Sustainability Report 20 10
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Sustainability Report 10 20 1 2 2010 Sustainability Report 2010 Esval S.A. 3 About this Report This is Esval’s third Sustainability Report, which outlines 1. Benchmark of sustainability reports of Chilean its economic, social and environmental performance in a water utilities. This concept identified the main issues balanced way, pursuant to the criteria and requirements laid and aspects reported by the industry and best reporting down by the G3/2006 guidelines of the Global Reporting practice. Initiative (GRI) on drawing up sustainability reports1. The content of this report only considers Esval’s operations 2. Analysis of press articles. The aim was to find out the in the Valparaíso Region in the January 1 through December significant issues for the company and industry from a 31, 2010 period, unless expressly indicated otherwise. For public opinion perspective and in a context of a better understanding and provided comparable data sustainable development. Press articles in the January was available, the figures and data are shown compared 1 through December 31, 2010 period were reviewed to the years 2008 and 2009. and analyzed. In regard to the data reported the previous year, there were no major changes in Esval’s size, structure or 3. Stakeholder consultation process. A structured ownership, and nor have the bases, preparation criteria stakeholder consultation process was developed in or the calculation methods used changed. If any indicator January 2010 to gain feedback on the 2009 report. has been modified, this will be expressly reported. A representative sample of company workers (online survey) was consulted, along with communal association (UNCO) leaders in the region. Compliance with the principles on reporting content All the stakeholders also had the opportunity of raising other issues of interest that were not reported on in the The content of this report was defined considering the 2009 report or about which they would like to have more principles of the GRI standard on relevance or materiality, information. sustainability context and stakeholder inclusiveness. The material issues and their priority were established To guarantee data materiality, the performance indicators in this exercise, which are reflected in the structure were selected based on the following three-phase of this report and the detail of the different issues structured concept: reported on. 1 2 3 Aspects identified Aspects identified in press Aspects raised by stakeholders by benchmark + analysis + (UNCO leaders and workers) List of material issues to be included in Esval’s Sustainability Report 2010 1www.globalreporting.org 2 Stakeholder content priority matrix2 Biodiversity Investment and economic value Legislation Environmental investments Solid waste Customers Products and services VERY HIGH VERY Employee relations Airborne emissions Discharges and overflows Contractors Raw materials Community Energy Customer information Suppliers HIGH Trade unions IMPACT (average relevance) (average IMPACT Occupational safety AVERAGE AVERAGE HIGH VERY HIGH Gap between groups surveyed 2 The X axis considers the dispersion between the opinions of the stakeholders consulted. The Y axis considers the average importance given to each of the issues analyzed by the stakeholders consulted. 3 In this report Esval also strived to meet the additional data expectations raised by the leaders of the communal organizations involved in the process of defining the content of Esval’s Sustainability Report 2010. Response level in Issues/concerns this report Page • Odor management and quantity of events 53 Environmental Performance • Management of sewage and drinking emergencies 57-59 Social Performance • Quality control 74-76 Product Responsibility • Water fluoridation Social Performance • Contractor company relations and control Labor Practices 87 Economic Performance • Tariff establishment and service charge 36-40 Attained Partially attained Unattained 4 Compliance with the principles on reporting quality To ensure the quality, accuracy, comparability and verifiability of the information contained in this report, Esval had the support of a specialized external consultant on the GRI-G3 guidelines. This support enabled the necessary precisions to be made and the targets for the next reporting period to be documented. Each indicator concerning the company’s economic, social and environmental performance was drawn up in accordance with technical data and calculations based on procedures laid down in national regulations and aligned with the standards accepted by the international community. Esval commissioned Bureau Veritas Chile for an independent external review of this report, and it carried out limited verification and qualified the report as being Level A compliance of the GRI standard. This year the report will only be disseminated digitally on 500 USB pen drives containing the complete version of the report in Spanish. Moreover, to guarantee access and wide distribution, a version was released in PDF format that is available on the corporate website www.esval.cl Corporate contact Management: General Management Esval deems this report is a way of sharing its achievements Address: Cochrane 751, Valparaíso and challenges with its main stakeholders to promote greater engagement with them. To request further Telephone: (56 - 32) 2209341 information or make comments on the content of this report, interested people or institutions can contact: Email: [email protected] 5 Index 00 Foreword by the President 8 01 Our company 12 01.1 Who we are and what we do 01.2 Business vision and sustainability 01.3 Stakeholder dialogue and communication channels 01.4 Corporate governance and ethics 01.5 Commitments to external initiatives 01.6 Contribution to regional economic development 01.7 Sanitary regulation and tariff system Esval’s response to the earthquake on February 27 41 02 Controlling our environmental impact 48 02.1 Managing our impact 02.2 Water and biodiversity 02.3 Emissions 02.4 Waste 02.5 Discharges 02.6 Raw materials 02.7 Energy 6 03 Customer relations 62 03.1 Customer relations management 03.2 Customer service and satisfaction 03.3 Customer information and dialogue 03.4 Customer support 03.5 Product quality and safety 03.6 Supplier relations 04 Employee relations 78 04.1 Generating quality employment 04.2 Training, development and employability 04.3 Occupational health and safety 04.4 Labor relations 04.5 Contractors 05 Community relations in the region 88 05.1 Community relations management 06 2010 commitments and 2011 challenges 96 07 GRI index 100 7 00 Foreword by the President 8 00 Foreword by the President We are pleased to present our third Sustainability Report, which meets the objective of making the company’s management and actions transparent and verifying the progress we have made with the continuous improvement of the activities we undertake. This report covers Esval’s operations January 1 through December 31, 2010, and as in previous years provides a balanced account of the company’s economic, social and environmental performance, in accordance with the G3/2006 guidelines and requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) on drawing up sustainability reports. We also reiterate that sustainable development is part of the business model embraced by the company, which is evidenced by socially responsible behavior, respect for workers, the environment and the communities with whom we engage. The main difficulty we faced in 2010 was the earthquake that hit the center and south of Chile. Although most of Esval’s facilities were not damaged and remained operative, in four days we were almost fully back to normal The support from communal and neighbors’ associations operations, with the exception of a sector in the San should be highlighted, which informed the community of Antonio province, where it took three more days to get the location of tanks we made available to mitigate this the water supply back to normal. Once our customers had situation; and the support of hundreds of volunteers from all the services working normally, we scheduled the repair Un Techo para Chile (A Roof for Chile), who helped us of the 84-kilometer long Las Vegas aqueduct, which is the distribute water to neighbors. We also received support main source of drinking water for Greater Valparaíso that from the Army, Navy and Police. This very enriching was cracked by the earthquake. Most of this was resolved experience was also a lesson for us and we believe it is with no impact on customers, except two kilometers that possible to carry on improving the coordination with the compelled us to schedule temporary water cuts: one of authorities and social organizations in similar situations. about 60 hours, and the other of 18 hours. The water shortage, which particularly hit some agricultural Despite the problems caused by a situation like this, sectors, is one of the challenges of our business. As a both events gave us the chance to witness the good prevention measure, we brought investments forward spirit of collaboration there is between the company, the and carried out different interconnection works to assure authorities and social organizations. the water supply to high-risk sectors. 9 Our achievements in 2010 were due to long-term policies, different public services in the so-called “Government on which were put in place when the private administration site” initiatives. In this case, Esval provided information took over in April 1999 and are now part of the company and recommendations for problems people might have culture, and as such they will continue to be applied in with using the sanitary infrastructure. forthcoming years. One of these is our relationship of collaboration with the community, which helps to forge, At the same time, we held 155 roundtable meetings with drive and develop open, flowing, honest, harmonious and the communal associations, neighbors’ associations and cooperative relations. We developed a series of programs neighbor health councils. We conducted 250 guided visits and activities in 2010 as part of the “Healthy water, healthy to drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities by life” campaign and the “Up-To-Date with Esval” program.