Managing Sustainability
Gemalto has a strong background in sustainability.

We continually challenge our practices through external evaluation and certification. We benchmark them against best-in-class companies. And we’re always working to meet our key stakeholders’ expectations of corporate citizenship.
In 2009 Gemalto’s Board demanded that we give a higher priority to our sustainability performance and reporting.
We therefore consolidated existing corporate responsibility activities in a coordinated framework. We also established a more systematic approach to managing sustainability within the company (More information on our sustainability Governance).
 

Multidisciplinary steering committee
Our corporate responsibility (CR) management structure comprises a multidisciplinary Steering Committee. This is supervised by our three Executive Vice Presidents of Human Resources, Marketing and General Counsel. The committee met twice in 2010 to approve the sustainability improvement strategy and review achievement against plans. Two sub-committees entitled Ecology and Social & Ethics – including relevant staff from across the company – met every two months to review progress of our main sustainability projects.

2010’s CR program included 11 significant initiatives:
> Three tackled our business activities’ environmental impacts
> Three others addressed our Business offer (see “Eco-design and green products”)
> Five more were related to social and ethical topics.
These included “Responsible purchasing” or were aimed at better measuring and communicating our CR approach and performance, internally and externally.

In September 2009, we signed up to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). This enables us to benchmark our policies and results against world-class standards. It also means we can verify how current practices reflect the Compact’s ten principles on human and labor rights, anti-corruption and the environment. We sent our first Communication of Progress (COP) to the UN in September 2010.
 

Communicating our CR activities
All our stakeholders want transparent information about Gemalto’s CR approach and performance.

That’s why, in 2010, we produced our first stand-alone sustainability report based on 2009 data. Although we’re confident that our strategy is addressing critical areas for improvement, in 2011 we’ll be conducting a methodical CR analysis.
This will help us determine risks and opportunities associated with our CR approach, as well as relevant performance indicators.
 

Materiality
We aim to tackle the sustainability issues that matter most to Gemalto and our stakeholders. That’s why we’re prioritizing our main projects based on our experience and knowledge, the requests of customers and other stakeholders, and HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) regulations.

Other key influences include:
> The global spread of our industrial plants;
> The number of cards we deliver worldwide;
> Our supply chain involving thousands of people.

> The global spread of our industrial plants
Compared to other market sectors, we generate quite limited environmental impacts through our facilities and manufacturing processes, although we are part of a business supply chain with potential for impacts along its entire length.
> Product life cycle analysis shows that our main impact is on the air (mostly through green house gas emissions), then on soils (through the consumption of resources and waste generation). We have only a small impact on water.

In 2010, our main achievements in this area were driven by:
>  Yearly action plans implemented by our ISO14001 certified plants. These address critical topics highlighted by environmental risk analysis, mostly resource consumption and waste generation/reduction;
>  Our decision to measure all Gemalto-associated greenhouse gas emissions, including all impacts along the supply chain.

> The number of cards delivered worldwide
The quantity of cards we produce demands that we continually focus on environmental considerations.
In 2010, we therefore continued to prioritize more eco-friendly card development and production, plus improved “end-of-life” management.

>  A supply chain involving thousands of people
Our employees and those of our suppliers account for several tens of thousands of people. We can have a real influence on their health and well-being through our management practices.

In 2010, we focused on all key areas by:
>  Improving our Human Resources efficiency;
>  Better defining and structuring our Responsible Purchasing strategy.

 

Dialoguing with our stakeholders
We communicate regularly with our key stakeholders, and invite their views on our performance. Whether they are customers, suppliers, employees, investors or local communities, our stakeholders’ opinions are of great importance to us.

>  Our investors
The confidence and loyalty of private and institutional shareholders are essential for our successful long-term development. We’ve therefore designed our investor relations policy to inform shareholders about Gemalto developments fully and promptly.

In addition to shareholders’ Annual General Meetings, we use a wide range of communication tools to keep investors regularly informed, and to encourage feedback. When we publish interim and annual financial statements, we hold conference calls and investor meetings. We also host frequent road shows and take part in conferences for institutional investors. All these events help us to get a clear picture of investors’ and analysts’ opinions.

>  Our customers
Our annual “Tell Me” survey enables us to assess customer satisfaction. It also allows us to answer queries from customers who want to improve corporate responsibility standards in their own supply chains (More information on the Tell Me process and 2010’s results). Another key opportunity for customer dialogue on sustainability comes at the point of tender. This is when we answer customer questions, and can describe in detail our main management systems and practices. On request, we also complete customer-specific questionnaires demonstrating how we meet expectations for sustainable products and services.

>  Our suppliers
For our biggest suppliers, we hold Quarterly Business Review meetings. This is when we discuss commercial and technical matters relating to the supply chain, product quality and our customer relationship. In 2009 and 2010, we also asked our suppliers for direct feedback on our procurement practices (see CSR survey)

In 2010 we asked our key suppliers for feedback on our overall performance – a process we call “reverse scoring”. We asked them to select five phrases which best describe Gemalto. “Global player”, “world class manufacturing”, “technical leadership”, “quality driven” and “environmentally friendly” were the most common choices.

More detailed reverse scoring results will be available in 2011. Next year’s survey will also include specific questions on our CR performance.

>  Our employees
Our internal annual employee survey – PeopleQuest – helps management and HR to track employee satisfaction across our global operations (More info about 2010’s results). Its 30 questions remained unchanged for 2010, enabling analysis by main site, country and business unit.

>  Communities
We also regularly engage with people in the local areas where we operate, addressing subjects such as noise pollution and people transport on a site-by-site basis.
 

Engaging with employees
We believe it’s essential that sustainability is at the heart of our company. We expect our employees to understand, embody and uphold our commitments and beliefs.

In 2009 we revised our Code of Ethics. We upgraded some of the rules that govern operational conduct worldwide and strengthened the high ethical standards to which we aspire as a business. By the end of the year, 98.7% of targeted employees (more than 2,500) had read and signed this Code. This confirmed a strong level of engagement at all levels (More information on Ethics).

We also communicate regularly with employees about Gemalto sustainability through established internal channels. Every year we share our HSE and Sustainable Development Strategic Agenda. And in 2010, we communicated our commitment to the United Nations Global Compact, as well as new sustainability projects and management structure, to all 10,000 employees. For a second year running we organized staff training on specific key subjects such as fraud. We also issued our bi-monthly newsletter on internal control and risk management.

Since 2008 we’ve held an annual Gemalto Sustainable Development Day. Events take place at all our sites worldwide to update and engage our staff with our sustainability activities (More details in the Focus).

And as of June 2010, we now have a dedicated CR intranet. This features articles and information on sustainability topics, and enables employee dialogue on the subject (More about our performance regarding Employees).