What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2020 Sustainable Development Report ELLAKTOR Group identified a range of material issues, such as health, safety and wellbeing of employees, regulatory compliance and business ethics, safeguarding human rights at the workplace, safeguarding health, safety and positive experience of end users and structural integrity and safety. Among these, creating economic value for its stakeholders stands out as a key material issue for ELLAKTOR Group.

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 s 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 ELLAKTOR Group engages with:

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Employees	·      Constant and direct communication via the Group’s intranet for all developments and changes ·      Continuous communication with the Group’s Human Resources Division, depending on the needs that arise ·      Open door policy for communication among each Director and their team, including group and personal meetings depending on the needs that arise
Customers	·      Direct communication through the persons responsible for each project/area of operations, on a consistent basis and as needed by the customer
Shareholders, Investors and Bondholders	·      Constant updates with announcements, press releases and presentations, through the website and the Media, as well as annually through the Group’s Sustainable Development Report ·      Continuous communication with Group Investor Relations ·      Meetings with the Management and Financial Division of the Group, ad hoc depending on needs
Banks and Financial Institutions	·      Constant updates with announcements, press releases and presentations, through the website and the Media, as well as annually through the Group’s Sustainable Development Report ·      Meetings with the Management and Financial Division of the Group, ad hoc depending on needs
Local Communities and Authorities	·      Constant communication with local Project managers, depending on needs as well as annually through the Group’s Sustainable Development Report
Subcontractors	·      Direct communication through the Site Managers of each activity, continuously and as needed
State and Regulatory Authorities	·      Constant updates with announcements, press releases and presentations, through the website and the Media, as well as annually through the Group’s Sustainable Development Report ·      Direct communication through the Project Managers of each activity, and through meetings with Management, ad hoc depending on needs
Society	·      Constant updates through announcements, press releases and presentations, through the website and the Media, as well as annually through the Group’s Sustainable Development Report ·      Meetings with the Group’s Corporate Communication Division in regards to Media, ad hoc depending on needs ·      Meetings with the Group’s Sustainable Development Division, in regards to NGOs and civil society organisations depending on needs
Suppliers and Partners	·      Direct communication through the Procurement Managers of each activity, ad hoc depending on needs

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics ELLAKTOR Group engaged with its stakeholders through a survey.

What actions were taken by ELLAKTOR Group to create economic value for its stakeholders?

In its 2020 Sustainable Development Report ELLAKTOR Group reports that it took the following actions for creating economic value for its stakeholders:

• Creating economic value for employees
• In 2020, ELLAKTOR Group paid € 143,966 thousand for employee salaries and wages, € 33,127 thousand in social insurance expenses, € 5,284 thousand in defined benefit programmes and € 13,229 thousand for other benefits to employees.

• Creating economic value for capital providers
• In 2020, ELLAKTOR Group paid € 98,732 thousand to capital providers.

• Creating economic value for the government
• In 2020, ELLAKTOR Group paid € 41,086 thousand to government agencies.

• Creating economic value for the community
• In 2020, ELLAKTOR Group paid € 3,971 thousand in community investments.

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

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed

Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.1, 8.2
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• Targets: 9.1, 9.4, 9.5

 

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:

This case study is based on published information by ELLAKTOR Group, 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 following link:

https://ellaktor.com/en/sustainability-reports/

Note to ELLAKTOR Group: 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.