Societal
ENGIE Group is doing more to help overcome the challenges faced by businesses and wider society. Its work is intensifying in three areas: enhanced dialogue with stakeholders in every area of its business, human rights in a globalized economy, and the increased responsibility companies bear towards their upstream (suppliers) and downstream (customers) supply chains. ENGIE considers these issues to be risks that could turn into problems but also, and perhaps more importantly, as opportunities to see our business grow through more responsible and sustainable methods.
On a corporate level, ENGIE Group is developing a human resources strategy that aims to achieve best practices and is committed to continuous improvement. The policy is based on constructive and transparent social dialogue, as can be seen through the collective bargaining agreements which are regularly signed with organisations that represent our employees.
This HR policy sets out to recruit, train, and foster the loyalty of our employees, making sure we obtain real diversity by improving the inclusion of the most vulnerable and minorities, and guaranteeing a good quality of life in the workplace for all of our people, male and female.
This HR policy includes a Health & Safety policy committed to excellence.
While the health and safety of the Group’s employees and subcontractors is an absolute priority, the safety of our facilities is also a fundamental priority for the Group, not only for our own facilities but for all of those we run without necessarily owning them.
The increasing role digital technology plays in the work of the Group and the wider world means that we are enhancing cybersecurity in everything we do. The more stringent requirements for the protection of personal data, especially that of our customers, has led the Group to bolster its data protection processes and rules.
As for wider society, ENGIE Group is making stakeholder dialogue the keystone of its project management and business strategy, with a view to creating sustainable, shared value. This dialogue is the basis of ENGIE's societal policy (download the stakeholders engagement policy) and is based on a structured approach that has been tried and tested in the field, benefitting from feedback from past experience.
The dialogue is founded on an understanding of and respect for local communities, their culture, working conditions, and salaries, as well as any issues arising from compliance with fundamental Human Rights. Aware of our size and the importance of our work, wherever we do it, the Group has decided to improve how it measures and tracks the socio-economic impact of our work, so that we can better understand our ecosystem and sphere of influence and share this analysis in total transparency, and do business more responsibly.
The transition to a carbon-neutral economy also has important social implications, particularly in the energy sector. The notion of Just Transition stems from the belief that a transition to a more carbon-neutral and sustainable economy should be conducted in a way that is fair to all stakeholders: workers, consumers, local communities and suppliers, and should aim to minimize the negative effects of the transition while maximizing its positive effects.
CSR-related questions from our stakeholders
Amongst the Group’s key concerns for wider society, issues with energy poverty and access to sustainable energy more generally in communities with poor connections to the energy grid, or that are just too isolated to properly benefit, occupy an important place.
ENGIE has developed a social impact fund, ENGIE Rassembleurs d'Energies, endowed with 50 million euros at the end of 2019 (38 million euros committed at the end of 2021), whose mission is to invest in projects that aim to provide sufficient and sustainable access to electricity for currently unserved populations in developing countries.
Consult ENGIE Rassembleurs d’Energies 2022 Report
As part of the Energy Volunteers Program (EVP), the Group is also mobilising its own employees, encouraging them to invest their time as volunteers on humanitarian programmes and initiatives, working on the ground as impartial volunteers, embodying ENGIE’s values of solidarity with the most vulnerable members of society. The ENGIE Foundation is also expanding its work in patronage, mutual support, and funding for social and humanitarian projects that play a de facto role in the Group’s general CSR policy.
Finally, the ENGIE Foundation develops patronage, mutual aid and financing actions with a social or cultural vocation. The Group's global policy in this area.
The ENGIE Foundation carries out actions in favour of children and young people and supports energy access projects.
In 2021, the Foundation monitored 110 projects that reached more than 400,000 beneficiaries
