Sustainability
Local Communities
A company in operation naturally ends up generating impacts on society, especially on the communities located in its surroundings, and it has responsibilities in this regard. The impacts generated may be positive (ranging from promoting employment with an impact on the local economy to meeting local demands for the sustainable development of these communities) and negative (causing harmful social, environmental and economic impacts on the local population). In this context, we have operations in 46 industrial parks located in twelve countries, with different cultures and realities, where the local communities are subject to different impacts and have different needs.
Something that facilitates this process for us is that our good relationship with local communities is something cultural, which has been going on since the first years of our activities, through the positioning of our founders. An example is CENTROWEG (Youth Training Center), the first major project that started in 1968 and remains very relevant for the company today.
Another example of our work in this regard was the “Social Integration Circle -CIS”. The program, created in 1980, was formed by the wives of the directors and coordinated by a social assistant. It was developed through a socioeconomic research to know the reality of the employees in their homes. With the results, the company started to develop programs aimed at improving the life quality of employees and their families in an assistance and preventive manner through guidance. The program lasted 25 years.
These are examples of how this history of good relations with the community was especially important for our internal culture of relations with local communities, helping us in the risks, opportunities and new challenges of today.
WEG Volunteering Program
Being a volunteer is to give your time, work and talent to the causes of the community and social interest, thus improving the life quality of the people affected by such action.
Volunteering has increasingly become a two-way street, where generosity and self-giving are not the only things involved, but also the opening for new experiences, opportunities for learning, pleasure in being useful, expansion of social networking and professional development.
WEG believes that one of the essential components of volunteering is the experience of the volunteers, their professional background and life experience in the family and community. In order to be a volunteer, it is not necessary to be a specialist; it just requires motivation and interest in this noble act of helping people.
WEG Volunteering programs offer an opportunity for the employees that want actively to take part in the community, conveying knowledge by means of their experiences and skills.
The so-called Solidary Actions are projects and events that take place throughout the year and are offered to the volunteers. In 2018, 420 volunteers registered.
If you have any questions, please contact: voluntario@weg.net
Social Investment Policy
In 2019 we revised our Social Investment Policy, which was approved by the managing directors of our business units, representing our units worldwide.
The objective of the policy is to establish relations with communities focused on WEG’s social investment criteria. The policy includes investments primarily in cities where we have industrial operations. Units outside Brazil assess projects locally, following the guidelines of this policy and submitting approval to their local governance structure.
Policy criteria to approve investments in social projects
Priority may be given to the project that meets the greatest number of requirements, being a. and b. decision-makers:
- Occur in cities where WEG keeps industrial operations;
- Derive from a private, non-profit entity, whose legislation enables tax deduction, and which have a recognized track record;
- Aim at a collective coverage;
- Cover and/or involve WEG employees and/or family members;
- Aim at social improvement and life quality of the population, especially children and adolescents;
- Be related to the necessities and interests of the community;
- Contribute to the sustainable development;
- Promote a positive image of WEG;
- Be kept by at least one more sponsor so as not to depend exclusively on WEG’s resources;
- Be aligned with WEG’s Code of Ethics and Policy of Prevention and Fight against Corruption and Other Detrimental Acts;
- Be aligned with one or more Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In this policy update, we have improved the monitoring of the project. Any proposed project whose value is above 10 minimum wages, either through its own resources or incentive law, must present, in addition to the entity’s documentation, a signed “Term of Commitment” that will formalize the partnership and enable the audit of the project.
Communication Channels
Apply your projectDirect contact with the responsible area: comunidade@weg.net
Social Investment Indicators in 2019
About R$ 13 million invested in projects around the world.
More than 540 thousand people were directly or indirectly impacted by projects just in Brazil.
