Sustainability at Sabaf

Our Charter of Values

Governance of Sustainability 

Social and environmental aspects are an integral part of the Group’s strategy and, as such, are the responsibility of the Board of Directors. 

As part of their responsibilities and competencies, all Sabaf employees are required to implement Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in carrying out their activities.

Compliance

• UN Global Compact

In 2004, Sabaf formally joined the Global Compact, the United Nations initiative for companies that commit to upholding and promoting the ten universally accepted principles of human rights, labor standards, environmental protection, and fight against corruption. 

Every year, by signing the CEO Statement of Continued Support and by publishing the Communication on Progress and the Annual Report, Sabaf renews its commitment to make the Global Compact and its principles an integral part of its strategy, culture, and day-to-day operations. The company explicitly declares its commitment to all employees, partners, customers, and the general public.

https://www.unglobalcompact.org/

• APPLiA Code of Conduct

Sabaf complied with the APPLiA (Home Appliance Europe) Code of Conduct, an association of household appliances manufacturers representing companies in the household appliances industry. The Code of Conduct confirms the European household appliance industry's commitment to sustaining ethical and fair behavior. It also promotes equitable and sustainable standards in working conditions and environmental protection to support fair competition in global markets.

The producers complying with the Code commit themselves voluntarily to implement decent working conditions, including compliance with common standards regarding minimum age, working hours, hygiene and safety requirements, respect for freedom of association and collective bargaining, and to observe practices that respect the environment. The signatory companies also undertake to raise awareness among their suppliers of the Code's principles and encourage them to pursue and apply these to the entire supply chain.  

https://www.applia-europe.eu/

• CDP

Aware of the value of complete and transparent disclosure, in 2023, Sabaf joined for the fourth consecutive year the CDP Climate Change and Water programs. CDP, formerly Carbon Disclosure Project, is a non-profit organization that provides companies, local authorities, and governments with a global system to measure, manage and disclose information about the environment.  In particular, companies are asked to participate in an annual survey on the impact their activities have on the environment, the management of their environmental risks, and the results achieved. 

The goal is to make environmental performance central in the business and investment decisions, leveraging information transparency.

In 2023, in its fourth year of participation, Sabaf received a C rating in the Climate Change section on a scale ranging from A to F.

https://www.cdp.net/en

Materiality analysis

Since 2014, Sabaf has started a process of identifying material topics that represent the most significant impact of an organisation on the economy, the environment and people. 

In accordance with the GRI Universal Standards 2021 and in order to align the sustaiability reporting with the recent regulatory developments, during 2023, the materiality process was revised and updated as described below.

1. Understanding the context of the organisation and drawing up the Long List of potential topics
   Starting from the material topics identified in previous reporting periods, as well as following an analysis of the internal and external context that considered the sector-related scope of reference, a Long List of ESG topics potentially relevant to the Sabaf Group was defined. The identified topics were adjusted by considering, on a preliminary basis, the topics and sub-topics covered by the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) Sector Agnostic of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which were published in July 2023 and which Sabaf will report starting from 2025.
2. Definition of impacts
   For each potentially relevant topic, the organisation’s impacts (positive and negative, actual and potential) were defined as the effects it has or could have on the economy, the environment and people, including effects on human rights, as a result of its operations or business relations. The impacts, associated individually with a specific ESG topic, reflect an analysis that focused, in particular, on the sector in which the Company operates, its operations and the activities that impact the value chain. 
3. Assessment of impacts
   As part of stakeholder engagement, the impacts identified were subject to the assessment by internal and external stakeholders. Specifically, at this stage, top management, employees, customers, suppliers, investors, lenders and financial analysts, environmental and community representatives are selected on the basis of their qualifications and relevance as stakeholders and asked to provide an assessment of each impact related to the topics for which they are responsible. The assessment was carried out in accordance with the guidelines published by the GRI Standards, i.e., considering two main criteria:
   - likelihood, i.e., the chance of the impact happening;
   - severity, i.e, the severity of an impact should it happen. The assessment of the severity also considered:
       - the scale, i.e., how grave the impact is;
       - the scope, i.e., how widespread the impact is;
       - irremediable character, i.e., how hard it is to counteract or make good the resulting harm.
   For each impact, stakeholders were invited to express, via a specific survey accompanied by specific guidelines, a score from 1 to 5 relating to the above criteria (likelihood and severity).
4. Short list of material topics
   The score obtained for each impact was analysed in order to obtain, starting from the assessments of individual stakeholders, a score associated with each topic. The topics were then sorted by score and finally included in the Short List of Sabaf’s material topics.

The updated list of Sabaf’s material topics and the related impacts by ESRS topic is shown below. Sabaf S.p.A.’s Board of Directors approved the following list of material topics on 20 February 2024.