has been reach and is considered as an equal gender distribution according to the definitions in Section 99b in the Danish Financial Statements Act.
There are focus on establishing an equal gender distribution in the future. For now the Board of Directors believe that the target of one female board member is ambitious as our industry is characterized by having only a very few female employed.
Other management levels:
Our principles are formulated in our “Gender and diversity policy for other management levels”.
It is the vision for the policy, that we want our employees and managers to be diverse, as we believe this promotes the company's development and is one of the basic prerequisites for our business success.
Establishing and upholding equality and diversity on e.g. gender, age and educational background among our managers and employees are objectives for us, and it is important to us that we avoid discrimination and that we create and develop an open-minded culture.
Our actions during 2022
In general, our industry is characterized by having only very few females employed – and this is also the situation for our company, despite the fact that we have a constant focus on attracting female employees.
As in previous years we still invite qualified candidates of both genders to interviews for open job positions at all levels, and both internal and external recruiters are instructed to aim at identifying candidates of both genders, when possible.
Personal and professional competences are always the basis for hiring and promotion of employees. Applicants’ age, gender, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disabilities, sexual orientation etc. has not been influencing our recruitment or promotion decisions.
Regardless of gender, age, ethnicity etc. employees with the desire and competences to advance within our company, are ongoingly encouraged to apply for open positions.
Our results
During the year we have succeeded in increasing the number of female members of our management group from 20% to 29%. At yearend we had 5 female members of our management group which totals 17 members.
Even though we have been able to recruit more women during the fiscal year, our recruitments, promotions, and redundancies have been based on personal and professional qualifications. Applicant’s gender, religion, race, ethnic or social background etc. have not influenced our decisions, and our policy has as such been applied.
Our risks and management procedures
Risk within this area include e.g. unintentional development of equality in the board of directors, recruitments or promotions that does not promote the intended diversity.
We have an ongoing management focus on this area to ensure that our policy is applied throughout the group.
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Data Ethics
Our focus is to process data responsibly and comply with legal requirements. For now, we have not established a formal policy for data ethics. Management will on an ongoing basis consider the need for establishing a formal policy. As the group does only process data and algorithm to a limited extent, management believe that it is not relevant at the moment to establish a formal policy.