Work and labor relations

Lluch Essence promotes equality and the quality of people's work. There is a 76% job stability, and we continue to grow so that the positions are even more stable. We work on family conciliation policies, offering our staff flexible hours, and we ensure that work is decent according to our collective agreement.

Regarding comprehensive compensation and benefits, we rely on a flexible compensation plan, made up of different products and services that are exempt from the personal income tax; we offer a vacation day for birthdays; we provide free parking on our facilities; we count on water and season’s fruit services; as well as Christmas events, Christmas gift baskets, and economic benefits in situations of marriage, birth or long-term leave.

We are also very aware as a family company of talent retention, providing the necessary support in complicated situations such as deaths of relatives or hospitalizations. However, we also celebrate the best moments of our staff by giving presents to families when there is a birth in the great family of Lluch Essence.

Labor conditions and social protection

At Lluch Essence, since the pandemic, we have established wellness policies by conducting training in emotional management, mindfulness, tips for doing physical activity or better managing telework, increasing knowledge of cybersecurity, among others.

In addition, due to the pandemic, we have adapted to the new reality that we are experiencing by establishing teleworking voluntarily, through an extra-statutory pact arranged with the Company Committee, stipulating one day a week to guarantee the operation of each department.

However, we offer safe face-to-face work with optimal conditions in accordance with Law 31/1995, of November 8, on Occupational Risk Prevention.

On the other hand, we have a Compliance Committee that covers possible complaints that may arise, as well as a complaint channel with an Equality Agent for situations related to sexual or labor harassment.

Social dialogue

In compliance with our collective agreement, at Lluch Essence we hold monthly meetings with the Company Committee, with whom we work on social dialogue and carry out a follow-up of the staff’s doubts and concerns, as well as validating improvements and news that impact every member of Lluch Essence.

Human development and training in the workplace

At Lluch Essence, we foster an internal professional growth. We like to impart internal trainings and formations to further analyze our firm, so that employees can better understand the purpose of their job every day.

We believe in career plans, and we strive to motivate our employees to maintain a commitment with the company, and to keep progressing professionally within the firm.

In addition, in our annual training plan, we encourage our employees to undertake external formation in order to acquire new skills and knowledge that makes the growth of their professional career with us possible.

Gender Equality

Lluch Essence declares its commitment to the establishment and development of policies that integrate equality in treatment and opportunities between men and women, without directly or indirectly discriminating on the basis of gender. We promote and encourage measures that allow us to achieve real equality within our organization.

Since 2020, we share our Equality Plan, and we remain firmly committed to the implementation of improvements in gender equality that help us sensitize every member of our company, in addition to continue growing in this area.

The way society as a whole will respond to environmental challenges in the next decade will be decisive, and making today the most wise and sustainable decisions will ensure a stable climate in the near future. Companies posses the crucial factor to attain that idyllic future, using their position in the world market to boost sustainable initiatives and requesting the collaboration of their stakeholders.

Lluch Essence’s sustainability strategy is built with those values as a basis, working on those and continuously integrating them in all our procedures. We thereupon present our implemented actions on 2020:

·         Establishing economically, socially and environmentally sustainable purchases: promoting rural communities’ economy, purchasing directly from the origin, placing HUBS in Shanghai and Mumbai and warehouses in Colimbia and Malaysia.

·         Compensating footprint: Lluch Essence’s footprint is compensated through reforestation projects in the Peruvian Amazon and in hydroelectric power plants.

·         Calculating parameters: such as carbon and water footprint, emission inventory, electrical power consumption and environmental indicators.

·         Controlling our environmental impact: starting a partnership with ClimateTrade, in order to minimizing our environmental impact by offsetting emissions generated, expanding our Organic Portfolio with 16 new products and starting a profit study for employing reusable packaging for the sample.

·         Participating in sustainable initiatives such as workshops and webinars.

·         Training the staff on minimization of the environmental impact.

           Detecting and preventing environmental risks: Sustainability Indexes  such as Ecovadis, RightSupply or Sedex are used to detect and prevent environmental risks.

Lluch Essence considers the environmental management as a fundamental value of our business culture. For this reason we carry out our activities in an environmentally friendly manner and in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, and we are firmly committed with the conservation and balanced use of the resources we employ.

To achieve this purpose Lluch Essence establishes the following commitments:

• Adopting the necessary measures to guarantee the fulfillment of all the applicable environmental regulations and other commitments of voluntary adhesion.
• Preventing, control and minimize the environmental impact of the activity in the surroundings. Opting for those investments or optimization of resources that allow for a sustainable growth.
• Committing with the reduction of energy consumption, waste, discharges and emissions in its activity, also forming part of the important global effort to create a more environmentally friendly society.
• Proactively participating in associations and other interest groups that promote initiatives that contribute to greater environmental awareness ant the improvement of production processes, based on the sustainable management of resources.
• Training, raising awareness and involving all its staff so that they develop and apply actions that minimize environmental impact in their daily activities, promoting the responsible use of natural resources.
• Adopting the necessary measures to prevent environmental risks, especially serious accidents, and to limit their consequences on the environment.

Lluch Essence assumes the responsibility for putting these principles into practice, promoting environmental improvement and allocating the necessary resources to ensure the successful implementation of this environmental policy and has developed several operations for the actions described above:

·   Guaranteeing the fulfillment of the environmental regulations: Lluch has a consolidated Calculating Methodology of the following parameters:

• • Carbon footprint with OECC (Oficina Española de Cambio Climático) Calculator
  • Water footprint with Water Footprint Network Calculator
  • Emissions inventory (biannual log)
  • Electrical power consumption (monthly log)
  • Environmental  indicators such as polluting emissions, percent of waste sent to landfill,  percent of renewable energy consumption, percent of renewable energy generated, percent of hazardous waste generated, etc. (yearly log)

·         Controlling the environmental  impact:

o    In October 2019, Lluch Essence, started a partnership with ClimateTrade, to minimize our environmental impact by offsetting emissions generated (facilities, vehicles, business flights, and participation in exhibitions). Likewise, emissions of the second semester were compensated in March 2020, relying again on the collaboration with the digital platform ClimateTrade.

o    The Organic Portfolio has been expanded with 16 new products (25 product in 20219 vs. 41 products in 2020), all certified by CCPAE and ECOCERT.

• • A profit analysis of employing reusable packaging for the samples has been studied with the help of Cupons ACCIO, a tool offered by the regional government that give the companies economical benefits for Circular Economy projects.

·         Reducing the energy consumption: The lockdown imposed by the government due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent mobility restrictions has resulted in a uncommon low energy consumption (0,0791MWh/u) and no measures were needed.

·         Participating in sustainable initiatives: The pandemic, despite the uncertainty caused, gave Lluch the opportunity of participating in many online workshops and webinars and learning about fresh innovating ideas and solutions that are being studied.

·         Training the staff on minimization of the environmental impact: Information boards and periodical reminders of good practices  have been posted.

·    Preventing environmental risks : The following Sustainability Indexes are used to detect and prevent environmental risks:

• • Ecovadis: Lluch Essence reports annually to the EcoVadis CSR assessment questionnaire. The final score is calculated on the basis of 21 CSR criteria in the following areas: Environment, Social, Business ethics and Responsible purchasing. In 2019, Lluch Essence obtained a score of 46/100, 10 points more than our previous score, for the first time the company obtained the level of engagement "Bronce". This score places us above the medium punctuation of companies evaluated by EcoVadis in our sector. Our scorecard is currently shared with 34 of our customers.  
• • SEDEX: Is one of the world's leading ethical trade membership organisation, working with businesses to improve working conditions in global supply chains. They provide an online platform, tools and services to help businesses operate responsibly and sustainably, protect workers (health, safety and labor standards) and source ethically. as part of Lluch Essence's transparency policy we share with our customers our report through SEDEX platform: ZC131445924.

Ethics is the fundamental value on which long-term relationships can be built, and these relationships are primarily based on trust. For us, and for the companies of the group, it is key that our way of working is our identity.

Compliance is the set of procedures and best practices that have been defined with the aim of minimising the legal and operational risks that may arise from conducting our business and that may lead to fines and penalties or even criminal consequences. For this purpose, internal mechanisms for prevention, management, control and intervention have been established. In this regard, the Lluch Essence Code of Ethics has been integrated into the strategy of the company as part of the corporate culture. Its purpose is to establish the principles, values and rules of conduct that govern the ethical behaviour of everyone who is part of Lluch Essence and all its stakeholders.

All persons who are part of Lluch Essence must maintain strict observance of the existing legislation in all territories in which the company conducts its business. When recruiting personnel, Lluch Essence is governed by the principle of non-discrimination due to gender, age, nationality, religion, political or sexual orientation, marital status, disability or familial responsibilities.

Relationships among Lluch Essence professionals must always be based on mutual respect and trust defined by freedom, the spirit of collaboration and the inherent rights of individuals for the purpose of maintaining a pleasant working environment. Human rights are inherent to all individuals, without discrimination. Therefore, Lluch Essence and all of its employees acknowledge and commit to respecting the internationally recognised human rights established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Lluch Essence is prohibited from intervening in situations where a conflict of interest is present; employees (or persons closely associated with them) are not permitted to take advantage of their position in the organisation to acquire financial or personal advantages or business opportunities of their own.

Lluch Essence take threats thoughtfully and continuously works to improve systems, which are constantly monitored and regularly updated so they provide the most effective security to protect processes and data.

At a systems level, we have all the confidential information of our employees registered through GPO's specific to each department, with a validation system by AD that is validated at the same time, through two redundant FW's. Thus, if an asset goes down or is saturated, it can automatically jump to the passive ASA.

We also have users that connect through a DMZ, which authenticates directly Lluch's FW through the AD.

At a customer data and more confidential information level, all information is not physically available, and is hosted externally by a point-to-point to a multinational technology company that deals with Microsoft, IBM or SAP data. That is why they have a rigorous backup system,  with a knowledge and certifications in networking able to cope with our infrastructure.

Lluch Essence considers essential to be involved and actively participate in the community, both locally and internationally. One of the actions devoted to reducing our environmental impact has been the calculation of our carbon footprint and the subsequent compensation in social and environmental projects. This year, CO2 emissions have been compensated in the project of the installation of several hydroelectric power plants that generate electricity from flowing water.  These projects reduce the use of fossil fuels and promote renewable energy generation, helping spread green technology worldwide and.