Communities

Material Topic: Communities

Managing impacts of activities on local communities (e.g., local employment and skills development, infrastructure impacts, environmental, health, and well-being impacts), including through targeted social investments

Key GRI

• GRI 413: Local Communities 2016

NaDiVeG

• Respect for Human Rights
• Employee and social concerns

Most relevant SDGs

For OMV, transparency, trust, and partnership-based relationships with local communities are key to ensuring we are a responsible and welcomed neighbor wherever we operate. Adding value to the communities where we operate is essential for safeguarding our operations for the future. In the interest of being a responsible international company, we contribute positively to the fulfillment of human rights in our immediate surroundings through a number of projects and initiatives. Investments in community relations and development respond specifically to identified community needs. They are designed to mitigate social risks that could result from company operations and initiate positive change in neighboring communities.

Our commitments to our communities are laid out in our Human Rights Policy Statement. Our Sustainability Directive documents processes and accountability internally, and covers social responsibility, which comprises community relations, development and social investments, human rights, volunteering, and NGO relations for the OMV Group. A special Community Relations and Development handbook is available for all of the OMV Group’s community relations managers.

Governance

The Community Relations and Development function within Group Sustainability governs and steers community relations at Group level and implements development activities in the countries in which we operate. It also receives regular reporting and feedback from social responsibility teams and local teams, and monitors and ensures adherence to the Group’s guidelines on community relations and development. We hold regular structured alignment meetings with our local community relations managers to monitor and steer local implementation of our site-specific global community relations and development commitments. We also organize regular exchanges between all countries in order to share challenges and best-practice experiences as a supplement to the guidance provided. According to our Sustainability Directive, each business area and all subsidiaries can act as initiators of community development investments and social investments within the framework of the OMV Group’s Sustainability Strategy processes.

Steering ensures that the OMV Executive Board is informed in an adequate and timely manner about the entire community and social investments portfolio, plans, and performance KPIs. For example, the Group’s community relations managers submitted the total budget for community and social investments in 2023 and provided information on the major social or community investments planned.

Borealis Social Fund

In 2008, Borealis launched the Borealis Social Fund. Each year, a portion of Borealis net profit is donated to the Fund, based on clearly defined allocation rules. Any external or internal stakeholder can submit a project proposal to the Borealis Sustainability Team, which then validates the proposal and makes recommendations to the CEO, who has responsibility for the Fund and selects and approves all projects. Sponsorship above EUR 0.5 mn per project per year also needs the approval of the Chairman or Deputy Chairperson of the Supervisory Board.

OMV Petrom Foundation

Launched in 2022, the OMV Petrom Foundation develops programs that support long-term investments in disadvantaged communities in Romania in three key areas: health, education, and environment. The Foundation provides resources and solutions and builds strategic long-term partnerships with other non-governmental organizations and central or local public authorities, with the aim of reducing infant mortality, supporting early education, and promoting biodiversity. Through the OMV Petrom Foundation, OMV Petrom extends its support to early health and education and environmental initiatives that are highlighted in the Social Investment chapter.