What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2021 Integrated Report Sofidel identified a range of material issues, such as climate change and reduction of emissions into the atmosphere, health and safety of workers, ethics and transparency, respect for human rights. Among these, creating economic value for its stakeholders stands out as a key material issue for Sofidel.

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 Sofidel engages with:

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement (Inform)
Environment	·      Voluntary disclosure initiatives ·      Product environmental information ·      Adhesion to stakeholder initiatives to collect information ·      Website, social media, corporate newsletter ·      Intranet ·      Certification bodies ·      Sofidel internal committees
Shareholders	·      Consolidated Financial Statements and Report on Operations ·      Integrated Report ·      Corporate website ·      Financial solidity and sustainability
Community	·      Corporate website ·      Integrated Report ·      Giuseppe Lazzareschi Foundation website ·      PR and social media ·      Soft & Green blog
Financial community	·      Consolidated Financial Statements and Report on Operations ·      Integrated Report ·      Corporate website ·      Bank Meetings ·      Information on request ·      PR
Consumers and customers	·      Newsletter ·      Corporate website ·      Commercial and service sites ·      Social media ·      SofidelShop ·      Sales documentation ·      Communication campaigns ·      Integrated Report
Trade suppliers and partners	·      Corporate website ·      Supplier guidelines ·      Integrated Report ·      Dedicated website for suppliers ·      Future Magazine
Institutions	·      Corporate website ·      Integrated Report ·      Social media, PR media and events ·      Soft & Green blog
Sofidel Group people	·      Intranet Portal ·      Communications from top management ·      Integrated Report ·      Group organisational communications ·      ‘People & Paper’ House Organ ·      Sofidel Informa/ News ·      Distribution of HR guidelines, policy and procedures ·      Sofidel Channel ·      Soft & Green blog

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics Sofidel engaged with its stakeholders through one-on-one interviews and a workshop.

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

In its 2021 Integrated Report Sofidel reports that it took the following actions for creating economic value for its stakeholders:

• Creating economic value for employees
• In 2021, Sofidel paid 366,663 thousand Euros to employees.

• Creating economic value for suppliers
• In 2021, Sofidel paid 1,523,068 thousand Euros to suppliers.

• Creating economic value for capital suppliers
• In 2021, Sofidel paid 33,098 thousand Euros to capital suppliers.

• Creating economic value for public administrations
• In 2021, Sofidel paid 29,054 thousand Euros to public administrations.

• Creating economic value for the community
• In 2021, Sofidel spent 1,248 thousand Euros for the community.

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 Sofidel, 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:

http://integrated-report.sofidel.com/site/assets/files/1/report_sofidel2021_eng.pdf

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