Letter from the chairman

It is my pleasure to introduce our fifth Sustainability Report, which describes VOCENTO’s financial, social and environmental performance in 2015.

This document has been prepared in accordance with the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in their G4 version and with the special supplement for the media sector. It also forms part of the commitment we made when VOCENTO signed the Global Compact of the United Nations in 2009, whose ten principles defend human rights, labour and environmental standards and the fight against corruption.

In this report, VOCENTO details the focus of its corporate responsibility approach and its relationships with shareholders, employers, advertisers, readers, suppliers, the public administration, sector bodies and the communities where we operate, as well as our environmental impact.

To avoid overlaps and repetitions, the report refers to other documents such as our financial accounts and our corporate governance report, which contain relevant information for sustainability and responsibility.

In the last year, VOCENTO progressed in terms of both our general approach to corporate responsibility and the implementation of specific measures and initiatives in various areas and in our relationships with readers. We detail these measures over the course of this report.

The main highlights of 2015 included: the application of our Risk Management Policy; the updating of our list of relevant stakeholders and the ten material issues for VOCENTO; the creation of the Corporate Responsibility Committee; and finally, the establishment of the four cornerstones of our CSR strategy, forming the platform for the definition of our CSR Plan in 2016. This document contains information about all of these developments.

In terms of initiatives with specific stakeholders or in specific areas, highlights of the year included: the approval by the Appointment and Remuneration Committee of a plan of measures and targets to achieve a balanced mix of men and women on the Board of Directors; the distribution to employees of the Code of Ethics, with their express approval required; the adoption of the EFR model for companies which are responsible towards families, as part of our efforts to support the work-life balance and equal opportunities; and finally the implementation at one VOCENTO company of a pilot protocol against sexual and psychological harassment.

In the community relations area, for the second consecutive year this report adopts the approach of the London Benchmarking Group (LBG) for measuring social investments, which is considered best practice by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Almost 70% of the social action of VOCENTO’s newspapers and companies was covered by this model.

Our commitment to the Global Compact is reflected in the coverage we provide of extensive content related to Human Rights, especially sustainable development, gender equality, the situation of women and children, poverty, equal opportunities, and access to education and healthcare.

VOCENTO is also fully committed to the freedom of expression and to plurality, as defined in our Code, and to other human rights of high relevance to the media such as democracy and free competition. In this area, we work with various professional associations both in Spain and internationally, who are identified in this report.

As a company, we comply with labour standards and the legislation which is in force and our human resources polices are fully engaged with issues of diversity, development and talent retention. We have important relationships with educational institutions, journalism colleges and associations in the sector, all of which are detailed in this report.

I would like to mention here the leading training programmes that we support, such as the two Master’s in Journalism courses and STARTInnova, which encourages entrepreneurship among youngsters and in 2014-2015 involved more than 2.600 young people. Finally, last year the annual VOCENTO awards recognised the efforts of our best journalists and the social impact of our newspapers and other media.

Luis Enríquez