In the period 26-29 September, the NASOR team conducted a working visit to the city of Aurland, Norway under the project “Building a Socially Responsible Business Environment”, funded by Innovation Norway. The theme of the trip was exchange of experience in the field of corporate social responsibility. During the stay in Norway, the NASOR team had a meeting with a representative from the municipality of Aurland, who talked about the policies and regulations that the state and local authorities have related to corporate social responsibility and in particular employment of people from vulnerable groups.

In Norway, there is a government body called NAV that looks after social and employment issues. This organisation finances companies and provides them with mentors to train people with disabilities for relevant jobs. In addition, the state has strict regulations related to CSR and municipalities cannot themselves work on policies related to the employment of people with disabilities and refer them to companies, and because of these regulations municipalities cannot oblige companies locally to implement CSR. Interestingly, when companies implement certain CSR-related provisions, they receive a certain amount as an incentive. It was interesting to find out whether there is a ‘social enterprise’ structure in Norway, as a result of which we found out that locally in the municipality of Aurland, only agricultural enterprises apply such a business model and have a practice of employing people with disabilities.

NASOR representatives also visited the largest travel agency in Norway – Norway’s Best, meeting with managers at a working lunch in one of the hotels of The theme was “Sustainable Cooking” and then participated in a follow-up presentation. Their socially responsible policies are focused on socially responsible practices for the environment and water, namely and sustainable cooking is linked to the production and use of environmentally friendly products and support of native production. On the topic related to employment, the sustainability they want to achieve is related to reducing turnover and providing year-round employment, not just seasonal employment.