Sustainable development goals in the operations of the Capital Group KĘTY S.A.

In 2022, the Capital Group of Grupa KĘTY S.A. strongly engaged in saving life and health of the Ukrainian people. The focus of the action was on providing the refugees with accommodation, the necessary resources, clothing, assistance with formal and legal matters, and finding work. In addition, the Capital Group donated humanitarian aid to Ukraine. As much as PLN 1.7 million was spent for the good cause. We describe the topic in more detail on the page.

The Capital Group treats the health and safety as a priority. Among other activities, we have provided our employees and their families with a broad access to health care services thanks to the ‘Opieka medyczna S’ medical insurance programme. In 2022, the Capital Group allocated PLN 1,997,000 as subsidy for medical packages, covering 3,666 people, which represents 76% of the employees of our domestic companies. In addition, the Management Board decided to continue the scheme for another period – starting from June 2023 (new policy), while maintaining the level of medical benefits per employee and the value of the employer’s subsidy.

Grupa KĘTY S.A. has signed an agreement with PZU S.A. and obtained PLN 50,000 from the PZU Prevention Fund to be spent on actions improving the level of safety, health protection, as well as prevention or reduction of the consequences of unforeseen events, among other things. The Company allocated the amount to first aid training courses. Within the project, 334 employees of the Capital Group were trained between April and June. The topics covered included: discussion of the emergency activities sequence in case of COVID-19 suspicion, and the methods of notification of emergency services; providing first aid.

Through the propagation of the idea of educating through sport we enable the local communities and our employees to participate in many sports events, thus promoting a healthy lifestyle. The full scope of our activities is presented on the page.

In 2022, Grupa KĘTY was a partner of the ‘TooWhat’ social project focusing on caring for the mental health of children and youths. The project was conducted in Bielsko-Biała, and Grupa KĘTY S.A. was one of the main partners. The initiative comprised dedicated training courses for educators and the selected teachers, who further made dedicated lessons in Bielsko-Biała schools. Special content materials were prepared for each student. The effect of the campaign has been described on the page.

Mountains not Keyboard [‘Zamiast klawiatury nasze piękne góry’] – is an initiative carried out by the Grupa Kęty Foundation for Children of the Podbeskidzie Region. As part of the programme, the children under the charge of the Foundation commenced regular mountain trips to cover the Main Beskidy Mountains Track spreading at the distance of over 500 km in the years 2022-2024. The initiative covers for such important aspects as physical activity and learning the balance between quality leisure time spending and the use of computers, phones or other devices.

In 2022, the Capital Group engaged for another time in the charity event entitled ‘Run with Maja’, to support children suffering of cancer in the Bielsko-Biała area. In 2022, these were three girls.
Grupa KĘTY S.A. promotes the event and is responsible for preparing a fruit stand for the runners. During the event, the organiser – the ‘Biegniemy z Mają’ [Run With Maja] Foundation – raised PLN 44,000 for the girls treatment.

In 2022, the Aluprof S.A. plant in Opole joined the bone marrow swab activity, conducted in liaison with the DKMS Foundation, to promote bone marrow donation. Over 60 employees took part in the initiative.

The Capital Group is a partner of 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. More information about our engagement may be found on the page.

Creating Sustainable Futures – Aluprof S.A. was a partner of the LEAF INTERNATIONAL sector event in Amsterdam. For 21 years now, the Leading European Architecture Forum (LEAF) has been bringing together senior-level decision-makers from leading international architectural practices, contractors, developers, engineers, interior designers, government officials, and supplier partners to discuss future construction projects, as well as share ideas and industry best practices. LEAF 2022 focused on forwardthinking strategies to arrive at net-zero carbon targets and explore how technology, digitalisation and the coronavirus pandemic are transforming the entire supply chain.

The Green Building Summit is the most recognisable and opinion-forming conference in the Polish real estate, construction and architecture industry. Organised by the Polish Green Building Association PLGBC, the 12th edition of the event was held this year under the ‘Time to (Re)think’ motto. Aluprof S.A. was a supporting partner. The built environment accounts for almost 40% of carbon emissions and can play an important role in accelerating the transition to low-carbon economy. The industry needs to increase its efforts towards solutions, such as retrofitting buildings to reduce their energy demand or promoting lowcarbon building products and systems that can counteract climate change and contribute to human health and energy independence. The architectural systems of Aluprof S.A. follow the trends of green building.

We also care for the development of our employees ensuring access to training and language courses financed by the employer, or co-funding higher education courses. Over PLN 1.5 million was allocated to that purpose by the Capital Group in 2022.

Operating through the ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation, we prevent social exclusion in education by way of financing additional courses in sciences or foreign languages for children at children’s homes, as well as other speciality courses ensuring ‘a better start’ for the children and youths. In 2022, the Foundation spent PLN 590,000 on statutory activities.

Also in 2022, the Capital Group companies ran an educational project for their employees’ children in the form of an art competition entitled My favourite book hero. The aim of the programme was to encourage children to read. Nearly 2,000 works were collected across the Capital Group. As each entry is traditionally awarded, nearly PLN 370,000 has been spent on prizes for the participants.

We have been operating based on the Code of Ethics, the Respect for Human Rights Policy, the Diversity Policy, and the Dignity at Work Policy, ensuring equal treatment of the employees in their place of work. Abiding by adopted rules serves raising the feeling of safety in the place of work, both in physical and mental dimensions, ensuring equal opportunities and prevention of unwanted phenomena, such as discrimination.

Grupa KĘTY S.A. and Aluprof S.A. have joined the Coalition for Friendly Recruitment, which brings together those employers who see the need to care for the candidates’ positive impressions in recruitment processes. We care for good relations with candidates, therefore, we ensure good communication, a professional approach, and positive candidate experience. The Coalition membership is also aimed at promoting good recruitment practices.

For many years, the Company has been developing additional employee benefits reaching beyond remuneration. Only in 2022, more than 2,300 children of the employees received gifts on St. Nicholas’ Day. Approximately PLN 620,000 was allocated to that purpose in the form of gift cards and sweets.

In 2022, the Capital Group paid voluntarily nearly PLN 18 million to the Company Social Benefits Fund, to be assigned, as in the previous years, to holiday and Christmas subsidies.

In the second edition of the ‘Best Employers – Poland 2022’ ranking Grupa KĘTY was 12th in the category of ‘Production and processing of raw materials, construction materials, metal and paper’. Poland’s Best Employers is a list of 300 companies operating in Poland with outstanding achievements in HR, which have been honoured with the title of the Best Employer. The research was made on the basis of a list of roughly 1800 companies employing at least 250 people in Poland prepared by the Statista company.

In 2022, Aluprof S.A. obtained the title of the ‘Reliable Employer of the Year’ in a competition organised by the Robert Kowalski Pro-Media agency. The aim of the competition is to honour the best employers in Poland who promote the most interesting HR solutions.

Also in 2022, Grupa KĘTY S.A. was entered in the ranking of stock-listed companies with the highest market capitalisation in the respective provinces. The analysis was conducted by the Jagiellonian Institute. The result of Grupa KĘTY was PLN 4.3 billion (as at 21 October 2022).

Following the declarations set out in the Strategy, in 2022 the Company paid out PLN 505,378,000 dividend to its shareholders as a result of 2021 profit distribution.

Aluprof S.A. held a competition for The Employee of the Year as an element of long-term building of the image of an attractive employer, which is a strategic goal for the organisation development. The competition aims to create long-lasting and valuable relationships with employees, increasing engagement and motivation. It is also a tool to build the culture of appreciation and off-payroll motivation. The competition is also a demonstration of gratitude in business, giving positive feedback to the employee and strengthening the relationship between supervisors and employees.

We care for the standards – the basic form of employment at the Capital Group companies are employment contracts, among which over 80% is represented by contracts for unlimited term.

The average remuneration at Grupa KĘTY S.A. in 2022 amounted to PLN 7,923 and was by 25% higher than the average salary in the national economy (in 2022 it amounted to PLN 6,346).

We pay particular attention to innovation of the offered products and services, as well as creating processes in the organisation. We cooperate with customers, organisations and institutions to jointly promote sustainable building, develop products for the automotive sector, or head for environmentally-friendly packaging.

Photovoltaics in fire-proof skylight by Aluprof. The Company extended its portfolio in the green construction area. Fire resistance tests of the innovative skylight based on the MB-SR50N EI system ended with obtaining REI 30 rating. The skylight with photovoltaic modules is a worldwide-unique solution for fire-proof roofing with photovoltaic glass. The test was carried out in cooperation with the companies of MLSystem and Vetrotech Saint-Gobain.

At the Dies Production Plant of Grupa KĘTY S.A. an extrusion simulation software was successfully implemented. Based on the die design, the software performs a virtual simulation of the process, thus, the die builder gets feedback on the correctness of the profile geometry and stresses in the die in a very short time. Adjustments may easily be made and further virtual extrusion carried out. Only an optimally designed die goes into production. The software allows to skip the costly die tests on the press, and also guarantees the quality and durability of the die. In only a few months of the system implementation, over 130 highquality dies were produced.

A Building Information Modelling Team was appointed at Aluprof S.A. The team deals with preparing Aluprof products libraries in the BIM format, among other things. The BIM technology has many advantages, including environmental ones – it leads to resource savings and reduced raw materials wastes, improves communication throughout the project development cycle, from design, through engineering, to construction and operation, in order to improve work and achieve better results.

Grupa KĘTY S.A. has been building new press lines of 20 MN and 40 MN load, fitted with environmentally-friendly solutions, on order to limit impact on the natural environment. These include billet heating with low-gas consumption gas heaters combined with recuperation function and highefficiency electromagnetic induction heaters, as well as streamlined capacity adjustment due to pumps driven with servo-motors and electricity-consumption regulation systems based on the actual power demand, which ensures high energy savings compared with the traditional hydraulic systems. Moreover, the applied water-cooling of profiles brings not only technological advantages in the case of heavy-weight profiles, but also energy savings compared with air cooling processes.

As a signatory of the Global Compact we have attempted to promote and develop within our activities the ten fundamental rules relating to human rights, labour standards, environmental protection, and corruption prevention, which is a real response to inequalities.

Being a large organisation operating on the European and world markets, employing nearly six thousand people of various nationalities, we care for common policies and standards.

For us reduction of inequality also means acting for the people threatened with social exclusion, which is the priority function of the ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation. In 2022, the Foundation spent PLN 590,000 on statutory activities.

In 2022 an apiary of 8 bee colonies was opened on site of the Company. It is being cared for by one of our
employees who is a professional bee-keeper. In the first-season honey went to the in-house kitchens to be
used by the employees, and some of it was given to the children in children’s homes in Kęty and Oświęcim.
Further, small honey jars were used as gifts for the customers visiting our stand at the Düsseldorf
ALUMINIUM 2022 Fair.

Over half a thousand Eco-Heroes – the Capital Group companies engaged their employees’ children in a photographic competition entitled ‘Become an Eco-Hero’, in which over 500 photos were received. Broad environmental education has focused on caring for waste segregation, water saving, own gardens and ecological cultivation, green transport (such as bicycles), preparing eco-bags for shopping, green energy, tree planting, as well as cleaning of forests, rivers and green areas. As an expression of esteem to such approaches, all participants were awarded.

Within its activities, Aluprof S.A. supports companies in green buildings certification, which has been setting the route for the construction sector development for many years. International environmental certifications, such as BREEAM, LEED, DGNB, HQE, or WELL, among others, are an acknowledgement of the growing awareness of the climate crisis and the impact the construction industry has on it. Investors and developers more and more frequently select ecological materials and solutions, which considerably improves the quality of investment projects and the life-cycle of the designed buildings.

In 2022, the Capital Group ran a number of environmental education projects. One of these, having a real impact on the local community and safety improvement, was ‘Flowers Not Waste’, which encouraged people to clean up their neighbourhoods and register the number of rubbish bags collected on a special page. In return, people received seeds for sowing flowers and flower meadows. The project was run in cooperation with a local environmental foundation from Bielsko-Biała.

‘Let’s Clean the Beskids with the Polish Tatra Society 2022’ – during the edition there were held three mountain tracks cleaning actions close to the mountains of Klimczok (Beskid Śląski), Babia Góra (Beskid Żywiecki), and Hrobacza Łąka (Beskid Mały). Jointly, 962 people, including 726 children and youths, managed to clean the mountain tracks of 5,200 litres of waste. Grupa KĘTY S.A. has been a partner of the project for many years.

The objective of the companies of the Grupa KĘTY S.A. Capital Group is to minimise the consumption of primary raw materials per ton of product sold, and increase the share of recycled materials in products. Actions have been taken to intensify cooperation with those suppliers who are guided by the sustainable development idea. As regards our products, we apply a product-life-cycle approach, focusing on the search for new ecological applications. In that area, we conduct our own research and collaborate with scientific centres.

The Flexible Packaging Segment offers many laminates that comply with the ‘European Strategy For Plastics in a Circular Economy’. In that regard the OPP/PPB^TM laminate was awarded with the Made for Recycling certificate, confirmed by research carried out at the German Fraunhofer Inistitute, in compliance with the bifa Umweltinstitut GmbH methodology. At the same time, the production of laminates on the basis of paper, paper refined with heat-sealable, high-barrier varnishes, or thin polymer layers with heatsealable and barrier properties is being developed. The new-technology laminate has been tested with regard to fitness for recycling, and a positive result confirmed with a certificate has been achieved.

‘A Top to Get a Wheelchair’ – since 2014 the Capital Group companies have been collecting plastic tops with the aim to build the awareness of waste segregation importance, and raise money for charity. The money from the top sales is handed over to a family with a disabled child. Since the beginning of the initiative, we have already collected over 8.5 tons of plastic (435 kg in 2022).

‘ReProcess it Together’ – over 16 tons of e-waste collected. Concentrating on educational activities in the area of environmental protection, and engaging its employees in environmental events, Grupa KĘTY S.A. has a great pleasure in joining the competition organised by the Biosystem company. Celebrating 20th anniversary of the Biosystem company, we had been collecting electric and electronic waste for Biosystem to process it properly further on. The action was both ecological and charitable – for every 1 kg of waste collected, Biosystem donated one zloty to an environmental foundation. The action was joined by 21 companies, which together collected over 16 tons of e-waste (including 720 kg by Grupa KĘTY S.A.).

‘Green Group’ – the best suggestion of 6 months – degreasing process improvement. In the degreasing tank No. 5 at the Kęty plant, a filter with water pump has been installed in order to eliminate metal chips and foreign bodies originating in the process of cutting, which used to go directly to the degreasing solution tank. Longer solution lifetime also results in saving on the neutralisation of the consumed chemicals. Thanks to the changes introduced, the chemicals neutralisation will be held 4 times a year instead of 8 times in a year as before.

‘Green Group’ – suggestion of the year – redesigning of the cold-water bath for supersaturation at the saltbath furnace. Thanks to the suggestion, the quantity of water supplying the bath was reduced from 80 m³ to 12 m³ per 8 hours. This translates into savings in water consumption at the level of 10,000 m³ a year.

‘A Book Supports the Hero’ – for several years, the Capital Group companies have been engaging in an educational upcycling campaign, which promotes giving books the second life. The companies prepared special places to collect books donated by the employees. These books go to the monthly fairs organised at the Sfera Shopping Centre in Bielsko-Biała. The proceeds from their sale go to support children’s homes. Since the beginning of the initiative in 2018, more than 100,000 books have been returned to circulation.

In 2022, a project was carried out with a focus on reusing the banners and advertising flags of the Capital Group. In a workshop for the children under the charge of the ‘Grupa Kęty for the Children of the Podbeskidzie Region’ Foundation recycling importance was discussed and costumes for a fashion show prepared.

‘70 thousand trees for 70 years of Grupa KĘTY’ – in 2023 Grupa KĘTY S.A. is celebrating its 70th anniversary (1953-2023). On that occasion, in 2021 the Company launched a programme of planting 70,000 trees. In 2022, together with the local partners, we planted further 20,000 black alders and beeches in the forests of Grodziec, Bystra, Straconka and Kamienica. The final planting of 20,000 trees is planned for 2023.

In the in-house billets foundry, Grupa KĘTY S.A. carries out aluminium scrap remelting process. In 2022, more than 31,000 tons of scrap was recycled there in 2022.

Grupa KĘTY S.A. focuses on product innovations with a positive impact on the on the environment. The Company product portfolio comprises special aluminium profiles used in the production of photovoltaic panels, environmentally friendly gas boilers, energy-saving LED lamps, environmentally-friendly architectural systems and façades which improve the thermal and acoustic insulation of buildings.

‘Green Group’ – employee suggestions programme through which the employees have been invited to engage in the ESG Strategy performance, with particular focus on preventing climate change. In 2022 there were 24 suggestions reported, out of which as many as 14 were successfully implemented.

Grupa KĘTY S.A. obtained Type III Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for aluminium profiles extruded from billets cast at the in-house foundry in Kęty. The carbon footprint of the profiles is only 3.3 kg of CO₂e/kg. The document has been verified by an external expert and has the status of a European ‘ECO-EPD verified’ declaration. Additionally, the certificate has been published on the ITB [the Polish Building Technology Institute] sustainable building portal, thanks to which the profiles are acceptable in the ‘green’ buildings certification systems, such as BREEAM, LEED and DGNB. This facilitates their use in creating sustainable architectural aluminium systems.

Photovoltaic panels at Aluminium Kety EMMI in Slovenia – the installation of photovoltaic panels was completed in mid July 2022. The Slovenian company is well situated, has sufficient roof space and its own transformer substation, which is fit for installing a 1,000 kW plant. At the first stage, a plant of the capacity of 400 kW was installed, which generates 12% of electric energy needed. It has been estimated that limitation of the grid energy consumption will reduce CO₂ emission by 110 tons a year. Analyses are being carried out with regard to the feasibility and legitimacy of the photovoltaic system extension.

‘Bike HELPS’ – bicycle riding promotion. For many years, the Capital Group has been the main partner of the campaign. In the years 2015-2022 the participants accumulated over 100 million km, which corresponds to CO₂ emission reduction by to nearly 250,000 tons. The charity effect is 366 bikes for children in children’s homes and community day-care centres.

Electric vehicles – Grupa KĘTY S.A. has a fleet of 13 electric trucks of the capacity of 2.0-7.0 tons, which do not emit any exhaust fumes when moving around the plants, and their low-noise operation has a favourable impact on the comfort and efficiency of work. All trucks are equipped with a GPS system, which makes it possible to analyse and consequently optimise their routes.

Environmentally-friendly transport – nearly 40% of in-house vehicle fleet at the Aluminium Systems Segment are hybrids. The Segment optimises delivery loading and encourages suppliers to use lowemission fleet in transporting products. If employees need to travel to distant sites, the Segment ensures collective transport.

In 2020 Grupa KĘTY S.A. joined the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) sector organisation. In 2022 a certification audit was carried out with regard to compliance with the ‘ASI Performance Standard’. The submitted documents are currently being reviewed by the ASI Assurance Team. The ASI Performance Standard imposes high demands not only on production practices, but also on raw materials sourcing and product management. The standard defines 59 requirements within three sustainable development pillars – governance, environment and social issues.

Starting from 2020, Grupa KĘTY S.A. has been reporting climate issues on the portal of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). CDP is an international non-profit organisation, which has been researching the level of climate awareness among companies and providing information on the climate impact of the individual companies. CDP makes the assessment based on replies to the questions within as much as 11 groups of criteria. The information received enables identification of the challenges and initiatives which are now more and more often required by the investors and customers.

Since 2014, Grupa KĘTY S.A. has been a Global Compact signatory, which means support to, adoption and application of ten fundamental rules relating to human rights, labour standards, environmental protection, and corruption prevention, in all areas of operation.

Since 2021 Grupa KĘTY S.A. has been a member of the Agenda 2030 – the purpose of the Partnership is to integrate cooperation among the representatives of various environments for the effective achievement of sustainable development goals.

In 2022, Grupa KĘTY S.A. had its social responsibility practices and conduct assessed on the EcoVadis platform and obtained the bronze medal. The assessment was carried out using a methodology based on international standards, such as: 10 UN Global Compact principles, International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), ISO 26000 standard, CERES action plan, and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, also known as the Ruggie Framework.

Aluprof S.A. is a partner of the Polish Green Building Association (PLGBC), which aims to transform the Polish construction industry towards minimising its impact on the climate. The PLGBC brings together companies in the construction and real estate sectors and promotes sustainable activities in these fields.

Since 1996, Grupa KĘTY S.A. has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and been a member of the Polish Association of Listed Companies.

In 2022, Grupa KĘTY S.A. and Aluprof S.A. joined the Coalition for Friendly Recruitment.