Incorporating sustainable development within the Group's organization

In order to ensure a coherent Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy group wide as well as its effective deployment across the bank's different business lines, Société Générale has set up a dedicated system to ensure the integrated management of the Group's sustainable development priorities and challenges.
This system is headed up by the Executive Committee which defines the Company's strategic objectives in terms of CSR and validates the various action plans to be implemented throughout the Group.

In 2005, Société Générale contracted BMJ Ratings to audit its CSR policy and its effective deployment throughout the Group. The results of this non-financial audit were presented to the Executive Committee which subsequently requested a medium-term action plan.

The Sustainable Development Department itself consists of four managers that are in charge of the animation and coordination of all sustainable development issues. These managers draw upon:
- a constantly growing network of around sixty contributors within each of Société Générale's functional departments whose role is to relay the Group's policy in the field,
- a Supervisory Committee made up of division and business line managers. The remit of this committee is to oversee the effective implementation of CSR processes and procedures along with the identification and group wide promotion of best practices in order to ensure that CSR priorities and issues are effectively factored into the strategy of each of the Group’s businesses.

In 2005, Société Générale contracted BMJ Ratings to audit its CSR (Corporate and Social Responsibility policy) and its effective deployment throughout the Group. The results of this non-financial audit were presented to the Executive Committee which subsequently requested a medium-term action plan.

Heightening staff awareness to sustainable development

To help the concrete implementation of its policy, the Sustainable Development Department provides its network of contributors with a number of tools, including an intranet database on sustainable development, a press review and regular seminars.
In May 2006, Planethic©, Société Générale’s intranet site devoted to sustainable development and accessible by all Group staff went online. This intranet allows employees to find out more about sustainable development issues and better understand the Group’s CSR (Corporate and Social Responsibility policy) and objectives. A monthly newsletter on the theme is also published. In 2007, the number of user visits to Planethic was around 20,000 (18,000 in 2006) for a total of 100,000 pages displayed.

The Sustainable Development Department continued to further staff awareness by:
- creating and publishing a core brochure on the Group’s policy and priorities in terms of sustainable development in 2006 (bilingual document which was published in 80,000 copies) along with various other brochures on environmentally-friendly behavior (46,000 copies of a special Société Générale edition of Le petit livre vert pour la Terre published by the Nicolas Hulot Foundation);
- through articles in the Group newsletters, theme-based guidelines and memos on the use of recycled paper, waste management, access to regulated workshops and the correct use of office resources, etc.);
- creating an area dedicated to sustainable development in Société Générale’s head office tower at La Défense;
- through the distribution of posters detailing simple ways of reducing pollution and improving the environment on a daily basis) which can be downloaded for free from Planethic, the special Sustainable Development Intranet site;

- through a mobile exhibition consisting of nine panels covering sustainable development issues. The exhibition has already been on display in subsidiaries and branches and was also shown at a sustainable development event organized by a contributor;
- through conferences which are open to all: in 2007, for example, the Group organized several conferences and a play on the following themes: agriculture, with the participation of Professor Bruno Parmentier following the publication of his book “Nourrir l’humanité: les grands problèmes de l’agriculture mondiale au XXIème siècle” (Feeding humanity: the major global agricultural problems in the 21st century); biodiversity; High Environmental Quality (HEQ); “Partie Prenante” (Interested Party), a play on sustainable development.
(in 2006, there were conferences on the health of the sea, nanotechnologies, sustainable development through contemporary civilization and the "Africa Trek" and the "Around the world with 80 men" programs. In 2005, the Group also organized conferences on micro-finance with Jacques Attali, on renewable energy sources with the Director of the ADEME¹ in France and on knowledge management, etc.
In June 2006, an exhibition was organized at Société Générale's main branch on the challenges of sustainable development as part of the 4th Sustainable Development week in France. 100,000 ADEME brochures were made available throughout the Group’s branch network in a bid to inform customers on the importance of protecting the environment. No stranger to the event, the Group also took part in the two previous sustainable development weeks in 2004 and 2005.
What is more, a number of awareness initiatives are also carried out at entity level such as, for example, within the domestic and international payments division and the purchasing division.
The number of operations abroad is increasing: Société Générale UK has run a number of campaigns to improve employee awareness as well as setting up a CSR (Corporate and Social Responsibility policy) committee made up of 19 directors to relay and promote different initiatives aimed at reducing the Group's impact on the environment and encouraging solidarity sponsorship and voluntary work. In September 2007, KB (Kommercni Banka) organized an awareness day on sustainable development issues and Société Générale’s commitments with two contributors (a representative from UNEP-FI and a member of the Paris Head Office).
Finally, Group executives (2 in 2007) have been called upon to audit the academic program on sustainable development of the Collège des Hautes Études de l'environnement et du Développement durable (CHEE&DD) for five years now. The Group also sponsors this institution.

¹French Agency for Environment and Energy Management

A new sustainable development reporting and management tool for the Group

2005 saw Société Générale consolidate its Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting and management tools with the implementation of the software program, Indicia, developed by Ivalua. This tool, renamed Planethic© Reporting, may be accessed from virtually all of the Group's entities and sites.
The project, completed over a period of six months, mobilized various division and department teams so as to fully reflect the diversity of the Group's resources. The project team focused first and foremost on defining Société Générale's CSR (Corporate and Social Responsibility policy)  indicators, drawing upon the requirements of France's NRE law, on the recommendations of the GRI² as well as upon the specific characteristics of our different business lines.
The collection of information currently employs 740 staff within the Group entities.  The numbers have been steadily increasing since 2005 thus providing better coverage. (In 2005, the first data campaigns mobilized some 500 Group employees in 54 different countries). In 2006, these were extended, reaching 678 employees in 57 pays (the representative offices which are not independent in accounting terms and which employ around 3 to 5 people are not included in the campaigns).
Planethic© Reporting manages the collection and consolidation of data which it regroups into four core domains, notably:
- environmental indicators: proprietary data;
- social indicators: data linked to social relations and employees;
- business indicators: data specific to the sustainable development issues of the Group's different business lines;
- sponsorship and charity indicators.

Monitoring these 100 or so indicators that are calculated on the basis of core data not only enables the Group to improve its CSR (Corporate and Social Responsibility policy) strategy and procedures, but also provides it with a more in-depth insight into its non-financial data. A list of the main indicators published by the Group is available in the analysts area.

740 participants in the Planethic© Reporting data campaign
Close to 100 indicators in the central reporting tool, Planethic© Reporting.

²Global Reporting Initiative