Sustainability Reports: Absa and Barclays Spain

Barclays Spain have issued their fourth Sustainability Review which includes for the first ime the Barclays Group sustainability highlights and achievements, without losing the local focus of the activity in Spain.

Carlos Martínez de Campos, Chairman of Barclays Spain, in his foreword, “Last year was an especially turbulent year in the markets, which has clearly affected our industry. Even so, our colleagues have shown their commitment to Barclays more than ever in two key areas. Firstly, by continuing to focus on the customer and, secondly, by increasing their participation in voluntary work initiatives.

“Almost two thousand Barclays Spain colleagues have given body and meaning to the work carried out by the Fundación Barclays team during 2008. One of the programmes where Barclays and Fundación Barclays are making one of their greatest efforts in Spain is “Banca para un Futuro mejor” [Banking on Brighter Future], which supports training and educational projects for integration into employment, and therefore social integration of the less-advantaged sectors of the population.

“Barclays colleagues collaborate in this programme through specialised voluntary work, contributing their knowledge and skills in different ways, thus helping these groups to find employment or to improve the job they already have. As a responsible business all of us shall carry on reinforcing our commitment with the causes that matter to us, fulfilling our social obligation and getting involved in the improvement of the communities in which we operate.”

The Spanish report is available here in English and Spanish.

Absa has issued their second sustainability report which outline the six core themes that underpin Absa’s sustainability endeavours. These are:

Economic value creation – growing the business and delivering stakeholder value.

Customer centricity – increasing the understanding of Absa’s products and services, ensuring optimal access to financial products and services and enhancing service and advocacy levels.

Engaging and caring financial services company – adding value to the communities the Group operates in, creating a positive, supportive, healthy and diverse working environment, minimising the Group’s impact on the environment, maintaining fair and equitable relationships with suppliers and aligning business to national priorities.

Transformation and BEE – ensuring that the Group’s shareholders, employees, customers and suppliers represent the demographics of South Africa.

Corporate reputation – remaining the leading financial services brand, being recognised as an ethical company and as a company that maintains high standards of corporate governance.

Stakeholder engagement – creating an in-depth understanding of all the Group’s stakeholders and identifying material stakeholder issues.