Capital and work. Companies and communities. Inseparable concepts, with a growing awareness on the part of industry that competing on global markets means flanking business activities – profit-oriented by their very nature – with a new social and ethical sensitivity; in this sense there is a growing conviction that such an approach can yield economic benefits and, more generally, contribute to the progress of communities in which businesses operate.
This deep-rooted mentality has been part of the cooperative movement ever since its inception. Here, in fact, the worker is both employee and entrepreneur. In addition to making profits the cooperative’s long-term mission is to act as a “wellbeing generator”. All of the above is especially applicable to a firm like Sacmi, which, founded in 1919, has experienced the entire history of the cooperative model. Decades of fast growth have not clouded the spirit or values on which it was founded; Sacmi thus does its utmost not only to ensure these values are observed but also to ensure that employees, customers and existing or potential consumers are informed, ever-more effectively, of its achievements in the economic, social and increasingly important environmental spheres.
Sacmi drew up it first social audit in 2003. The audit provides a clear description of how the cooperative operates and relates to the local and international community, giving in-depth details not only on economic performance but social and environmental performance too. The 2008 Social Audit is an opportunity to reassert Sacmi’s mission once again, as laid out in a Code of Ethics that constitutes the very core of the company, whatever the changing market conditions: from business management and relations with Public Administration to worker safety. A code that, year after year, generates concrete results, facts and figures: such as added value – which illustrates how the wealth is made and how it is distributed among the various stakeholders who interact with the cooperative. Then there are the employees, which Sacmi considers to be the company’s prime resource and font of stability: their number has been rising constantly (in 2007 there were 1,003, plus 0.6% compared to 2006) and employee loyalty is high, as low turnover levels (lower than in previous years) clearly demonstrate. Human resources that the cooperative decided to invest in, during 2007, by organising 15,880 training hours covering everything from worker health and workplace safety to environmental protection.
Then there is the external solidarity, the charitable initiatives that Sacmi has activated both locally, in and around Imola, and in developing nations. For example, the year 2007 saw both the purchase of equipment for local schools and support for African projects. The environment is another emergency that concerns us all: in 2007 Sacmi made considerable efforts to minimise the environmental impact of production, especially as regards the waste management cycle, by making waste a resource not just a cost: following differentiated waste collection, in fact, much of the waste was sold on (in 2007, for example, a good 44% of ferrous materials and 12% of plastic). Finally, innovation, a key part of the social audit as it means future generations of workers will inherit a strong, competitive company: in 2007 Sacmi’s investment levels reached a 10-year high at 41 million Euros. Expenditure on R&D was also very high, as was the number of new patents, a staggering 119 (+19% compared to 2006).
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