2007 Sustainability Report

2007 Sustainability Report 2007 Sustainability Report At UniCredit Group we are aware that our business activities have an impact on the environment, and we always factor environmental sustainability into our strategic decisions. In 2008 the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the paper used for the publication of 2007 Annual Report and Sustainability Report have been offset by a contribution to a biomass-fueled district heating plant in Italy. The offsets for the 2007 Annual Report and Sustainability Report were executed in association with AzzeroCO2. Pictures Cover and sorter pages Courtesy Education Department of the Castello di Rivoli Contemporary Art Museum Top Managers Courtesy Ferruccio Torboli (UniCredit Group) UniCredit S.p.A. Registered Office: Roma, via Minghetti 17 General Management: Milan, Piazza Cordusio Graphic development and Composition: Registration number in the Rome Trade and Companies Register, tax Code and VAT No. 00348170101 Mercurio S.r.l. Studi di promozione pubblicitaria - Milan Entered in the Register of Banks Parent Company of the UniCredito Italiano Banking Group Banking Group Register No. 3135.1 Member of the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund Printed: Grafiche Milani SpA (Segrate) Capital Stock: € 6,683,084,257.50 fully paid in April 2008 The Art Experience 2007 was a formative year for the bank’s international activities in culture. It was a year that saw intense engagement in all the territories in which we operate. We believe that culture, when viewed as a strategic resource, can bring tremendous value and foster new ideas. These new ideas are fundamental to innovation and sustainable social and economic growth. In this year’s Sustainability Report, we have decided to focus on images of the international events which comprised our work with important partners in art and culture rather than on individual pieces from our collection. Notable among these were events in partnership with the Education Department of the Castello di Rivoli Contemporary Art Museum. These initiatives involving the broader public in art experiences illustrate the importance UniCredit Group attaches to entertain and promote an active dialogue with the communities in which our Group operates. The large gatherings pictured in this report were held in city squares and museums and involved thousands of people. What you see is a single spontaneously generated expression of thousands of hands united together in a joyful and creative concert. Contact with international artists and leading facilitators of culture, through diverse languages, styles and techniques, shows how art stimulates the development of relational and cognitive skills and the potential of the individual. Art, above all, generates significant positive energy which can connect people, bridge differences and promote dialogue. It offers an extraordinary repertoire for learning, exploring, experimenting and interpreting the present to build the future. Art brings people together. Which is why we say: ART TALKS. 2007 Sustainability Report Contents Sustainability Report Introduction 5 A culture of sustainability 19 Corporate governance 27 Our people 39 Our customers 63 Suppliers 95 Our communities 99 Investors and markets 121 Environment 127 GRI-G3 index 145 Report of the External Auditors 151 Glossary of acronyms and credits 155 UniCredit Group · 2007 Sustainability Report 3 Introduction Letter from the Managing Director/CEO 6 Report structure 8 Reporting criteria 8 Reporting process 9 Reporting period and scope 9 External assurance 9 Relevant issues 9 UniCredit Group Profile 10 At a Glance: our Unique Franchise 10 Business Model 12 Master Brand Strategy: in Unity there is Strength 14 The value distribution 16 UniCredit Group · 2007 Sustainability Report 5 Introduction Letter from the Managing Director/CEO A successful “company must continually reflect on whether its business model is appropriate to ensure long-term future growth and financial success. ” Dear Stakeholders, Recent turmoil in global markets, its effects on the economy and on people and businesses everywhere, clearly illustrate why sustainability needs to be at the forefront of our thinking. Ultimately banking is not about generating transient short-term profits, but about returning sustainable long-term value to our customers, our employees, the communities, and other stakeholders we depend on. At UniCredit Group, we have been focusing on sustainability for some considerable time. We know there is still much to be done, but we have made significant progress through 2007 and into early 2008. This report details our progress in this important area. Naturally, business success, as reflected in profit and shareholder return, is the first priority in a company’s efforts to achieve sustainability. Without it, a company is at the mercy of the market and loses 6 2007 Sustainability Report · UniCredit Group its capacity to shape its own future. A to the global economy and the structure recent GRI-G3 reporting standards. Rather successful company must continually of society that it has become essential than compiling separate reports for each reflect on whether its business model is that we go beyond providing just a strong of our legal entities as has been our past appropriate to ensure long-term future return to our shareholders and valuable practice, we have attempted for the first growth and financial success. support to our customers. We must provide time a consolidated articulation of our value for all of our stakeholders. This is complete vision of sustainability, detailing Yet sustainability is a multi-dimensional why we actively work with communities the initiatives and governance that apply to project and requires a comprehensive through our territorial committees to support the whole group, irrespective of market or approach. That is why our efforts in their economic and social development. customer segment. sustainability have expanded in scope and This philosophy also comes to life in our intensity in many areas. In our most recent cultural initiatives, through which we strive In this respect, we are particularly proud Annual Leadership Meeting (a two-day to generate broad public dialogues, rather that we were able to bring together relevant workshop), 400 senior leaders from our than just to provide diversions for privileged data for the first time from a number of our group focused their attention on the four insiders. Central and Eastern European operations. pillars we have identified as drivers of Given our dominant market position in sustainability: long-term economic value For the 180,000 of us who derive our this important growth region, we believe generation, customer-centricity, identity & immediate livelihoods from working at the group has a responsibility to be at people management and governance. UniCredit Group, sustainability will remain the forefront of developing a culture of a vital concern. The engagement of our sustainability in Central and Eastern Europe. Among many accomplishments, 2007 people with the company, with its identity It is certainly in our own best long-term witnessed a great effort by our Chairman and its goals is critical to the long-term interest to do so. and Board to strengthen our corporate generation of results. We view our people governance structure in line with as our greatest asset, and we place high In the coming months, we will continue to international best practices. We created a value on identifying talent early, providing work towards the capability to assemble dedicated Compliance Department, made structured development and career a fully comprehensive report, covering the significant progress in formalizing our opportunities and leveraging the competitive entire breadth of our group. We are working approach to reputational risk management advantages of diversity. hard to align all of our operations under and intensified our dialogue with our common master brand, which not only stakeholders. We also applied ourselves to Achieving full-fledged sustainability is provides us with greater leverage in the a wide variety of environmental initiatives, ultimately a holistic undertaking, requiring marketplace, but also aids in harmonizing involving both our own direct behaviors and a consistent and universal application of our collective efforts and will make possible our indirect influence on others through our underlying beliefs and values. a unified approach in our progress towards frequent role as an intermediator. achieving sustainability in everything we do That is why we have placed the UniCredit at UniCredit Group. Very few companies are as deeply involved Integrity Charter at the heart of our identity in all aspects of customers’ day-to-day lives and all of our activities. It is based on Sincerely yours, as those in the banking sector. Companies a core of our shared values - fairness, and individuals rely on banks to help transparency, respect, reciprocity, trust and them manage day-to-day challenges and freedom to act. We view the Integrity Charter to achieve long-term ambitions. These as the central mechanism that enables relationships are based on trust, and our people to act as entrepreneurs, while we know that our longevity depends on behaving responsibly towards each other, delivering consistent value as we empower our customers and all our stakeholders. people to “shape their tomorrow, today”. This is UniCredit Group’s first group-wide Alessandro Profumo In the same way, today’s international Sustainability Report. The report has

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