What are the material issues the company has identified?  

In its 2021 Sustainability Report Sarantis Group identified a range of material issues, such as investing in R&D for innovative and sustainable products, safeguarding corporate governance, regulatory compliance and business ethics, ensuring product quality and customer safety. Among these, creating economic value for its stakeholders stands out as a key material issue for Sarantis 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 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 Sarantis Group engages with: 

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Shareholders and Providers of capital	·      IR and Corporate webpages ·      Mass Media ·      Roadshows and Corporate Presentations ·      Personal contacts with IR or Company’s executives ·      Annual briefing at the Institutional Investors Association ·      Ordinary and Extraordinary General Meetings
Employees	·      Meeting through the evaluation procedure ·      Training seminars ·      One-day conferences ·      Intracompany presentations ·      Issue of manuals and working instructions ·      Communication through help desk ·      Communication based on the code of conduct ·      Reports by the Occupational Physician
Customers	·      Annual meeting for the drawing up of commercial agreement ·      Communication for special actions agreement ·      Monthly communication for credit policy issues ·      Frequently scheduled communication with sales officers ·      Sarantis evaluation meeting, regarding cooperation
Consumers	·      Product webpages ·      Corporate webpages ·      Market Researchers ·      Direct communication-consumers line ·      Social Media ·      Media press releases ·      Product events and sponsorships
Society – Communities	·      By phone and via e-mail ·      Written communication ·      Participation in events
Suppliers and partners	·      Evaluation meetings and visits to the production premises to confirm that all requirements are covered ·      Corporate webpages ·      Participation in conferences and events ·      By phone or via e-mail ·      Written communication
Business Community	·      By phone or via e-mail ·      Written communication ·      Corporate Webpages ·      Participation in conferences and events
State authorities	·      Announcements by bodies, through webpages or media ·      Meetings, telephone contact or via e-mail ·      Written communication ·      IR webpage
Regulatory authorities (Greek and EU audit/ regulatory authorities)	·      Announcements by Bodies, through webpages or media ·      Meetings, telephone contact or via e-mail ·      Written communication ·      Corporate website

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics Sarantis Group engaged with its stakeholders through an online survey.

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

In its 2021 Sustainability Report Sarantis Group reports that it took the following actions for creating economic value for its stakeholders:

• Creating economic value for employees
• In 2021, Sarantis Group paid € 54,086,837 for employee wages and benefits.

• Creating economic value for providers of capital
• In 2021, Sarantis Group paid € 15,363,514 to providers of capital.

• Creating economic value for the government
• In 2021, Sarantis Group paid € 10,578,077 to the government.

• Creating economic value for communities
• In 2021, Sarantis Group spent € 325,275 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.

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References:

This case study is based on published information by Sarantis 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://sarantisgroup.com/media/l30p30ti/sarantis_csr_2021.pdf

Note to Sarantis 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.