GRI
BALANCING STAKEHOLDER INTERESTS AND BUSINESS INTERESTS
The process of defining the focal points of our strategy for a sustainable future comprised 4 steps:
1. Analysis of “DP World Our World, Our Future” sustainability strategy and internal brainstorming around the key questions:
How can we translate DP World’s strategic sustainability pillars to the context of DP World in Antwerp?
What is the added value of the Antwerp branch?
Where do we make the difference for our own business, the employees, society, the environment, and the customer?
For which social trends/challenges does DP World in Antwerp aim to offer a solution?
2. Stakeholder mapping:
The relevance of our stakeholders was determined (stakeholder mapping) by taking into account the following criteria:
- What is the impact/influence of the stakeholder on DP World in Antwerp?
- What is the importance of the stakeholder for DP World in Antwerp?
Stakeholders in the upper right-hand corner (high degree of influence and importance) are priorities for DP World in Antwerp. We see them as our most important partners for identifying and achieving our sustainability ambitions.
<<Case study>>
In order for a company to add value to society, it is important to take into account the local community and stakeholders. This is why DP World always works closely with the Port of Antwerp on new projects – providing input or even testing the projects at the terminal. In addition, we hold monthly stakeholder management meetings to discuss particular problems or changes we want to make. Together with the community, we can take sustainable business to the next level.
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3. Stakeholder consultation:
In consultation with the internal and external stakeholders, we determined which challenges are also “material” aspects. These are important for the long-term strategy of DP World in Antwerp and meet the (reasonable) expectations of our (most relevant) stakeholders. In order to gain insight into who our stakeholders are, what interests they represent, how much impact they have on our operations and to what extent they support our organizational goals, they were divided into five working groups and their perceptions and expectations were surveyed. The working groups took place in late 2018/early 2019 on the following topics:
- Safety
- Supply chain / mobility
- Environment/energy
- People
- Social partners (consultation with the port unions)
The various stakeholders were questioned about what they understood by a sustainable company policy, what added value they saw in this, and what the strengths and weaknesses of the DP World site in Antwerp were.
Finally, using the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a frame of reference, brainstorming sessions were held on opportunities for improvement in the future.
On 2 December 2021, we also talked to an enthusiastic group of students from the Maritime Sciences program at the University of Antwerp. After a brief introduction to our company and our sustainability policy, we listened to their feedback and expectations, which were mainly centered on:
- Energy savings and climate impact: continue to focus on modal shift, renewable energy sources, sustainable charging infrastructure for trucks
- Innovation and digitalization
- Safety culture
- Equal opportunities and diversity: equal pay for the same job, transparency, more diversity in applications
TABLE HERE
This was an interactive session that was greatly enjoyed by both the students and ourselves. We appreciated the voice of the future generation and gained more insight into their aspirations as future cooperation partners or perhaps even colleagues.
“DP World is strongly committed to sustainability, automation, and innovation and attaches great importance to safety. We still see opportunities for them to make their energy sources greener and promote modes of transport other than road transport. Congestion at the terminal is also a concern. Digitalisation is an opportunity. After this session, most of us would consider a job at DP World.”
Maritime Sciences students, University of Antwerp
4. GRI as a reporting framework:
This sustainability report puts our commitments around the Sustainable Development Goals most relevant to DP World into concrete terms. To make our performance measurable and our commitments concrete, we once again refer to the international GRI reference framework for sustainability reporting.
