At Gonvarri we understand sustainability as a model for responsible management and a commitment to ethics, transparency, justice and
collaboration with our stakeholders: employees, young drivers, transporters, people with different capacities…
Sustainability is an essential element in the company’s culture. From the very beginning, Gonvarri has worked to grow as a solid and responsible company, where the global corporate culture preserves the same values -Honesty, Humility, Perseverance and Workthat its founder set forth. Along with them, sustainability is integrated as a key aspect in all the countries where Gonvarri is present, becoming a pathway to the fulfillment of the company‘s mission and to face the expectations of its stakeholders. The practice starts with the company’s own employees and their families and includes the rest of society, with special emphasis on younger drivers, transporters, people with intellectual disabilities and children, and is an effective way to raise their parents‘ awareness of the importance of driving safely.
This commitment is embodied in the Sustainability Policy, passed by Gonvarri Industries’ Board of Directors in 2016, which reflects the common commitment of all employees and collaborators in all countries where the company is present. It is a strategy that responds to a responsible management model and a commitment to ethics, transparency and justice, so that all its actions follow the guidelines established in its Code of Ethics and Conduct, which must be complied with. As could not be otherwise, the Code is applied across the board to all managers and employees of the company, and also to its collaborators, along with the internal policies and rules of compliance. The operation of this model is simple and effective: the Ethical Channel allows for the collection of all queries, clarifications and internal and external complaints that may arise and provides due response to them through the Compliance Committee, thus improving transparency and minimizing the risks derived from bad practices.
In addition, Gonvarri’s roadmap for sustainability integrates the guidelines and principles of the United Nations Global Compact and its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on goals 3, 9, 11, 17, and in particular target 3.6, which establishes the need to reduce by half the number of deaths and injuries caused by traffic accidents worldwide. To achieve this commitment, Gonvarri has established solid alliances with companies, organizations and foundations with which it has developed various projects, especially in the area of prevention and road safety, which are aimed at different audiences through the Emotional Driving program.
Finally, since 2013, Gonvarri has made public each year its commitment to sustainability through its Sustainability Report, which contains the most important milestones and initiatives carried out annually by the company in a wide range of areas.
In recent years we have seen a global change in the way governments, businesses and civil society think and act, a new framework in which sustainable development is becoming increasingly important, more urgent and more committed. This process has been led by the United Nations, in which the Global Compact is positioned as the most important global initiative for private sector sustainability. And which in 2015 established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), with the Agenda 2030 as the target to achieve this change.
In this context, Gonvarri has set its own roadmap towards sustainability, aligning its strategic goals with the guidelines and commitments of the United Nations. Since 2013, the company has adhered to the Global Compact and, therefore, to its commitment to the dissemination and fulfilment of the 10 Universal Principles that make up the Compact. Likewise, it integrates these Principles and the guidelines derived from the Guiding Company Principles in its actions through its Sustainability Policy and ethical framework of compliance.
Following the approval by the United Nations of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the 169 globally agreed targets, a new sustainable development agenda has been established, a set of goals to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all people in all countries.
In Gonvarri’s view, the adoption of these Goals is a much needed and urgent step, and constitutes an exemplary model of collaboration between companies, governments and civil society, and an opportunity for business growth and improvement. These are three compelling reasons for us to fully join this cause, integrating the SDG into the company’s strategy and directing our greatest efforts towards those objectives and goals most closely related to our activity. This translates into total coherence in the multiple projects and social responsibility actions that Gonvarri carries out each year.
As part of a conscientious and committed company, at Gonvarri we are convinced that long-term success implies growing and developing in a more sustainable environment, offering value beyond economic profits, sharing values, minimizing risks, being more efficient and contributing to local development. These are not just words, a mere declaration of intent.
They are facts. To the extent that the company has placed SDG at the very epicenter of its strategy, by focusing its greatest efforts on achieving those goals directly or indirectly related to the automotive sector, road safety and environmental protection, which are the areas where we can exert a more positive influence and achieve a transformational impact.
Our goal with health and well-being focuses on target 3.6, which points to the need to halve the global number of road deaths and injuries, with a view to 2020.
At Gonvarri, we understand that this affects us from a double perspective:
• On the one hand, we are a world leader in the automotive auxiliary sector and in the manufacture of vehicle containment systems for roads that help to minimize the impact of road accidents.
• On the other hand, more than 10 million trips are made by our staff worldwide every year, most of them by car.
This means that, as agents fully involved in the road sector, we feel responsible for strengthening, to the best of our ability, the health and safety of drivers, and with special dedication to the victims of road accidents.
This is the raison d’être of Emotional Driving, a program conceived by and for employees (which has since been extended to the whole of society), where they are the absolute protagonists, because their safety and that of their families is a key issue for us and a priority. Through positive messages and powerful testimonies, Emotional Driving brings together the rational and the emotional, the formative and the experiential, and manages to raise awareness and motivate people to drive responsibly.
SDG 9 is aimed at providing sustainable, resilient and quality infrastructure for all people, worldwide; promoting a new industry under sustainability criteria, encouraging innovation and the use of technologies with less environmental impact.
At Gonvarri, we know perfectly well what this means and what it implies: investment in infrastructure, safety and innovation, as well as technological advances and the digitalization of assets, are fundamental to the development of more reliable and lighter vehicles, as well as for achieving efficient solutions that improve road safety, and which benefit both society and the environment. Innovation at the service of life.
The proliferation of mega-cities – and their corresponding mega-slums – especially in the developed world, urgently requires new solutions. SDG 11 moves towards safer, more sustainable and inclusive cities; and, more specifically, in target 11.2 it calls for providing access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all and for improving road safety.
This is a line of action in which the Emotional Driving project is perfectly integrated, through its commitment to raising awareness in favor of safer, more responsible and sustainable driving, which minimizes the risk of accidents in the different interest groups to which its message is addressed: children, young people, employees, transporters, people with different abilities and society in general. And also taking into account the new means of personal mobility that have proliferated in recent years in our cities (bicycles, scooters, carpooling…), which imply new risks for drivers and pedestrians.
Following the guidelines of the United Nations, we at Gonvarri firmly believe that partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society are essential to successfully achieve Agenda 2030. Inclusive alliances, with a shared vision and shared goals. Ones that are capable of coordinating different efforts in the same direction and achieving a multiplier effect that reaches more people in a more precise and effective manner.
In the particular case of Gonvarri, this means solid, long-lasting and deep relationships, built on principles and values, with strategic partners that allow it to share knowledge in the field of road safety and to reach especially sensitive areas in our society. These partners include town councils, private companies, entities and organizations that join forces to multiply results, in the search for a common goal: to reduce road accidents and, if they occur, to minimize their damage.
Gonvarri
and sustainability
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