Global Compact Annual Communication on Progress
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Global Compact Annual Communication on Progress Company name Corio Date 10-08-2010 Unit (if applicable) CSR Address Sint Jacobsstraat 200 3511 BT Membership date 2008 Country The Netherlands Number of 429 employees Contact name Ms. Lara Muller Contact position CSR Manager Sector Real Estate Contact telephone +31 30 28290202 no. Brief description of nature of business Corio is a retail property company. It specializes in the selection, development, redevelopment and management of shopping centers. Currently Corio runs operations in five countries: the Netherlands (where our headquarters are located, France, Italy, Spain and Turkey. The company’s shares are traded on Euronext NYSE in Amsterdam and Paris. Under Dutch law Corio is a closed-end fiscal investment institution (FBI). It has a SIIC status in France. As of March 2008, Corio has been included in the Dutch blue-chip index of 25 leading shares, the AEX. Statement of support Part of our CSR strategy was the signatory of the United Nations Global Compact, two years ago and we remain committed to upholding and developing long term strategies to meet our commitment to the UNGC principles. We incorporated the UNGP principle in a group wide Code of Conduct, which is applicable not only to our employees but also to suppliers and business partners. This ongoing commitment to upholding the human rights principles and compliancy with human rights laws is a management Board responsibility and is publicly stated in our CSR report 2009 by the CEO of the Management Board. The Corio Management Board recognizes that high levels of CSR, incorporating the economic, environmental and social objectives, will create a more sustainable business and increase stakeholder value. We have gone through an extensive development of CSR within our company the past two years. Our scope of vision has gone from subject-oriented, by creating content in reaction to market developments, towards action-oriented, by building sustainable relations with our stakeholders; a proactive attitude towards the subject. Even though the financial crises had an impact on the economy, Corio is committed in the long term to CSR as it considers CSR will be beneficial for all stakeholders, including the shareholders. We have made CSR an integral part of our strategy and policy and we actively implement that policy in our operational portfolio. As such it is incorporated in Corio‟s decision making process, into its daily operations as well as its investment and (re)development activities. Regarding our pipeline of new projects, sustainability is a prime consideration. If sustainable investment possibilities are limited, we focus on the property‟s social and environmental improvement potential. Our CSR strategy is to maintain dialogue with our main stakeholders, such as (potential) consumers, local authorities, tenants, suppliers and employees as a means of improving our corporate social responsibility performance. However, we also want to improve the responsibility of our suppliers, tenants, tenants‟ suppliers and visitors, who are predominantly the consumers of the catchment areas, thus creating shared value for all parties involved. With our strategy, CSR policy and values, we have laid the basis for building sustainable relations with our stakeholders. We published our first Corporate Social Responsibility report over 2009, which presents a summary of our achievements to date and sets out our future targets and ambitions. ENVIRONMENT SOCIAL ECONOMIC From 2009 onwards, our plan is to report on our total CSR performance each year and to inform stakeholders on the progress achieved. Up till now we have mainly reported on our financial and business performance. Behind the scenes, however, we have been gearing up for CSR reporting for three years. To date, we have made solid progress in getting our own CSR house in order. We have aligned many internal processes such as human resources and the primary business processes (leasing, centre management, facility management, marketing, (re)development), but also supporting functions such as human resources, systems, technique, internal accounting and communication. We have made quite some progress on creating a corporate Human Resources policy and sharing the same values within the company. As a result the company becomes more united and cohesive despite our decentralized business model. Such cohesion is important in establishing, working on, monitoring and measuring a company‟s true CSR performance. All functional departments work closely together through CSR committees, allowing us now to focus on alignment, best practices and presenting the effectiveness of our CSR policy to the outside world. Signature Position Human Rights Principle 1 Business should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights Principle 2 Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses Our commitment or policy Corio CSR Policy Code of Conduct HR Policy Corio CSR Report 2009 We believe it is important to have a clear understanding of what we expect of our employees, suppliers and business partners and what they can expect from Corio. We therefore ask our preferred suppliers to sign our corporate Code of Conduct whereby they take into account the rules we set for our own employees. This will contribute to ensuring that our partners and Corio behave according to these values. These values are based on environmentally responsible behavior, human rights and labor practices. We embrace the principles of fair operating practice as demonstrated by the incorporation of the following values into our policy: • Anti-corruption: respect for the rule of law and adherence to ethical standards • Fair competition: deal honestly, equitably and with integrity • Socially and environmentally responsible behavior: show leadership and mentorship throughout the value chain • Labor standards: no forced labor, child labor and integrity on all aspects of employment We believe that if we work together with our existing suppliers by encouraging them to adopt more responsible business practices, we can make a difference further down the supply chain. If the suppliers want to continue a business relationship with us, they will have to do the same for their stakeholders, thus chain responsibility is achieved by all parties. By setting up formal complaint procedures we want to further develop the relationship with all suppliers, as this is an important step in the realization of reliable business partnerships and sustainable innovation. Code of Conduct, article II.1: “We do not do business with people or companies which we suspect are involved with criminal or socially unacceptable business practices nor do we have links with organizations which cause harm to society or human rights. You must take appropriate care when providing services to clients to ensure that their activities are socially acceptable. This is also applicable to third parties hired by Corio. If they are not acceptable by law or by Corio‟s Code of Conduct you must refuse to enter into a business relationship. If the client is an existing one, we may choose to terminate the business relationship.” A brief description of our processes or systems When completed and agreed upon, the Code of Conduct has been formally introduced to every business unit separately by the Management Board during a local road show. The director of strategy and investments, at the time responsible for CSR, commented on the CSR policy, including the human rights compliance. A COO has been appointed within the Management Board in 2010, responsible for CSR. A HR director has been appointed in 2009, who will be responsible for setting up a group wide HR policy, including more emphasis on Human Rights Human Rights are being included in the risk management approach and are included in the letter of representation Business Units have been requested to get in contact with their tenants, suppliers and business partners in order to communicate the CSR values, including Human Rights, and asking compliance of these values. CSR, including Human Rights, has been included in the quarterly reporting cycle in order to monitor and improve performance. Whistle blowing policy is in place and available on the website Practical actions implemented in the last year / planned for next year A program is currently being designed to take the next step in CSR development throughout the organisation. This program will include amelioration on all aspects of CSR, including the Human Rights aspect. One of the planned actions is to perform a concernwide risk analysis on a.o. human rights risks, both geographically as functionally. The result of this two dimensional analysis will be the basis of a mitigation plan to be implemented subsequently. Part of the program, is a training module including Human Rights awareness for all employees A CSR competence centre is being set up centrally to provide employees assistance on all aspects of CSR relating to their daily business. A separate section will be actively engaged in Human Rights topics. A central document repository has been set up in 2009, saving a wide selection of content on CSR topics. Measurable results or outcomes Several Business Units have initiated assessments of their procurement practices and supplier relations. We expect results from these activities in the second half of 2010. Currently, additional codes and policies are being drafted in cooperation with the legal, compliance and risk departments to work out the principles