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49
Annual Report -
2013
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Vivendi
Societal, Social and Environmental Information
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policy
These areas of action are presented in detail in the CSR section on
the Vivendi website
is section also includes all
Vivendi’s non-financial indicators for fiscal year 2013, as well as the
cross-reference table for the various references (Global Reporting
Initiative – GRI, French Grenelle II law, OECD, and United Nations Global
Compact).
1.1.3.
Creating Shared Value
Societal priorities are at the forefront of Vivendi’s concerns and
commitments. This position is enthusiastically supported by all its
stakeholders, and give investors comfort in their investment choice.
Vivendi’s position is also recognized by institutions such as the
European Parliament, which, on the initiative of the Culture Committee,
heard Vivendi’s views on the topic “Corporate social responsibility: an
innovative way to create value for the cultural and creative sectors”.
In 2013, Vivendi was once again ranked number one among European
companies in the media sector by the non-financial rating agency
Vigeo, which praised the performance of Vivendi’s CSR policy. The
Group continues to be included in the principal Socially Responsible
Investment (SRI) indices: FTSE4Good Global (FTSE), the Ethibel
Excellence investment index (Ethibel), the ECPI Ethical Indexes
(E-capital Partners), the Eurozone ASPI index, and the NYSE Euronext
Vigeo World 120, Europe 120 and France 20 (Vigeo) indexes. Vivendi
is included in the Global 100 list of the world’s most responsible
companies, and is still ranked fourth out of all French companies, as
announced, on January 22, 2014, at the opening of the World Economic
Forum in Davos. Moreover, since 2011 the Group has had a “Corporate
Responsibility Prime” ranking, awarded by the agency Oekom.
By including its three CSR strategic issues in the governance of the
Group (please refer to Section 1.1.4), Vivendi is further enhancing its
global performance through the societal value created by the Company.
Empowering young audiences in their use of digital media illustrates
this ambition. Vivendi is bringing together business units that all belong
to the digital and new technologies sector. These business units are
directly aimed at customers, and among them, young customers. The
Group’s subsidiaries face the same changes in customer behavior:
Internet access has become all-pervasive, with the younger generations
using the Internet as a matter of course, and the number of connected
devices is increasing. Content consumption modes are changing, with
on-demand, interactive use and continuous streaming on different
screens. To ensure the Company’s continued success, the pace of
technological and industry innovation has to be intensified through
brainstorming and fuelled through new forms of societal innovation. As
a result, the inclusion of youth protection and empowerment as part
of the Company’s strategy and governance allows Vivendi to meet the
needs of its stakeholders (including government, civil society as a whole,
investors and customers), while enabling the Group to prevent risks and
seize opportunities in a rapidly changing digital environment. Thus, in
2013, Vigeo put Vivendi in 3rd place in its ranking of CAC 40 companies
regarding their adherence to the “Children’s Rights and Business
Principles”. These Principles were launched in 2012 by the United
Nations Global Compact, UNICEF, and the NGO Save the Children.
1.1.4.
An Integrated Reporting Approach
Driven by the desire to better assess the contribution made by CSR
to the results obtained by the Group in the performance of its various
missions, Vivendi has introduced an integrated reporting approach.
Since 2003, the promotion of cultural diversity in content production
and distribution has been recognized as one of the strategic issues
of the Group; it forms part of the Group’s economic performance and
helps reinforce social cohesion. In 2013, Vivendi’s General Management
approved a pilot project aimed at measuring the contribution made by
investment in diversity of musical, cinematographic and audiovisual
content to the creation of societal and financial value.
As a first step, this project is limited in scope to Universal Music France,
Canal+ in France, and Studiocanal, and confined specifically to
cultural or intangible capital. Under the authority of Vivendi’s General
Management, this initiative has involved the departments in charge
of finance and strategy of these three subsidiaries along with
representatives of investors and analysts (Amundi, Groupama AM and
Oddo Securities).
This exercise has clearly demonstrated that producing richly diverse
cultural content satisfies the public interest (societal value) and gives
the Group a competitive edge over its competitors (financial value)
(please refer to the following page).
