Explicación de los conceptos de Responsabilidad Corporativa, Desarrollo Sostenible, etc. y su aplicación en Agbar

1. MA-Strategic Management in Global Communication
Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics
IGNASI FAINÉ / NEREA PLAZA
March 21st

2. WHAT ARE OUR EXPECTATIONS FROM THESE
SESSIONS?

3. Introduction
I. CONCEPT
II. HOW IS IT APPLIED? STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION
III. BUSINESS ETHICS
IV. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

4. WHO ARE WE?
Water cycle
Supply
Sewerage
Over 140 years’
experience
Approximately
150 companies
Activities in over
10 countries
Over 10,000
professionals
Environment
Knowledge
Solutions
Infrastructures
Concessions

5. I. CONCEPT

6. What is Sustainable Development? What is SD
NOT?
What is CSR? What is CSR NOT?
(individual written - debate)

7. PEOPLE PLANET
THE WATER CHALLENGES
Unequal distribution and difficult access to drinking water
GOALSCONFLICTS

8. Water & planet
0.0001% of the whole planet’s water are drinking water reserves
www.calvert.com

9. The challenge of…
CLIMATE
CHANGE
SOCIAL
INEQUALITIES
URBANIZATION
INEQUALITIES
BETWEEN
COUNTRIES
DEVELOPMENT
EMERGING
COUNTRIES
CONFLICTS
OVER
RESOURCES

10. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.
Bruntland Report
Economic
Social
Environ-
mental
SD Labour
rightsCorporate
Governance
Human
Rights
Civil Rights
RESPONSIBILITY
LONG TERM
COMPREHENSIVE
VISION

11. WHICH IS THE ROLE OF
COMPANIES?
Input Company Output

13. → Which is the role of the company?
→ Is it creating wealth?
• Kind?
• Who for?
• In exchange for?
→ Is it being responsible?
→ Is it sustaible?
→ Is this a real situation?
THE IDEAL COMPANY

14. “The social Responsibility of Business
is to increase its profits”
Milton Friedman
The New York Times Magazine,
September 13, 1970

15. … AND THE ROLE OF COMPANIES?
Input Company Output
Use of resources
Waste
Effects on biodiversity
Pollution
Alterations to the landscape
Employment/Unemployment
Community development
Purchases – economic development
PEOPLE
COMPANIES
SECTOR
COUNTRY
ENVIRONMENT

16. Corporate Social Responsibility as “the responsibility of enterprises for
their impacts on society”.
Enterprises “should have in place a process to integrate social,
environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concerns into their
business operations and core strategy in close collaboration with their
stakeholders”.
European Commission (2011)
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

17. CHARACTERISTICS
Proactive
Voluntary
Beyond strict adherence to law
EVOLUTION
Mitigation
of impacts
Prevention
Creation of
value
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

18. CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

19. IS NOT...
The activity carried out by the company in relation to “the needy”:
social action.
The actions carried out by the company to protect the
environment: environmental sustainability.
A department or a specific area of action.
IS...
 Ensuring the viability of the business, introducing more than purely
economic parameters into the decision-making processes:
integrating the social, environmental, ethical, labour, moral, etc.
concerns into our day-to-day business.
 What the company does to ensure its permanence over time.
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

20. Different terms....
...the same idea
"Businesses around the world are waking up to the
urgency of addressing social, economic and
environmental challenges.“
Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General

21. II. STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION

22. How to implement CSR?
CSR is the responsibility of companies for their impact on society.
• Starting point: regulatory and legislative compliance
• Implementation of a process: to integrate social, environmental,
ethical, human rights and consumer concerns into their business
operations and core strategy.
• … in close collaboration with their stakeholders.

23. COMMUNICATING BUSINESS
→ How do I start?
The power of purpose
What
we have
What
we do
How we
do it
WHY we
do it
From tangibles…
… to Intangibles
©Therry Tyrell

24. CR STRATEGY
de RC
PMP RC
IRC Actions carried out during the year
Definition of the Vision, Mission and
Values
Prioritization of the stakeholders
Establishment of commitments with
the strategic stakeholders
Preparation of action plans with
annual objectives and medium-term
goals
Stakeholders
Policy
Medium-Term
Plan
Accountability
Vision
Mission
Values

25. Vision, mission, values
Vision
Be the reference business group in our areas of activity and one
of the big global utilities.
Manage water efficiently to improve the quality of life of people, in
harmony with the environment.
Lead the development of solutions and technologies in the water sector.
Transfer the accumulated experience to society, generating value for our
stakeholders.
Contribute to attaining the United Nations Millennium Development
Goals.
Excellence
Innovation
Sustainable business model
Dialogue and cooperation
Local development
Alliances and collaborations
Mission
Values

26. Stakeholders

27. ROLE PLAY: HOW DO I INTEGRATE THE CONCERNS?:
- Company Director
- Consumers’ Association
- Representative local authorities (city council)
- Union representative
- Environmental NGO
- Social NGO
- Supplier company
QUESTIONS:
- Is it easy to maintain an open dialogue? How to
structure the dialogue in a big company?
- Is it easy to meet all demands? Is it necessary to
do so?
- What dimensions come within CSR?
- What departments would be involved in the
requests that were made?

28. e.g. Dimensions (GRI) i

29. e.g. Dimensions (GRI) ii

30. Commitments

31.  The preparation of the Corporate Responsibility Medium-Term Plan
(CRMTP) reflects the desire to promote CR in Agbar and to incorporate it
into the business strategy.
 It is the internal document which details the actions to carry out in
order to fulfil the commitments detailed in the Corporate Responsibility
policy.
 The Corporate Responsibility and Reputation Office wants the CRMTP to
be aligned and to be able to make contributions to the objectives of
Agbar’s strategic plan.
CR Mid-term plan
MEDIUM-TERM CR
PLAN

32. AGBAR - Accountability
DEBATE: ARE CR REPORTS USEFUL?

33. III. BUSINESS ETHICS

34. CODE OF ETHICS
• A written set of guidelines issued by an organization
to its workers and management to help them
conduct their actions in accordance with its primary
values and ethical standards.
RIGHT WRONG

35. Our principles
• 4 fundamental principles which guide our behaviour:
• Act in accordance with laws and regulations
• Establish a culture of integrity
• Demonstrate loyalty and honesty
• Respect others

36. APPLYING OUR PRINCIPLES…
TO WHOM? AND WHEN?
(test)

37. Spheres of application
• Three spheres in which these four fundamental principles
are applied:
• Organization sphere, formed by employees, companies
which make up Agbar and shareholders
• Market sphere, within which we maintain relations
with clients, suppliers and competitors.
• Environment sphere, formed by the world around us,
in the countries in which we are present: local
community and the environment nesty and respect for
others.

39. Are we ethical? Corporate Culture
Values
Vision
Beliefs
…
Norms
Codes
Procedures…
Behaviour
Performance
habits

40. IS IT WORTH THE EFFORT?

41. The value of reputation
Source: “The Tangible Value of Corporate Reputation”, Charles J. Fombrun and Jonathan Low, Communication World,
Nov-Dec 2011

42. FeDex website
FeDex in Youtube
VW Passat Spot Star Wars
VW Passat Spot Star Wars - response

43. …and the cost of irresponsibility
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and
five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that,
you'll do things differently.
Warren Buffett
Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway
Can I do this forever?

44. III. COMMUNICATING CSR

45. Greenwash?
The Greenwash Guide – FUTERRA SUSTAINABILITY COMMUNICATIONS

46. Manging risks
good
bad
bad good
Risk
Opportunity
REALITY
PERCEPTION

47. Risks and opportunities of
Communicating CSR
RISKS OPPORTUNITIES
THE CORPORATE PURPOSE

48. EXPLAIN
DO
BE
The main challenge of CSR

49. CONCLUSIONS
SUMMARY VIDEO

50. FINAL TEST: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
CSR simply consists of managing the risk and preventing bad practices
CSR questions the business and capitalist system itself
CSR consists of giving money to social causes and being a philanthropist
CSR focuses on how companies make profit, not where they invest it
CSR acts on two levels: the individual and the organizational
For companies to act ethically they just need to write a code of ethics and a
corporate policy
CSR is unrealistic and that is why it does not obtain improvements
The responsibility of companies should be established and regulated by law and
the state
CSR is not the only answer, but it is an essential answer

51. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
responsabilidadcorporativa@agbar.es