Guided by our purpose, we have understood that there is no development, growth and innovation without an optimistic, resilient and agile talent, capable of proposing unique solutions of the highest value for our customers and consumers. Every day we seek to be the best allies for our customers and suppliers because we are convinced that together we are stronger and together we will achieve sustainable growth.

 

In Alianza Team we are characterized for being people who seek to make a difference, who believe in our own development and growth, people with a human sense. Every day we take steps towards the unknown with humility, with courage, passion and enthusiasm.

 

This year we adjusted our commitments to incorporate all those aspects that were left out of the initial 2020 statement, so we went from having three commitments to twelve. We work to be allies of our people, communities, our supply chain and our planet, making a difference by leading by example to inspire and mobilize those around us, because we know that together we achieve more and better results, demonstrating that truly as allies we can go further.

Understanding that materiality is a dynamic and changing exercise, which must adapt to new challenges, trends and changes in the environment, sustainability and the industry, to date we have conducted three comprehensive materiality analyses. The first one ending in 2016, then a corporate update in 2019, an internal adjustment starting in 2021, and this last one at the end of 2022. 

 

It was developed with a dual materiality approach, which allows for the identification and prioritization of impacts on the economy, environment and people, including human rights, as well as environmental risks and opportunities that may affect the ability to create long-term value for the organization and our economic performance.

 

We do this by taking into account the global and industry trends and challenges we face:

 

Phase 1: Context analysis and identification of potential material issues

We identify impacts associated with environmental, social, governance and human rights issues through the analysis of international frameworks such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct and OECD sectoral guidelines on due diligence, industry frameworks such as GRI, SASB and Dow Jones Sustainability Index and industry benchmarks in sustainability.

 

With these inputs we constructed a preliminary list of impacts, which we grouped into possible material issues for further consultation with internal and external stakeholders.

 

Phase 2: Stakeholder Dialogues

We carried out different actions with our stakeholders to learn their perspective on potentially material issues. We conducted an impact prioritization workshop with employees, interviews with the management team and almost 300 surveys with employees, customers, consumers, communities, suppliers, special allies, authorities and government. Within special allies we consider non-governmental organizations (NGOs), non-profit organizations, associations, consultants, academia, and unions, among others, with whom we develop long-term relationships for the management of common objectives. 

 

The methodology took into account:

 

• Influence of perceptions and opinions on stakeholders.
• Impacts generated by the organization on the environment, people and surroundings.
• Environmental, social and environmental risks and opportunities that could impact the organization’s performance.

 

Phase 3: Prioritization and validation of material topics

For the prioritization of outward impacts (environment and society) and inward impacts (risks and opportunities) we took into account their severity and probability, identified from the dialogues with our stakeholders.

 

Based on the information gathered in the previous phases, we constructed the corporate materiality matrix in line with the recommendations of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

 

Finally, after several validation sessions, we established the most important issues to manage for the environment, society and business. In total, we identified 16 issues, 13 of which were material, and 3 of which were efficient management issues.

In 2022 we advanced in the certification of the Policy Guidelines under the Certificate tool, an application developed with internal talent, which allows us to present in an agile and practical way all the policies to our employees so that they can know in depth the corporate principles, measuring the level of understanding we are achieving with each one of them. By the end of the year we had reached more than 95% of the Alianza Team population in Colombia. We also updated all job descriptions and employment contracts to include the responsibility of employees to know and comply with the company’s policies, procedures and other guidelines in the normal performance of their duties.

 

Broadening the scope of the corporate compliance team, the challenges for 2023 are framed around the following themes:

 

• Design and implementation of an Environmental Crime Prevention Program that reaches our own operations and those in our supply chain under a large umbrella.
• Finalize the protocol for dissemination and attention to environmental complaints in order to expand the scope of the Integrity Line.
• The design of new channels for disseminating information about our principles, guidelines and processes for engaging with our customers and suppliers. In this way, they will be able to learn more effectively about the content of our anti-money laundering and anti-corruption programs and the steps to be followed on a regular basis for their engagement and updating as business partners.