PL
Integrated
Report 2021

Communities

  • GRI: 413-1
  • GRI: 103-1
  • GRI: 103-2
  • GRI: 103-3

Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations in the operations of the Group

Within the Company operations we have made and will continue to make efforts to ensure the creation of a better society, retaining balance and protecting the environment. This declaration, which is a quotation from the Corporate Social Responsibility Policy of the Grupa Kęty S.A. Capital Group, has been setting out the direction of our social engagement.
ESG and sustainable development in the strategy

The pillars of the Policy are:

  • Occupational health and safety
  • Employment attractiveness based on the image of an innovative sector and attraction of talents
  • Support to local communities
  • Care for the people threatened with social exclusion (‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation)
  • Development of the idea of educating through sport as a tool to encourage young people to be physically active and to prevent obesity – the 21st century disease

Within our CSR activities, we have been supporting and developing the selected UN Sustainable Development Goals by way of the following initiatives:

Good Health and Well-being

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

  • The Capital Group of Grupa Kęty S.A. treats the health and safety of its employees and their families as a priority. Among other activities, we have provided our employees and their families with a broad access to health care services thanks to the ‘Opieka medyczna S’ medical insurance programme. In 2021 the insurance covered 3,340 employees, which represents 68% of the domestic companies staff.
  • Through the propagation of the idea of educating through sport we enable participation in many sports events, thus promoting a healthy lifestyle. For many years, the Capital Group of Grupa Kęty S.A. has been a partner of the ‘Bike HELPS’ action. We encourage all employees to ride bikes. The kilometres ridden are converted into bikes for children in children’s home. Only in 2021, the children received 29 bikes.
  • In 2021, Grupa Kęty was a partner of the ‘I Care for the Child’ social project which focuses on caring for the mental health of children and youths.
  • Also in 2021 there was held an art competition for children entitled ‘Health first!’ within the whole Capital Group of Grupa Kęty S.A. Every year, the competition enjoys a great interest and the theme is always related to an aspect important for the Group. Owing to the pandemic, the 2021 theme was healthy lifestyle expressed as eating habits and physical activity, which greatly affect the natural immunity. Over 1,600 works were received.

Quality Education

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

  • The Capital Group of Grupa Kęty S.A. cares for the educational aspects by way of providing a great variety of expert training courses in the particular areas of its operation, which includes education for sustainable building and broad environmental awareness campaigns.
  • We also care for the development of our employees ensuring access to basic and optional training, language courses financed by the employer, or higher education subsidies. Within the Group, over PLN 1 million was allocated to that purpose.
  • Operating through the ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation, we try to prevent social exclusion in education by way of financing additional courses in sciences or foreign languages for children at children’s homes, as well as other speciality courses ensuring ‘a better start’ for the children and youths. In 2021, PLN 480,000 was assigned to the statutory goals of the Foundation.

Decent Work and Economic Growth

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

  • Employment and decent work for all.
  • We follow the Code of Ethics and the Dignity at Work Policy. Abiding by the documents serves raising the feeling of safety in the place of work, both in physical and mental dimensions, ensuring equal opportunities and prevention of unwanted phenomena, such as discrimination.

Reduced Inequalities

Reduce inequality within and among countries

  • As a signatory of the Global Compact we have attempted to promote and develop within our activities the ten fundamental rules relating to human rights, labour standards, environmental protection, and corruption prevention, which is a real response to inequalities.
  • Being a large organisation operating on the European and world markets, employing nearly six thousand people of various nationalities, we care for common policies and standards.
  • For us, reduction of inequality within countries also means acting for the people threatened with social exclusion, which is the priority function of the ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation. In 2021, PLN 480,000 was assigned to the statutory goals of the Foundation.

Our approach

‘We are a part of the local community where we try to initiate actions aimed at the community development [...]’– it is a quote from our Code of Ethics, which clearly defines our position in the local environment.

We have concentrated social engagement around three aspects important from the point of view of the developed ESG strategy, but also prior documents which defined our stand in that area, just to mention the Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, in which we declare that within the Company operations we have made attempts and are going to continue the attempts to create a better society.

Support to local communities

For many years now, the organisation has run the ‘Together with the GROUP’ programme – a combination of engagement and voluntary work of our employees with financial support of the company, which brings wonderful results to the local community.

Within the programme, in 2021 the Company carried out 31 projects, supporting initiatives:

The activities of local communities are not limited to the ‘Together with the GROUP’ programme. The Company has undertaken tasks and engaged in actions of a broader spectrum. In 2021, the organisation has become a partner of the ‘Ultrakrew’ nationwide campaign promoting blood donation. As part of the campaign, in December 2021 and January 2022 blood donation actions were held around Poland. During the 6th edition of the ‘Ultrakrew’ campaign and the organised blood donation actions as much as 1,133 litres of blood, 51,733 litres of plasma, and 20.26 litres of platelets were collected in total. Statistically, thanks to the actions and the engagement, the health or life of 8,000 people were rescued. The Capital Group of Grupa Kęty organised two blood donation actions attended by 91 donors and resulting in collecting 40.95 litres of blood.

I care for the Child

Another project directed to local communities, facing the major world’s problem of the mental health of children and youths, was ‘I Care for the Child’. Within the project, the Company together with the Office of the City of Bielsko-Biała and other partners, including medical specialists, developed a special prophylactic model to protect the mental health of young people. The project was directed to the parents of children living in Bielsko-Biała. Owing to the growing needs in that area, the Company has made a decision to continue the activities in 2022.
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Care for the people threatened with social exclusion

The objective is achieved mainly through the activities of the ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation. This is a response of the organisation to the problems of children and youths threatened with social exclusion, as defined in the region. The Foundation’s objective is to cooperate with and to take care of children from children’s homes and special educational establishments, for example by implementation of the ‘To ensure a better start’ action. This means helping the children to get education, expertise and qualifications, which, in consequence, will give them a better start in their independent adult lives. The idea behind the activities of the Foundation is to gradually abandon state-run children’s homes and propagate the concept of foster families.

In 2021, despite the pandemic, we managed to carry out many activities for the children under the care of the Foundation, among which there was the final of the ‘Highest Polish Summits’project that had commenced in 2018. Within 4 years, the children under the care of the Foundation climbed 28 highest Polish summits. Another major initiative was the ‘Share Your Home – Bielsko-Biała For Child Custody Support’, a campaign for promoting child custody. Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation signed a letter of intent with the Mayor of the City of Bielsko-Biała for the purpose of promoting the idea of child custody, and only in 2021 there were found five new foster families, while the Foundation had continuously been supporting the previously found families and the children under their care.

 

The Foundation spent PLN 489,000 on statutory activities. All the activities of the Foundation are presented on the website: www.dziecipodbeskidzia.pl

Propagation of the idea of educating through sport

Sports means discipline, fair play, principles, and consequence – all values we care for in business. Sports also means a perfect tool for cooperation and employee engagement. For many years now, the Capital Group of Grupa Kęty S.A. has been investing in and developing ‘the idea of educating through sport’. By way of engaging the organisation in various sports events in the region, we cope with the challenge of the 21st century, namely encouraging young people to actively spend their leisure time and fight obesity – the modern-age disease. Caring for the health of the future generations, the Group has officially adopted such objectives in its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy.

We take an active approach to sport – apart from the local communities the events are actively attended by the employees of the Grupa Kęty S.A. Capital Group and their families as well as the children under the charge of the ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation. Sports events of which the Capital Group was a partner in 2021 included: ‘Reksio the Dog’s Cup’ – children’s cycling competition; ‘Young Beach Open’ – a cycle of beach volleyball tournaments for youths; ‘Bielsko-Biała Family Bicycle Rally’; Poland Business Run; ‘Biegniemy z Mają’ [Run with Maja] and Super Paka Dla Dzieciaka’ [Super Gifts for Children] – charity runs. The Group allocated PLN 160,000 to that purpose.

We also assume full responsibility for the influence of our actions on the environment. Following the provisions of our Code of Ethics, We abide by the ecological limitations imposed by legal regulations. We concentrate on searching for solutions, which eliminate the negative impact at its source. We invest in research and development as well as searching for environmentally-friendly technologies’

Applying due care to the provisions, we have tried to focus our attention on promoting environmental projects.

The full spectrum of our activities regarding the Group’s responsibility for the activities impacting the environment may be found in the ‘Environmental responsibility’ chapter.

Occupational health and safety
Governance structure