Over recent years, AGA has taken steps in environmental sustainability and social matters,an evolution that manifests the XXI company can not centre exclusively in questions related to production and business. Clients, authorities and society in general demand more serious commitment from companies to contribute, each one from its own specific situation, to a more sustainable development.
AGA’s latest milestone in this evolution towards a company which is more committed to sustainability is the implementing of a plan of action based on the ESG+ methodology (“E” for environment; “S” for social and “G” for governance)
And, for that, AGA has had the help of a specialised company which has set out the roadmap to follow over the coming years. The ‘ESG+ Methodology’ is a methodology of MIK(MONDRAGON Ikerketa Kudeatan-Investigation in Management,Innovation & Knowledge) and it has been developed in the frame of a project financed by the department of Economic Promotion, Tourism and Rural Environment of the Gipuzkoa District Council.
AGA along with other companies has participated in a pilot scheme managed by MIK
Four phases
A project divided into four phases:
- Benchmarking: Analysis of the environment, using as a benchmark of the groups of interest, and analysis of the internal situation from a strategic point of view
- Materiality Analysis is obtained from benchmarking; that is, a process to identify the most relevant areas in order to prioritise them and ,in the next phase, put them into a plan of action. According to this materiality analysis, these are the number 1 aims of priority for AGA: health and safety;work stability and social protection; waste management;quality products and services;business ethics:transparency;formation and professional development;fair treatment and sustainable purchases.
- Plan of actions: List of actions to be implemented throughout 2024
- Internal and external communication of the methodology developed, the actions to be achieved and the results obtained.
- “In the project EGA+ we have developed a methodology to help companies to take the first steps in environmental, social and governance issues. So they can know what their actual situation is, their starting point and what they can do to improve”, Eider Irizar says, one of the MIK investigators who has managed this pilot scheme.
“In the end companies have to be conscious of these types of demands,, sooner or later, they will be in the companies; if not from the authorities, from the actual groups of interest, who are going to demand that their suppliers or clients who, in an effort of joint responsibility, fulfil a series of parameters of sustainability”, adds Irizar.
Objectives of Sustainable Development
The methodology ESG+, to some extent, connects with the objectives OSD (Objectives of Sustainable Development) and , so, each one of the the priorities set out through the Materiality Analysis mentioned previously relates to various of the objectives:
- Health and safety : OSD 3 and 8
- Work stability an social protection:OSD 5.8 and 10
- Waste management: OSD 11,12 and 13
- Quality products and services: OSD 9,11 and 12
- Business ethics;transparency: OSD 4,8 and 16
- Fair treatment:OSD 5,8,10 and 16
Sustainable purchases:OSD 7,11 and 12
In the plan of actions, measurement indicators are also included. Currently in the market there are various systems of certification which measure the performance of the companies in environmental,social and governance issues.
Furthermore,SNFI(The state of non financial information )is gaining more relevance, in which the companies with over 250 employees (Until recently this figure was 500) have to report with transparency on the state of the company in relation to all these areas encompassed in the parameters of ESG+. It is forecast that the obligation to present reports like SNFI will be implemented in smaller companies. Therefore, all the work that AGA is doing hand in hand with the ESG+ methodology will smooth the way for the future which is imminent.
Eider Irizar.
