To address the material IROs related to affected communities, such as social risks from OMV’s operations, potential disturbance of cultural heritage sites of indigenous people and other communities through our business development, and the inability to avoid involuntary resettlement, we have defined specific actions based on our commitments in the OMV Code of Conduct and Human Rights Policy Statement and following the guidelines in our Sustainability Directive. These actions are aligned with our targets of assessing the Community Grievance Mechanisms (CGMs) at all sites against the UN Effectiveness Criteria for Non-Judicial Grievance Mechanisms by 2025, and direct at least 1% of the previous year’s reported net income attributable to stockholders of the parent toward social goals. The actions include consulting with communities, conducting social and human rights impact assessments, and assessing community grievance mechanisms. Additionally, through our social investments, which encompass community development initiatives, we provide both monetary and non-monetary support. These activities, beyond our core business, aim to contribute to the social welfare and progress of society in general. For the material topic S3 Affected Communities, none of the described actions exceeded our key action monetary threshold of EUR 5 mn, and therefore these data requirements have not been addressed.
OMV allocates substantial financial and human resources to mitigating social risks and contributing to local social, economic, and environmental advancement in the areas where we operate. This includes an annual budget to implement the actions defined in the Community Relations and Development plans and dedicated Community Relations personnel throughout the Group.
Community Consultation and Social and Human Rights Impact Assessments
Our primary preventive measures to address the identified negative material impacts on affected communities, such as negative impacts arising from OMV’s operations and potential disturbance of cultural heritage sites of indigenous people and other communities through our business development, include Community Consultations and Social and Human Rights Impact Assessments. These ongoing measures are guided by our Human Rights Policy Statement and Sustainability Directive, and enable us to mitigate disturbances related to planning, land acquisition and exploitation, oil and gas production, use of natural resources, and management of environmental impacts. This includes addressing issues such as cultural rights, limited employment opportunities, involuntary resettlement, and failures to respect the communities’ economic, social, and cultural rights. The results from the Social and Human Rights Impact Assessments (SHIAs) guide us in determining the necessary actions to address any actual or potential negative impacts on affected communities. We identify appropriate responses through a thorough analysis of the findings.
In 2024, a total of five (2023: 5) out of nine (2023: 13) development projects that are part of OMV’s Energy division were in the scope of community consultation. For example, OMV has been engaging in cooperative partnerships in the Weinviertel region, Lower Austria, since 1950. In July 2023, OMV confirmed a new gas discovery at Wittau Tief-2a, with production starting in 2026. The ESIA conducted in March 2024 showed negligible environmental and societal impacts, balanced out by significant public interest benefits. Identified affected stakeholders include landowners who have shown concerns about temporary forced land use. OMV developed a stakeholder engagement plan and the Managing Director of OMV Austria conducted meetings, which led to an eventual agreement with landowners and thereby mitigated human rights and reputational risks. All material impacts are addressed through these community consultation actions, as this is the direct way to mitigate potential negative impacts and adjust the business plan, taking into account community rights, avoiding disturbance to cultural heritage, and preventing involuntary resettlement. Additionally, these actions enhance positive impacts by supporting local employment and business development through various initiatives and respecting the communities’ rights to express their opinions.
In addition, a Human Rights Self-Assessment was conducted in 2023 by OMV Tunisia with two aims: tracking the measures in place to manage actual and potential human rights impacts on our rights holders, including communities, and providing an independent, external assessment of the management’s perception of OMV Tunisia’s human rights due diligence activities. In the final report received in 2024, the existing community reporting mechanism procedure was highlighted as a strength, as it enables the reporting and investigation of human rights impacts on community members. We track the effectiveness of our community consultation and social and human rights impact assessments by collecting feedback and performance evaluations. This includes gathering input from stakeholders and analyzing the outcomes of consultations.
Community Grievance Mechanism Assessments
Community Grievance Mechanisms, guided by our Sustainability Directive, are available as a remediation measure for local communities near our operations, providing them with the opportunity to raise any concerns they may have, such as those related to the effects of process safety incidents or disturbances from dust and noise. For details, see S3-3 Community Grievance Mechanisms. OMV has set a target to assess the CGMs at all sites against the UN Effectiveness Criteria for Non-Judicial Grievance Mechanisms by 2025. The CGM assessments are used to track the effectiveness of the existing processes and practices in place and identify practical improvement measures. During these assessments, internal and external stakeholders are consulted, including via interviews, on the current performance of CGMs and design improvements that may be necessary. The main findings (e.g., key strengths, improvement areas, and proposed actions) are included in the CGM Assessment Report. The action plans are implemented by local management and monitored by the Group Community Relations and Development function.
CGM assessments have so far been completed in OMV’s Energy segment in Austria, Tunisia, New Zealand, and Malaysia, as well as at the Schwechat and Burghausen refineries and OMV Petrom sites. To ensure continuous improvement, we are currently implementing the follow-up actions derived from the findings. The sites already assessed account for 89% of all registered grievances at OMV in 2024. The CGM assessments are an ongoing process and are relevant to our current global business activities, with a focus on the communities near our operations. For details on our CGM, see Processes to remediate negative impacts and channels for affected communities to raise concerns.
Social Investments
OMV has adopted the umbrella term “social investments” to cover any activities that involve monetary or non-monetary support and activities beyond the core business that aim to contribute to the social welfare and progress of society in general. Our social investments (including community development projects), guided by our Sustainability Directive, aim to create long-term societal value for local communities impacted by our business. We strive to mitigate negative impacts and enhance positive impacts by integrating stakeholder consultations and community needs assessments into this ongoing process.
Our community relations processes and projects help us establish mutual trust and respect between OMV and affected communities, thus supporting us in maintaining our social license to operate and creating win-win situations for all. We track the effectiveness of the outcome based on the “Input, Output, Outcome, Impact” (IOOI) methodology developed. Through tailor-made questionnaires received from participants in projects, we gain insights and perform a quality check of social projects. This enables us to really gauge the success of our efforts to address societal challenges. Through our social investment projects, we reached 1.1 mn beneficiaries in 2024 (2023: 1 mn) and invested EUR 36.1 mn (2023: EUR 45.2 mn).
2024 Investments by Main SDGs and by Beneficiaries
Community Development Investments
Community development investments are always aligned with identified local needs and made following consultation with local stakeholders, as well as taking into consideration country-specific priorities in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We focus on projects with the potential to generate long-term societal value and make a lasting change to beneficiaries’ lives. Community and social investments are aligned with the SDGs and the community’s needs identified during Social and Human Rights Impact Assessments, or with broader societal priorities (e.g., by consulting the Social Progress Index).
We aim to implement our projects in partnership with locally active stakeholders or non-governmental organizations to ensure a maximum social return on our investment. We implement our community development projects as investments, and thus expect each project to generate a return for our communities, or society more broadly. These initiatives often also include knowledge transfer aimed at expanding the local technical capacity of potential workforce or value chain partners.
Consistent communication ensures a single strategic approach and supports OMV’s social responsibility objectives. OMV has defined three key focus areas for our community and social investments:
- Access to basic services:
- Education, entrepreneurship, and employment:
- Climate action and circular resource management:
In addition to the priorities defined by the Group, individual countries or subsidiaries also identify priorities that are specific to them. For instance, the Borealis Social Fund has defined three areas of social engagement that contribute to SDGs 14, 6, 7, and 4.
Corporate volunteering represents a set of diverse activities taken to deliver positive impacts for affected communities. OMV employees are encouraged to personally play an active part in sustainability initiatives, including through volunteering. We offer OMV employees the opportunity to actively engage in responsible and sustainable behavior and facilitate employee involvement with charitable partners. Group-wide volunteering activities that align with specific targets are part of our community and social investments.