Sustainability
in PRISA

We believe that our very business operations play a significant role in the development of a democratic and sustainable society.

Dialogue and communication with stakeholders

As a media and education group, PRISA endeavors to take the lead in the field of social responsibility. To this end, the Group has its own mechanisms for dialogue with its stakeholders, making us alert to their opinions and concerns, and enabling us to appropriately address their needs and demands.

Cuadro grupo de interés

Materiality analysis

Materiality

Our sustainability strategy

As a media and education group, we take our responsibilities seriously, not merely in how we manage our businesses but also through our operations and content – through which we strive to raise awareness and educate, and foster and spread knowledge.

The chief social responsibility of any media group is to defend and practice, truthfully and vigorously, the right to information and freedom of expression. In this way we contribute to the growth and development of democratic societies everywhere we operate. With a view to guaranteeing the fulfillment of these duties and the exercise of these rights, El País was a pioneer from the very outset in Spain in adopting a series of professional and ethical frameworks such as the Editorial Statute, Style Book and the independent Readers’ Editor, which have been subsequently embraced by all the businesses across the group and even by other media groups. These ethical standards have fostered the growth of a business culture that is rigorous, critical and of high quality, and that have set the gold standard in Spain and in the Americas. [Read +]

PRISA’s commitment to responsible management of human capital has these main objectives:

  • To foster the professional growth and personal development of each employee by providing a work environment that promotes equal opportunities and the exclusion of discrimination. To base promotion on merit, ability and the performance of professional duties.
  • To champion and implement the principle of equality between men and women, ensuring equal opportunities in income and professional development at all levels of the workplace.
  • To promote and improve women’s access to positions of responsibility, thereby reducing inequalities and imbalances that may arise in the company.
  • To establish measures to promote a better work-life balance for workers.

To achieve these objectives, all human resources policies implemented by the Group are aimed at promoting the development of independent and committed professionals and the training of leaders in our teams, who will thereby be better equipped to inform, educate and entertain people and act in ways that are accountable to society. [Read +]

Digital technology has definitively placed people at the center of each and every company’s strategy. Digital technology brings us closer to users and allows us to learn more about their habits —thereby enabling us to offer personalized products that will improve their user experience.

The responsible management of our users must first start with focussing on and preparing our professional teams to face the challenge of digital transformation —a transformation that requires us to develop new skills, new procedures, new products and new ways of working. To this end, over recent years, PRISA has been energetically pursuing an ambitious transformation plan to provide us with the organizational and corporate culture necessary to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by technology and the digital world for our business group. This plan includes training and development programs that will enable our professionals to adapt to this new reality. [Read +]

The Communications and Corporate Marketing Department is guided at all times by the ultimate objectives of the company for the development of strategies and initiatives, and is ultimately responsible for image and corporate culture, the positioning of Group brands and its senior management. The focus of our efforts is on continuously improving reputation, and is addressed to each of the internal and external stakeholders of the organization.

We are aware that reputation is built and cultivated from a range of different perspectives and that it is the responsibility of all members of the organization. The Communications and Corporate Marketing Department not only manages the reputation of the company but also ensures transparency, trust, dialogue and ethics at PRISA through five areas: proactive measurable communications, brand, events and content, integral communications and social responsibility. [Read +]

The chief goal of PRISA’s Procurement Policy is to build up a solid base of suppliers and collaborators, thereby enabling all our companies to acquire goods and services under the strict criteria of efficiency, cost, coverage and technical and productive capacity. Moreover, PRISA also evaluates and ensures the supplier’s integrity and its respect for basic human rights, and the environment. The Corporate Procurement Department coordinates all relations between Group companies and their suppliers, governed by principles of objectivity, transparency, non-exclusivity and equal opportunities, in keeping with PRISA’s Code of Ethics and under the following criteria:

  • Any information supplied will be identical for all suppliers, ensuring that no single supplier enjoys any initial advantage, thus fostering legitimate competition.
  • Potential suppliers will not be invited to participate in the adjudication process.
  • The results of the adjudication and certification process, including a summary of the criteria employed, will be communicated to the supplier in writing. Initiatives for constant improvement are in place, which boost quality to the benefit of both parties. [Read +]

PRISA is committed in all its business operations to the environment, and to reducing both the costs and the impact that such operations may have on the world around us.

The Group’s Environmental Security Policy includes a series of basic principles with the aim of providing safe products and services that respect the environment throughout their entire life cycle. These principles state that:

  • PRISA will comply with all applicable legal requirements, and will, whenever possible, make every effort to anticipate them.
  • The group will actively strive to reduce and prevent pollution and waste, and to conserve energy in all its operations.
  • The group will require its suppliers to conduct their operations in an environmentally responsible manner.
  • The group will ensure the safety of industrial operations to avoid any negative impact on the environment. [Read +]

In 2016 PRISA has continued to receive wide recognition for its social initiatives, both for how it conducts its business activities as well as for company management. The Group was chosen by the Global Compact of the United Nations to serve on the Steering Committee of the Spanish Network, from where we will be able to more actively harness the potential of our company to contribute to sustainable development and act as a socially responsible company. In the area of content, we have been honored by the SERES Foundation with the award Premio SERES 2016 going to Planeta Futuro, the El País portal for sustainable development, for its efforts to raise awareness in this area.

PRISA is committed to the defense of freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, and human rights. We see social responsibility not as a mere supplement to our endeavours, but as an essential part of the Group.

PRISA’s media have long championed campaigns as promoted by bodies and NGOs such as the FAD (Foundation Against Drug Addiction), of which we are founding sponsors and where we work actively on its Media Committee to promote its activity. We also work with Unicef, WWF, Intermón Oxfam, Ayuda en Acción, Red Cross, Manos Unidas, Médicos sin Fronteras, Save the Children and the Unhcr. Support is offered through habitual reporting and specific sponsorship or promotion deals, placing our media at the service of the global community as part of our commitment to raising awareness and mobilizing society. [Read +]