STRENGTHENING OUR SOCIAL FOOTPRINT

Ongoing engagement with local communities helps the Group build long-term relationships of trust with its stakeholders and prove the transparent and responsible attitude it takes daily towards them. Using diverse engagement tools, the Group gains a deeper understanding of the inhabitants’ paramount needs, evaluates them and plans its operations, accordingly, taking into account the most important topics of concern.
The Group supports local communities, having as its primary goal its contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. The total sponsorships and actions organized by the Group for 2021, amounted to 3.5 million euros. Some examples of last year's social work are the construction of a new school in earthquake-stricken Damasi in the region of Tyrnavos, the transformation of the Souda 115th Combat Wing military airport into a fully green facility, the support to the national health system with donations of equipment and supplies to hospitals and health centers, and the provision of construction machinery and human resources during the recent devastating fires.
and focused mainly on the support of the National Health System to address COVID19 pandemic but also to support infrastructure projects in the areas of activity, while continuing to support actions for sport, culture and education.

Before initiating a project, the Group deliberates with local authorities, to inform interested parties and ensure that each project will create mutual socio-economic benefits. In the same context, the Group also conducts social impact studies preceding each new project, which include an assessment of the potential impact on human rights, local health data, and determines the local community and stakeholders with whom the Group will converse on issues that could potentially degrade the quality of life.

The Group’s diverse activities maximize any positive direct or indirect impact it exerts on local communities. In particular, from the initial construction phase, the development of infrastructure projects directly creates hundreds of new jobs and demand for products and services (including subcontracting) locally. The Group’s infrastructure and real estate activities stimulate local employment, directly by hiring workers from the local communities and indirectly through assigning work to subcontractors. They also create demand for construction materials and other raw materials, while the introduction of innovative technologies creates valuable expertise among the Group’s employees and business partners which is exploited and passed on to the Group’s interior and exterior environment. The Group’s activity in Clean and Thermal Energy promotes the production of energy from RES and reduces the needs for electricity generated from conventional sources, as well as the induced emissions of greenhouse gases, resulting in the protection of ecosystems in neighboring areas and upgrade of the inhabitants’ living standards. The construction and operation of waste treatment plants contributes to the upgrading of the aboveground (lakes, rivers, seas, and air) and underground (aquifer) natural environment and in particular to the improvement of the hygiene conditions in the local communities, while at the same time stimulates local employment and promotes awareness on environmental threats.

The activity of the Group in the development of RES projects creates additional social benefits both directly, in the form of contributions and indirectly, in the form of discounts on the electricity bills of the residents of the local communities. In this context, 3% of the gross annual income from the operation of each RES project is rendered to local communities either directly (in the form of levy) or indirectly (in the form of discounts on electricity bills, construction of infrastructure projects, etc.). Specifically, during the reporting period, from the operation of the RES projects, an amount of € 5,634,702 million was distributed to the municipalities that host the RES projects.