Stakeholder engagement policies and value chains

Stakeholder engagement policies

The Veritas Group believes that stakeholder engagement is a crucial element for its performance. Today’s challenges make it urgent to engage in dialogue with stakeholders on new issues and in new ways. Traditional forms of engagement, such as shareholder involvement, participation in voting, dialogue and negotiation with employees, have long been institutionalized through policies, rules, and regulations. It is through these approaches that the Group’s companies have so far reported to their stakeholders, involving them in the organization’s processes.
The Group’s actions are guided by principles of:

• transparency;
• ethics;
• respect for stakeholders’ interests;
• respect for the principle of legality;
• respect for international standards of conduct;
• respect for human rights.

On this basis, the activities of the Group’s various companies are defined.

The Veritas Group is now committed to:

• identifying and understanding the economic, social, and environmental results and impacts of the Group’s companies’ activities, products, and services;
• understanding stakeholders’ expectations, needs, and perceptions;
• translating what has been learned into organizational policies and practices;
• responding consistently to the critical areas identified;
• reporting to stakeholders on the decisions, actions, and impacts of the Group’s activities.

Value chains

The value chains are a graphic representation of the direct and indirect economic relationships upstream and downstream of the Group’s activities. Three value chains have been identified for the three main services provided by the Veritas Group. Specifically, one value chain for environmental services, one for the integrated water service, and one for local public services. For environmental services, the value chain consists of: upstream — environment, users, waste-producing customers, suppliers of goods and services, supervisory and regulatory bodies; downstream — environment, suppliers and end customers for waste disposal and final treatment, waste recovery consortia, energy operator for the sale of energy from RDF (refuse-derived fuel). The Group’s own operations are waste collection, transport, sorting, treatment and recovery, and disposal. For the integrated water service, upstream includes the environment, other integrated water service operators and the Veneto water supply network as water suppliers, suppliers of goods and services, supervisory and regulatory bodies; downstream includes users and customers, suppliers of goods and services, and the environment. The Group’s own operations are drinking and industrial water abstraction and distribution, wastewater collection and treatment, and laboratory analysis. The main local public services, of a collective nature, provided by the Group are: cemetery services, management of cremation facilities, energy services (public lighting, heat management, photovoltaic systems, cogeneration, public green area management, management of the wholesale fish market of the City of Venice, public toilets, installation of walkways in case of high tide). The value chain consists of: upstream — suppliers of goods and services, resident and non-resident citizens, users and customers, funeral and marble businesses (for cemetery services), shareholder municipalities, supervisory and regulatory bodies; downstream — users and customers, resident and non-resident citizens, environment. Mapping the Group’s value chain has been a fundamental step in identifying the Impacts, Risks, and Opportunities linked to the Group through its business relationships, direct and indirect, in the upstream and/or downstream value chain.