2024 Universal Registration Document

Social and professional integration actions

• Number of integration hours monitored by ViE teams in France in 2024: 1,252,315
• Number of beneficiaries of the Step programme in 2024: 40 (145 since it was launched)
• Number of employees on integration programmes in the social joint ventures created by the Group at end-2024: 350
• Number of middle school students from priority neighbourhoods as defined by urban policy or rural areas across France welcomed for work experience placements under the Give Me Five programme: over 10,000 in 2024 (more than 30,000 since the programme was launched)

Corporate foundations helping to tackle exclusion

• Number of Group foundations in 2024: 15 in 17 countries
• Number of projects supported by these foundations in 2024: 564
• Amounts distributed to Group foundations in 2024: €6.5 million

3.3.2.2 Preventing negative impacts on local communities

Policies

While the Group strives to maximise the opportunities offered by its activities to make a positive contribution to the development and cohesion of regions and local communities, the Group also has a responsibility to prevent the potential negative impacts of these activities. This is one of the five salient issues identified and presented in VINCI’s Guide on Human Rights. This guide, which was approved by VINCI’s Executive Committee and follows on directly from the VINCI Manifesto, is supported by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and applies to all Group companies. From an operational perspective, the project directors have primary responsibility for managing community relations. Depending on the projects, they may be supported by corporate social responsibility managers, sociologists or community outreach officers.

Group companies and their customers have shared responsibilities and must work closely together to identify, avoid, mitigate and remedy negative impacts on local communities. The Group’s policy in this area is built around three key areas: social, cultural, heritage and economic issues; land-related issues; and local community engagement and dialogue issues.

To define its framework for taking action, the Group took inspiration from various reference documents, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the International Bill of Human Rights, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.

For the Group, local communities mean populations living within the area of influence of its projects. VINCI also pays particular attention to indigenous and tribal peoples, who are specifically protected under international law as they are more vulnerable to infringements of their rights. In its supplement to the VINCI Guide on Human Rights, the Group highlights the specific status of indigenous and tribal peoples, as well as the need for vigilance to respect and ensure that other parties respect their rights, safeguard their living spaces, and preserve their livelihoods. It also states that in the event of any impacts on indigenous and tribal peoples, a prior consultation must have been completed, ensuring their free, prior and informed consent as defined by international standards.

Actions

Managing impacts on local communities systematically involves two phases:

• identification and assessment of potential impacts (e.g. through an environmental or social impact assessment or a human rights impact assessment);
• definition and monitoring of an impact management plan (e.g. through an environmental and social impact management plan, action plan, resettlement or livelihood restoration plan, plan for managing the influx of workers, gender plan, etc.).

Applying a cross-cutting approach throughout a project’s life cycle, dialogue must be developed with the communities affected. This dialogue may be the responsibility of various stakeholders, and primarily the project owner.

Identification and assessment of impacts

VINCI has formalised guidelines to protect the fundamental rights of affected communities and prevent the potential negative impacts of its activities. They include detailed recommendations to prevent any infringements of the individual and/or collective rights of local communities and indigenous and tribal peoples. The main areas addressed by these guidelines include:

• Social and environmental issues: local communities may be subject to a project’s potential impacts over the short, medium and long term. This category of impacts covers:
  • environmental aspects (pollution potentially leading to public health issues, biodiversity loss affecting livelihoods, etc.);
  • social aspects (tensions surrounding water and land use, impacts on lifestyles, etc.);
  • cultural and heritage aspects (impacts on lifestyles, habits, tangible or intangible heritage sites, etc.);
  • economic aspects (impacts on local prices due to the influx of workers, impacts on economic stakeholders within the project’s area of influence, etc.);
  • safety aspects (relating to project safety measures or work involving moving equipment).
• Land-related issues: from their upstream phases, the development of infrastructure projects may require changes of ownership or restrictions concerning land use or access, which may have significant and long-term negative impacts on communities (restricted access or change of use, involuntary resettlement, etc.). These issues are generally the responsibility of the project owner.
• Community engagement, stakeholder consultation and grievance mechanisms: as potentially affected individuals or communities, local populations must have the opportunity to express their views throughout a project’s life cycle in an appropriate setting. This community engagement process must make it possible to identify the potential impacts and the corresponding preventative measures through open, inclusive and transparent dialogue.