AccountAbility is very grateful for the generous support of all the sponsors of the AA1000SES revision process.
For us, sustainability means addressing key business-related social, environmental and economic impacts in a way that aims to bring value to all our stakeholders, including shareholders. Our approach to sustainability is not a trade-off between achieving commercial success and meeting external stakeholder concerns. We see sustainability as being about helping to build long-term commercial sustainability by delivering on sustainable development objectives.
Our Group vision is to achieve leadership of the global tobacco industry in order to create shareholder value. Quantitatively, we seek volume leadership among our international competitors. Qualitatively, we aim to lead our industry as the preferred partner of key stakeholders and in demonstrating responsibility. Our strategy to deliver our vision is based on Growth, both organic and through mergers and acquisitions, on Productivity, through effective and efficient deployment of our global resources, on Responsibility, by building a sustainable business that meets stakeholder expectations, and on developing a Winning Organisation.
Our formal programme of stakeholder dialogue began in 2001 and has helped us to make the right kinds of improvements to our business, has shown us things we might not otherwise have realised and has enabled us to connect with stakeholders who are willing to help us do the right things well.
Taking a responsible approach to business has been a guiding focus of The Co-operative Group since its inception in 1863. We recognise the need to manage and develop our businesses in an ecologically sustainable and socially responsible manner.
Engagement with key stakeholders remains an important ongoing activity in the identification of material issues at the Group. Examples of such engagement range from employee surveys, supplier training events and customer satisfaction surveys – typical of the approaches undertaken by many businesses of the Group’s size – to consultations on the direction of our ethical policies and member democratic participation. These latter examples of embedded engagement reflect our co-operative values and principles and have wide-reaching impacts on business strategy.
Social responsibility is fundamental to the way we operate and at the heart of our approach is a determination to deliver on the things that really matter to us and our stakeholders.
Transparency in what we do, and our social impact, are paramount to building relationships with all our key stakeholder groups. Each year we consult extensively with our various stakeholder groups to address what we can do better. Based on the feedback from these discussions, we produce a number of stretching commitments, which set out our key objectives in delivering an improved performance for the forthcoming year. The results of these consultations are published in our social report.
Itaú Unibanco believes that a good relationship with our stakeholders is essential to develop appropriate actions, within our organisation, that promote sustainable development. In this context, AA1000 offers an adequate monitoring and accounting instrument that helps us to develop stakeholder engagement that is based on respect and dialogue, with the objective of building transparent and ethical relations. The standard fits with Itaú Unibanco´s positioning - to legitimise our actions and strengthen our commitment to advance sustainability.
Considering the fact that the issue of sustainability has undergone far-reaching development in recent years, we believe that standards have to constantly be adjusted to these new conditions. Therefore, it was a logical consequence for Itaú Unibanco to support the AA1000SES revision process to ensure a quality stakeholder engagement process both in our own operations and in that of other organizations in the future.
