Integrated
Report 2022

Social engagement

  • GRI 413-1

For several years, business has faced unexpected challenges, after years heavily marked by pandemics and concern for the health and safety of workers, 2022 was a test of social responsibility for many companies, organisations and individuals. The armed conflict just across the border of our country forced us to take urgent humanitarian action. The Company Management Board decided to organise assistance for the employees of the Capital Group companies located in Ukraine (Alupol LLC, Aluprof System Ukraina LLC) as well as the Ukrainian employees working in Poland. We have also provided assistance to Ukrainian refugees. The Company launched all possible aid channels, including employee volunteering. The activities focused on logistic assistance (transport for people leaving Ukraine), help in finding accommodation, securing the basic means of living, as well as providing formal and legal assistance.

In the most intensive period, the Capital Group companies assisted more than 400 people residing in Poland. At the end of the year the number decreased to 79 due to the return of people to Ukraine. Out of that number 39 people were given jobs at the Capital Group companies. As far as possible, humanitarian aid (medical supplies, food) was supplied to the employees of the Capital Group companies located in Ukraine. The Capital Group allocated nearly PLN 1.7 million for those purposes in 2022. The aid continues in 2023.

Apart from providing humanitarian aid, the Capital Group has been consequently developing the social engagement directions adopted in the ESG strategy. The Capital Group engages in the communities of the areas where its companies are located. We take efforts to create positive change and, therefore, together with our employees who form local communities, we respond to challenges and needs and contribute to the region’s development.

Local projects

For many years now, the organisation has run the ‘Together with the GROUP’ programme – a combination of engagement and voluntary work of our employees with financial support of the Capital Group, which brings wonderful results to the local community.

Within the programme, in 2022 the Capital Group carried out 42 projects, supporting initiatives focusing on:

Environmental protection

  • Make friends with the nature’ – revitalisation and development of a didactic garden at Primary School No. 2 in Porąbka
  •  ‘Play green’ – environmental workshop for children and youths

Biodiversity

  • Small is beautiful – the importance of bees’. – The project focused on improving the environmental awareness and sensitivity among children and youths and the local community

Education

  • Book my best friend’ – The goal of the project was to show the children that a book is an amazing thing, taking us to the world of imagination, and reading is a wonderful form of spending free time. There were held workshops at the ‘TuCzyTam’ bookshop in Kęty. A competition was held under the title ‘Become the author of a children’s book cover’
  • ‘Active break’ – the purpose of the project is to enable children spending their school breaks on their interests and according to their needs

Sports

  • ‘Live healthy and sporty – a lot of movement for the smallest kids!’ – within the project the children at Nursery School No. 2 in Czaniec developed their fitness
  • Sports activeness development – Judo competition’ – within the project sports equipment was purchased and a sports competition was organised at the KS JUDO HEJNAŁ KĘTY sports club
  •  ‘I play for my Mum’ – a football competition for two-member teams of mums and their children

Care for the animals

  • ‘Some warmth for the cat’ – thanks to the initiative and engagement of our employee, there were created special winter houses for stray cats at the Family Allotment Gardens in Zabierzów
  • ‘Support Our Smaller Brothers’ – for the grant received, the Smaller Brothers’ foundation paid for the veterinary care of cats and dogs

Preventing social exclusion

  • On friendly terms with culture’ – providing equal opportunities to the disabled. Within the project, the charges of a Residential Care Home were able to visit Kraków and a historic silver mine in Tarnowskie Góry

These are only some examples – the complete report of 2022 edition may be downloaded from the corporate website.

The activities for local communities are not limited to the ‘Together with the GROUP’ programme. The Company has undertaken tasks and engaged in actions of a broader spectrum. In 2021, it continued cooperation within the ‘Ultrakrew’ nationwide campaign promoting blood donation. Within the two editions of the action (in winter and summer), 1,658 litres of blood were collected across Poland, which translates into potentially 11,500 people saved.

Blood donation has deep roots at Grupa KĘTY S.A. For many years, the Voluntary Blood Donors Club has been active at the Company, and employees have been donating their blood once a month. Only within the Ultrakrew action in Kęty, 185 people donated 83 litres of blood.

Focusing on the important aspect of employee health and safety, in addition to internal OHS systems, specialised first aid training or co-financing medical insurance, the Capital Group has involved in social projects focusing on health. In 2022, the Group continued, as one of the partners, the cooperation started in 2021 on the ‘TooWhat’ addressed to local communities, dealing with the important issue faced by the modern world, i.e. mental health of children and youths.

Within the project, the Company together with the Office of the City of Bielsko-Biała and other partners, including medical specialists, developed a special prophylactic model to protect the mental health of young people. The project was directed to the children and youths living in Bielsko-Biała. The campaign consisted in organising expert training courses for educators and the selected teachers, who further made dedicated lessons in at schools. Special content materials (leaflets, posters) were prepared and the event ended with a ‘TooWhat’ parade along the city streets. In the parade the children held special dummies which had been prepared by them in the mental-health promoting workshops. The campaign was also present in the public space (adverts, graphic art on city buses). Famous artists also got engaged in the campaign, such as Katarzyna Nosowska, or Monika Brodka.

The initiative is a continuation of the ‘I Care for the Child’ programme commenced in 2021, which was addressed to the parents.

In 2022 alone, children took part in mental health activities as part of the project, including:

9,500
children

5,819
in primary schools
3,434
 secondary schools
263
day care centres

Owing to the growing needs in that area, the Company has made a decision to continue the activities in 2023. The project is a wonderful example of cooperation of the business, local government and NGOs.

Care for the people threatened with social exclusion

The objective is achieved mainly through the activities of the ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation. This is a response of the organisation to the problems of children and youths threatened with social exclusion, as defined in the region. The Foundation’s objective is to cooperate with and to take care of children from children’s homes and special educational establishments, for example by implementation of the ‘To ensure a better start’ action. This means helping the children to get education, expertise and qualifications, which, in consequence, will give them a better start in their independent adult lives. The Foundation runs the 16+ programme ensuring individual support to children and youths. Every child under the care of the Foundation may voluntarily join the programme. In the course of the programme, representatives of the Foundation periodically (twice a year) meet with the children to discuss plans and current achievements, and to plan the support that the Foundation can offer to meet their needs (e.g. tutoring in science subjects, English language courses, driving licence courses, other specialised courses, assistance in furnishing a flat). In addition, the Foundation runs transitional-living flats in Kęty and Bielsko-Biała. The flats are occupied by adult wards, where over a period of two years they prepare for independent life.

In 2022, apart from providing individual support to children and youths, the Foundation also ran regular programmes targeted at care and educational institutions, including, inter alia, off-site photography workshops, the ‘lighthouse tracing’ journey, and mountain excursions under the project of ‘Mountains not Keyboard’.

The idea behind the activities of the Foundation is to gradually abandon children’s homes and propagate the concept of foster families. In 2022, together with the Bielsko-Biała Welfare Centre, the Foundation promoted the social campaign entitled ‘Share Your Home – Bielsko-Biała For Child Custody Support’. Within the campaign special posters and graphic art on city buses appeared in the public space of Bielsko-Biała, whereas the children in the existing foster families in Bielsko-Biała were subsidised by the Foundation.

The Foundation spent PLN 590,000 on statutory activities. All the activities of the Foundation are presented on the Foundation’s website.

 

Propagation of the idea of educating through sport

Sports means discipline, fair play, principles, and consequence – all values we care for in business. Sports also means a perfect tool for cooperation and employee engagement. For many years now, the Capital Group of Grupa KĘTY S.A. has been investing in and developing ‘the idea of educating through sport’. By way of engaging the organisation in various sports events in the region, we cope with the challenge of the 21st century, namely encouraging young people to actively spend their leisure time and fight obesity – the modern-age disease. Caring for the health of the future generations, the Group has officially adopted such objectives in its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy.

We take an active approach to sport – apart from the local communities the events are actively attended by the employees of the Grupa KĘTY S.A. Capital Group and their families as well as the children under the charge of the ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation.

Sports events of which the Capital Group was a partner in 2022 included:

Skiing competition for the children in winter, and cycling competition for children in summer. The character of Reksio comes from Bielsko-Biała, so the project combines not only the idea of education through sport, but also the promotion of the region in which some of the Capital Group companies are located. The ‘Reksio’ cartoons present simple but important values.

Series of beach volleyball for youths. Since 2015, thanks to the engagement of our Company, young people may compete in beach volleyball at specially prepared courts. In 2022 there were held two tournaments, joined by 39 girls’ teams and 38 boys’ teams.

Tradition in the sports events portfolio of the Capital Group. Within the spring and autumn editions the Company founds the main prizes – bicycles, while the employees and the children under the charge of the ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation are the most numerous among organised groups. In 2022, the autumn edition was combined with the final of the ‘Bike Helps’ action, which we have described in the part devoted to Sustainable Development Goal 13 – Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Strong accent are running events, where sport is usually combined with charity:

  • The Wings for Life World Run is the only global run in which the Catcher Car pursuing the participants is the moving finish line. It is held in 12 locations around the world and starts exactly at the same time everywhere – our team competed in Vienna. The Run is for all who want to support the activities of the organisation by raising money for research on a cure for spinal cord injuries.
  • Similarly open is the Poland Business Run (the largest charity relay-run event in Poland), in which not only the employees of the Capital Group of Grupa KĘTY S.A. took part but also the children under the care of the ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation. Together, there were 11 teams, including GrupaketyTeam. The beneficiaries of the run are children with motor disability.
  • Super Gifts for Children – a local run in BielskoBiała, the proceeds of which are spent on Christmas support to the poorest families in the region. The event enjoys great interest among the employees of the Company and the children under the care of the ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation – in December 2022, as many as 31 people took part.
  • Grupa KĘTY also supported the Prophylactic run for children and youths in Kęty, funding prizes to the participants.

The ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation organised another football championship for their charges – children from special educational establishments and children in family custody care. As always, there were also invited the children of the employees of the Grupa KĘTY S.A. Capital Group. The championship was held within the Family Picnic of Aluprof S.A. and was attended by 12 teams.

The Group spent PLN 226,000 on the development of the idea of educating through sport.