Ambuja Archives - SustainCase - Sustainability Magazine Insights on how you can protect the environment, maintain and increase the value of your company, through a structured CSR/Sustainability process with the use of the GRI Standards. Learn how Today's Best-Run Companies are achieving Economic, Social, and Environmental Success - and How You Can Too... Mon, 06 Mar 2023 08:56:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.3 Case study: How Ambuja promotes sustainability across its supply chain https://sustaincase.com/case-study-how-ambuja-promotes-sustainability-across-its-supply-chain/ Fri, 25 Feb 2022 07:10:00 +0000 https://ccprowebs.com/new-sustaincase.com/?p=13308 Ambuja Cements Limited (ACL) is one of India’s leading cement manufacturing companies, with a product portfolio largely revolving around cementitious products. that encourages fair, open, and transparent competition. This case study is based on the 2019 Sustainable Development Report by Ambuja published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing. Abstract Ambuja’s initiatives of engaging with […]

The post Case study: How Ambuja promotes sustainability across its supply chain appeared first on SustainCase - Sustainability Magazine.

]]> Ambuja Cements Limited (ACL) is one of India’s leading cement manufacturing companies, with a product portfolio largely revolving around cementitious products. As a strong brand, procurement standards followed by Ambuja are very transparent, with a procurement policy which includes a code of practice  Tweet This! that encourages fair, open, and transparent competition.

This case study is based on the 2019 Sustainable Development Report by Ambuja published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.

Abstract

Ambuja’s initiatives of engaging with its suppliers so as to promote sustainability include but are not limited to health and safety, Contractor Safety Management, Sustainable Procurement, an Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Directive, and Third Party Due Diligence. In order to promote sustainability across its supply chain Ambuja took action to:

  • assess suppliers
  • implement a Supplier Code of Conduct

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2019 Sustainable Development Report Ambuja identified a range of material issues, such as economic performance, energy efficiency, compliance to regulatory requirements, biodiversity, health & safety, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Among these, promoting sustainability across its supply chain stands out as a key material issue for Ambuja.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Ambuja engages with:

To identify and prioritise material topics Ambuja engaged with its stakeholders through the following channels:

Stakeholder Group                Method of engagement
Shareholders and Investors

 

 

 ·      Annual General Meeting

·      Investor Grievance Cell

·      Board Meetings/Communications

·      Annual Report
Dealers and Suppliers

 

 

 ·      Channel Satisfaction Survey

·      Grihalakshmi Conference

·      Annual Meeting

·      Marketing Meetings
Customers

 

 ·      Technical Services Team

·      Camps

·      Workshops

·      Seminars

·      Site Visits
Employees

 

 

 

 

 ·      Employee Engagement Survey

·      Function-specific Meetings and Newsletters

·      Magazines — I CAN, I SIGHT

·      Townhall

·      Functions and Programmes
Community and NGOs

 

 ·      Ambuja Cement Foundation

·      Community Advisory Panel

·      Site Specific Impact Assessment
Government and Regulatory Authorities ·      Meetings

·      Communications on proposed legislations
Media

 

 ·      Press Briefings/Invitation to Events

·      Site Specific Impact Assessment
Construction Professionals ·      Ambuja Knowledge Centres
Industry Associations

 

 ·      Meetings

·      Policy Papers

·      Tele-cons

·      Delegation

What actions were taken by Ambuja to promote sustainability across its supply chain?

In its 2019 Sustainable Development Report Ambuja reports that it took the following actions for promoting sustainability across its supply chain:

  • Assessing suppliers
  • As part of its Sustainable Procurement Initiative (SPI), Ambuja assesses its suppliers who are allocated with a sustainability risk rating based on the methodology defined in its SPI manual. Through the SPI guidelines, Ambuja maps its suppliers with high, medium, or low risk. In 2019, Ambuja engaged with 8,359 tier-1 suppliers and prioritised the potential high-risk suppliers based on three categories: Anti-bribery and corruption (ABC), Sustainable Development and Contractor Health & Safety. Ambuja includes two elements/criteria to define and identify its critical suppliers: High risk suppliers and percentage of total spend, classifying suppliers who represent the top 80% of spend as critical. During 2019, out of 7,841 critical tier-1 suppliers 518 were engaged for sustainability assessment, including 155 new suppliers and 363 existing suppliers. The top three categories of critical suppliers include production services providers (includes manpower contractors), facilities service providers and logistics service providers. Ambuja’s third-party global consultant Avetta (PICS) helps it to identify risks in its supply chain and manage them by taking corrective action on identified risks through an assessment tool. Through Avetta, the IPO (India Procurement Organisation) team evaluates the performance of suppliers against various prioritisation criteria of integrity, sustainability, health and safety, and human rights, among others, as defined in Ambuja’s Supplier Code of Conduct (SCC) and Sustainable Procurement Manual (SPM). Based on the results of this assessment, corrective action plans are prepared, which are periodically monitored to review improvement in supplier performance. Ambuja’s ‘2030 PLAN’ aims to have 100% of high-risk suppliers assessed, with a consequence management plan. Ambuja also undertakes comprehensive assessments of certain high-risk suppliers (e.g. logistic service providers, labour contractors, alternative fuel vendors) through various methods whose results determine the on-boarding/retention of these suppliers. In 2019, Ambuja undertook comprehensive assessments of about 175 logistic services providers, 409 labour contractors and 465 alternative fuel vendors.
  • Implementing a Supplier Code of Conduct
  • Ambuja’s Supplier Code of Conduct (SCC) provides a summary of Ambuja’s expectations from its suppliers/contractors in all procurement dealings and covers the standards specified in the Social Accountability Standard SA 8000 and EMS ISO 14001. All new suppliers are made aware of and provided with a copy of the SCC, and their consent to follow it is obtained. Ambuja makes sure that no worker under the legal working age of 18 is employed directly or indirectly by its contractors and all purchase orders and agreements incorporate clauses related to occupational health and safety (OH&S), environmental management, labour standards, and social responsibility. Ambuja also has a system based self-declaration in which vendors answer basic questions about their compliance with these aspects and standards. All suppliers must complete the Supplier CSR and OH&S management system questionnaire as a condition for eligibility.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:

1) Disclosure 308-2 Negative environmental impacts in the supply chain and actions taken

2) Disclosure 414-1 New suppliers that were screened using social criteria

3) Disclosure 414-2 Negative social impacts in the supply chain and actions taken

 

Disclosure 308-2 Negative environmental impacts in the supply chain and actions taken does not correspond to any SDG.

Disclosure 414-1 New suppliers that were screened using social criteria corresponds to:

Disclosure 414-2 Negative social impacts in the supply chain and actions taken corresponds to:

 

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

7 GRI sustainability disclosures get you started

Any size business can start taking sustainability action

GRI, ISEP, CPD Certified Sustainability courses (2-5 days): Live Online or Classroom  (venue: London School of Economics)

  • Exclusive FBRH template to begin reporting from day one
  • Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and People
  • Formulate in group exercises your plan for action. Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP. 
  • Benchmarking methodology to set you on a path of continuous improvement

See upcoming training dates.
References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Ambuja, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

Note to Ambuja: With each case study we send out an email requesting a comment on this case study. If you have not received such an email please contact us.

The post Case study: How Ambuja promotes sustainability across its supply chain appeared first on SustainCase - Sustainability Magazine.

]]> Case study: How Ambuja promotes employee development https://sustaincase.com/case-study-how-ambuja-promotes-employee-development/ Mon, 22 Feb 2021 06:57:32 +0000 https://ccprowebs.com/new-sustaincase.com/?p=12270 Ambuja Cements Limited (ACL), established in 1986, is one of India’s leading cement manufacturing companies, with a product portfolio largely revolving around cementitious products such as Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Pozzolana Portland Cement (PPC) and Pozzolana Composite Cement (PCC). , while providing a collaborative working atmosphere free from discrimination and harassment along with equal career development opportunities for all employees. This case study is based on the 2019 Sustainable Development Report by Ambuja published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability […]

The post Case study: How Ambuja promotes employee development appeared first on SustainCase - Sustainability Magazine.

]]> Ambuja Cements Limited (ACL), established in 1986, is one of India’s leading cement manufacturing companies, with a product portfolio largely revolving around cementitious products such as Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Pozzolana Portland Cement (PPC) and Pozzolana Composite Cement (PCC). A company is as good as its employees, and that motivates Ambuja to carving out leaders through various initiatives for developing and retaining superior talent  Tweet This!, while providing a collaborative working atmosphere free from discrimination and harassment along with equal career development opportunities for all employees.

This case study is based on the 2019 Sustainable Development Report by Ambuja published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.

Abstract

Learning and development activities help Ambuja make sure that it has the right people, in the right role, with the right competencies, at its industrial sites. In order to promote employee development Ambuja took action to:

  • establish a Leadership Academy
  • offer virtual learning opportunities
  • implement Impact, a programme for plant heads
  • launch a digital learning platform

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2019 Sustainable Development Report Ambuja identified a range of material issues, such as economic performance, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, compliance to regulatory requirements, biodiversity, health & safety. Among these, promoting employee development stands out as a key material issue for Ambuja.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards              

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Ambuja engages with:

To identify and prioritise material topics Ambuja engaged with its stakeholders through the following channels: 

Stakeholder Group                Method of engagement
Shareholders and Investors

 

 

 ·      Annual General Meeting

·      Investor Grievance Cell

·      Board Meetings/Communications

·      Annual Report
Dealers and Suppliers

 

 

 ·      Channel Satisfaction Survey

·      Grihalakshmi Conference

·      Annual Meeting

·      Marketing Meetings
Customers

 

 ·      Technical Services Team

·      Camps

·      Workshops

·      Seminars

·      Site Visits
Employees

 

 

 

 

 ·      Employee Engagement Survey

·      Function-specific Meetings and Newsletters

·      Magazines — I CAN, I SIGHT

·      Townhall

·      Functions and Programmes
Community and NGOs

 

 ·      Ambuja Cement Foundation

·      Community Advisory Panel

·      Site Specific Impact Assessment
Government and Regulatory Authorities ·      Meetings

·      Communications on proposed legislations
Media

 

 ·      Press Briefings/Invitation to Events

·      Site Specific Impact Assessment
Construction Professionals ·      Ambuja Knowledge Centres
Industry Associations

 

 ·      Meetings

·      Policy Papers

·      Tele-cons

·      Delegation

What actions were taken by Ambuja to promote employee development?

In its 2019 Sustainable Development Report Ambuja reports that it took the following actions for promoting employee development:

  • Establishing a Leadership Academy
  • The ACC ACL Leadership Academy (AALA) (a joint academy of ACC and Ambuja Cement, started in 2012) and Techport (for technical trainings) provide leadership as well as functional trainings for employees, to develop capability and competence. Apart from classroom and on the job trainings, focus is also on virtual e-learning trainings and webinars for wider coverage on different topics, while facilitating employees to learn at their own pace and place. AALA and Techport partner with some of the best management and technical institutes to build competence in identified areas. Training is identified and aligned to business needs and about 50% of staff time at the academy is spent in understanding and inculcating strong work practices during training.
  • Offering virtual learning opportunities
  • Ambuja has conducted 16 Virtual Classroom training sessions in addition to classroom programmes, to cover a larger population of the sales force. This goes a long way in making sure that the field force is comfortable using technology and continues to work in the field. Virtual Learning ensures that salespeople have a greater understanding of their responsibilities within their role and in turn build their confidence, which will enhance their overall performance.
  • Implementing Impact, a programme for plant heads
  • For plant heads, Ambuja conducted a unique programme to:
    • Develop strategic thinking, planning and execution skills
    • Translate global strategy into local actions
    • Take quality decisions in high-stake and ambiguous conditions
    • Manage communication channels
    • See what it takes to lead a team with conflicting priorities
  • Additionally, Ambuja implements the Kirkpatrick Model to assess the effectiveness of training programmes at three levels:
    • reaction of employees;
    • learning;
    • behavioural change; and
    • results of the training (applied for few trainings).
  • For level 3 assessment, action learning projects were conducted to assess whether employees can convert their learning into action. Evaluation for a technical training “Walk by inspector Certification program” revealed the quantified benefits in improving Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF).
  • Launching a digital learning platform
  • As on-demand learning becomes popular, Ambuja introduced a digital learning platform by using micro learning for effective training. SAIL (Super Assisted Intelligent Learning) intends to reach out to maximum learners, creating new learning opportunities for everyone, available on both Web and Mobile. This method proves useful for acquiring skills, as grasping concepts becomes easier when employees can follow the momentum on a device of their choice. SAIL focuses on inclusive learning, ensuring maximum people are offered learning opportunities through curated content delivered online at their workplace. Over 80% of employees started using the digital platform for learning. The SAIL platform hosts more than 80 e-learning modules and over 3,000 employees started using it, with the total time spent by them on the leaning platform amounting to 1,032 hours. Additionally, a total of 6,401 content views showed that learners are adopting to this digital learning platform.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 404-2 Programs for upgrading employee skills and transition assistance programs

Disclosure 404-2 Programs for upgrading employee skills and transition assistance programs corresponds to:

 

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

7 GRI sustainability disclosures get you started

Any size business can start taking sustainability action

GRI, ISEP, CPD Certified Sustainability courses (2-5 days): Live Online or Classroom  (venue: London School of Economics)

  • Exclusive FBRH template to begin reporting from day one
  • Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and People
  • Formulate in group exercises your plan for action. Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP. 
  • Benchmarking methodology to set you on a path of continuous improvement

See upcoming training dates.
References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Ambuja, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

Note to Ambuja: With each case study we send out an email requesting a comment on this case study. If you have not received such an email please contact us.

The post Case study: How Ambuja promotes employee development appeared first on SustainCase - Sustainability Magazine.

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