Reporting
”la Caixa” draws up an annual Corporate Responsibility Report, which explains the main initiatives taken on social and environmental questions and matters of good corporate governance.
The aims of the Entity and its degree of compliance are set out in the Report, alongside concrete examples explaining the experiences of its customers and employees and new challenges in order to continue advancing.
Access to the reports:
- Report 2009 (PDF - 5,5MB)
- Report 2008 (PDF - 3MB)
- Report 2007 (PDF - 3MB)
- Report 2006 (PDF - 3MB)
- Report 2005 (PDF - 3MB)
"la Caixa" engages in continuous dialogue with its stakeholders to determine the themes to develop in its annual reports. This dialogue enables the Entity to explain its actions in response to the concerns expressed by its customers, employees and society as a whole.
Further information on procedures
The report is composed in line with the guidelines of highly regarded international bodies, such as the United Nations Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which has drawn up voluntary standards for the composition of sustainability reports. ”la Caixa” follows GRI standards to its most demanding rating, A+.
Subsequently, the Report is ratified by an independent external auditor.
The selection of the contents of the Corporate Responsibility Report is the result of a painstaking process of identification of the questions that are most important for each stakeholder and the subsequent selection of the most significant subjects for the strategy of ”la Caixa”.
The objective is to respond to the concerns of society on those social and environmental subjects and on the question of good corporate governance, which the Entity can influence or control in a significant way and which affect its present and/or future activity.
First step: Identifying issues to include
The selection process is fundamental in the direct dialogue with stakeholders’ representatives, following a procedure based on the AA1000 standard, in the compilation of external information and in the objectives laid out in the Entity’s corporate responsibility policy.
The main sources for gathering information are:
- Internal business priorities.
- Relations, dialogue and meetings with stakeholders.
- Internal dialogue with areas and subsidiaries of the Entity.
- Shared practice and main themes common to the sector.
- Authorities from the academic world.
- The review of policies and practice in earlier years.
- The main standards in the subject.
- Themes and public debates in society.
Access to the channels of dialogue with stakeholders
Further information on the AA1000 standard
Second step: Selecting and prioritizing the subjects
Once there has been a first selection of themes, their level of importance is determined by means of three criteria:
- the degree of importance given the theme by the Entity’s various stakeholders,
- its importance for the strategy of ”la Caixa”,
- the capacity of influence of the Entity on them.
Depending on the combination of these criteria, the subject is included in the Report or on the web site or it is decided that it should not be reported, as shown in the following matrix:
| Channels of communication with stakeholders | Channel |
|---|---|
| Customers |
|
| Employees |
|
| Suppliers |
|
| Sociedad y medio ambiente |
|
The AA1000 standard
The AA1000 is a standard created in 1999 by the Institute of Social Ethical Accountability. Its objective is to guarantee the quality and transparency of the reports, appraisals and spreading of information by companies and organisations concerning the social and ethical aspects of their activity.
The standard must serve to help organisations to:
- Define their objectives
- Measure and audit their progress
- Communicate the actions taken
- Establish mechanisms to obtain the opinions and comments of their stakeholders.
Through the AA1000, the procedures the company needs to carry out in order to measure, process and report its advances on the question are defined, though the levels of its compliance with the social, environmental and economic indicators are not specified.
The standard includes a series of recommendations on how to make the accounts transparent. One of the main recommendations is on the procedure the company should adopt to identify the indicators of its activities that are key for its stakeholders.
”la Caixa”, following the AA1000, holds annual meetings with representatives of its stakeholders, in order to receive their views on the Report and the themes to be included in the next report.
