Content
Approach
It is through a strategy founded on sustainable development that the GDF SUEZ Group seeks to reconcile its different aspirations: performance and environment, competitiveness and community, profitability and public service.
A new Group, long-standing commitments
GDF SUEZ is born of an alliance between 2 Groups that made their commitment to sustainable development at a very early stage.
For example:
- Very early on, both Gaz de France and SUEZ implemented a series of written charters and undertakings on sustainable development: international social charter (SUEZ, 1998), diversity charter (Gaz de France, 2005), environment charter and health and safety charter (SUEZ 2000-2003),
- Gaz de France and SUEZ were both members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The two groups were involved in many projects (Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Powering a Sustainable Future),
- Gaz de France and SUEZ were both members of the UN Global Compact and signed up to its 10 principles on human rights, labour standards and industrial relations, environmental protection and anticorruption,
- Gaz de France and SUEZ were also both founder members of Entreprises pour les droits de l’Homme (Businesses for Human Rights), a group of 8 French companies working for the implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
- Gaz de France and SUEZ were both members of Comité 21, the French committee for the environment and sustainable development.
A permanent dialogue with stakeholders
In its approach to sustainable development, GDF SUEZ focuses on listening to its local partners and maintaining transparent communications with all its stakeholders – employees, shareholders, customers, civil society, voluntary associations and political authorities.
The primary aims are:
- to establish a climate of trust conducive to collective action,
- to reconcile each party’s needs and constraints,
- to create value across the board,
- to share expertise with its partners.
This dialogue is an instrument of management in itself, feeding into the sustainable development action plans of the Group and its subsidiaries.
Priorities
In the sphere of sustainable development, the Group’s priorities include:
- responding to the major energy challenges of today and tomorrow, by managing energy and promoting innovation,
- translating sustainable development values into its practices and culture,
- incorporating sustainable development into its sales offerings for the benefit of customers,
- developing responsible human resource and management practices for the whole Group,
- protecting the environment,
- and acting as a socially responsible company, in particular by playing an active part in regional development.
Foundations
GDF SUEZ’s sustainable development principles are expressed through corporate foundations that operate around the world, supporting sustainable projects in the spheres of health, the environment, cultural heritage and education.