What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2018 Sustainability Report EDC identified a range of material issues, such as profitability and business continuity, client satisfaction, talent retention, supply chain management, energy and emissions. Among these, supporting surrounding communities stands out as a key material issue for EDC.

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 EDC engages with:

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

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Shareholders	·      Annual General Meeting ·      Information Disclosures
Board of directors	·      Board meetings ·      Reports
Employees	·      Direct meetings ·      HR surveys ·      Employees’ conferences ·      Special purpose meetings or interviews ·      Direct phone calls ·      Camp boss weekly report ·      Rigs cameras ·      Emails
Clients and Customers	·      Daily operational contacts ·      Scheduled meetings ·      Regular operating reports ·      Regular surveys and inspections ·      Client’s satisfaction reports ·      Direct phone calls ·      Emails
Suppliers and vendors	·      Public tenders ·      Daily contacts ·      Vendors registration and inspection process ·      Mails ·      Phone calls ·      Direct meetings
Financial institutions / Creditors	·      Regular meetings ·      Financial report ·      Annual audit reports ·      Feasibility studies
Peers	·      Market research surveys ·      Participation in biddings
Regulator and relevant governmental entities	·      Reports to/from the government agencies ·      Direct meetings ·      Inspections ·      Auditors’ reports ·      Focal points
Local community, academia, and NGOs	·      Press releases ·      Public events ·      Website ·      Direct meetings and arrangements

What actions were taken by EDC to support surrounding communities?

In its 2018 Sustainability Report EDC reports that it took the following actions for supporting surrounding communities:

• Partnering with universities to build skills
• EDC partners with universities to promote its industry, build skills, and create a future pipeline of talent. EDC’s involvement is manifested in a strategic partnership with leading universities to work towards investment in skills as an important element in faster-growing markets. EDC’s key partnerships include Cairo University, Canal University, Al-Azhar University, Suez University, and the American University in Cairo. EDC had two types of training sessions for a university student: A fully engaging three-day technical programme tailored for petroleum section students and a two-day leadership workshop open for all faculties. The sessions were delivered to 158 students free of charge by EDCTC instructors. The programmes aim to support University Education in Egypt through:
  • Inviting students from the faculty of Petroleum Engineering of both national and private universities to visit EDC premises and to get hands on experience on the drilling work.
  • Giving students an overview on the operations process and the supporting departments through presentations conducted by volunteers from each department.
  • Introducing students to a number of practical training methods.
  • Raising awareness of the student’s leadership roles in different work environments.

• Organising blood donation drives
• EDC organises two blood donation drives per year. These drives aim to:
  • Allow EDC employees to offer blood for the Egyptian communities.
  • Rejuvenate the health and wellbeing of the donors themselves.
  • Secure Protocols with the National Blood Transfusion Service to assist a percentage of EDC employees and their direct family members with blood bags in case of emergencies.

• Supporting charity organisations
• EDC supports charity organisations such as Meshwar Foundation and Medicine for all. These organisations are not supported financially, but through employees’ item donations. Such donations are made through periodic campaigns such as the Winter Donation Campaign, the Back to School Campaign or supporting Upper Egypt Villages Campaign. Items are collected in donation boxes placed around the EDC main premises building and sent out to the targeted foundation.

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

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 413-1 Operations with local community engagement, impact assessments, and development programs

Disclosure 413-1 Operations with local community engagement, impact assessments, and development programs does not correspond to any SDG.

 

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References:

1) This case study is based on published information by EDC, 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/

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