Our Business Principles and Code of Conduct define our core values of honesty, integrity and respect for people, and are at the heart of how we manage our business.

Shell General Business Principles

The Shell General Business Principles set out our responsibilities to shareholders, customers, employees, business partners and society. They make it clear that we always do business with integrity and respect for the environment and local communities.

All Shell employees, contractors, and those working in joint ventures that we operate, are expected to understand and work in line with the principles. We encourage suppliers and our partners in joint ventures that we do not operate to apply equivalent principles.

Learn more about the Shell General Business Principles

HSSE & SP commitment and policy

The Shell commitment and policy on Health, Security, Safety, Environment and Social Performance (HSSE & SP) applies across Shell. It is designed to help protect people, their communities and the environment wherever we operate.

Our HSSE & SP Control Framework contains our mandatory standards, and accompanying manuals support these goals. The framework covers 11 areas:

  • contractor HSSE management
  • environment
  • health
  • HSSE & SP management systems
  • personal safety
  • process safety
  • transport
  • product stewardship
  • projects
  • security
  • social performance

All Shell employees, contractors and people working in joint ventures that we operate must work in accordance with the Shell HSSE & SP commitment and policy. We also have requirements for specific parts of our business, including shipping standards and standards related to the sustainable sourcing of biofuels.

Ship quality assurance standard

We have a company-wide ship quality assurance standard aimed at reducing safety incidents, accidents or oil spills from bulk transport ships, and reducing the risk of:

  • harm to people;
  • harm to the environment;
  • damage to Shell’s reputation; and
  • financial claims on Shell.

This standard applies to all vessels used for the bulk transportation of products.

Learn more about Shell Shipping

Sustainable sourcing of biofuels

Shell is a major purchaser of biofuels for blending into fuel. We support rigorous sustainability standards to help ensure that our biofuels come from sustainable sources: in 2007 we introduced a policy that governs the way we work with our suppliers on sustainability. The policy requires suppliers to comply with regulatory requirements, for example through international certification schemes.

When these are not available, we have been introducing our own environmental and social sustainability clauses into new and renewed supplier contracts. Our clauses require suppliers to respect human rights in the production of biofuels and not to cultivate biofuels in areas rich in biodiversity.

Under the policy, we work closely with our suppliers in developing a sustainable supply chain and review their progress on a regular basis.

Purchasing policy statement – sustainable sourcing of biocomponents

Learn more about biofuels

HSSE & SP assurance

It is important that our HSSE & SP framework and controls, including our process safety standards, are appropriately assured.

This is the responsibility of our HSSE & SP and process assurance team, who are independent from the business and mandated at Board level by our Safety, Environment and Sustainability Committee (SESCo). The team develops and carries out compliance audits that cover a variety of possible risks in assets and projects.

Outcomes from these audits and the response from Shell’s management are shared with the relevant parts of Shell and SESCo. The actions taken to address the audits’ findings are also monitored within Shell.

Online Shell Sustainability Report

View our latest report online and build your own PDF version with the topics that matter most to you.

View the report online

More in sustainability

Business integrity

Our Code of Conduct describes how the Shell General Business Principles must be applied. We support our staff and contractors in meeting our standards and react appropriately when violations occur.

Working with others

We have always understood the need to work with others to achieve our commercial, environmental and social goals.

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Our values

At Shell, we share a set of core values – honesty, integrity and respect for people – which underpin all the work we do. The Shell General Business Principles, Code of Conduct, and Ethics and Compliance Manual help everyone at Shell act in line with these values and comply with relevant laws and regulations.

Shell for suppliers

Building strong relationships with our contractors and suppliers is essential to delivering new projects and running our operations. In line with our Shell General Business Principles and Supplier principles, we seek to work with contractors and suppliers who contribute to sustainable development and are economically, environmentally and socially responsible.