As part of our commitment to the development of the Egyptian community, Crédit Agricole Egypt launched its CSR initiative in 2012 – “Together we care, is more than a promise, it is our commitment”. The idea was to translate the bank’s core values with the aim of being useful to the community. CSR at Crédit Agricole is Focused on.
- Three main pillars: Education, Health and environment
- Social impact on the surrounding community
- Opportunity for staff and customers engagement
- Sustainability of the project
Credit Agricole S.A Group believes that CSR is an integral part of all its businesses and functions, And upon this, an initiative was implemented called “FReD”.
The objective of FReD is to promote and improve our corporate social responsibility (CSR). The principle is as follows: in the fields of compliance, human resources and the environment, every Group entity participating in the initiative, must choose areas for improvement within the subsidiary in which they would like to boost their performance.
Understanding how FReD works
FReD is based on the three sets of standards established by the business lines (i.e. the three CSR pillars: economic, social and environmental) to create a framework for their entities’ actions:
- FIDES for the economic segment ;
- RESPECT for the social segment ;
- DEMETER for the environmental segment.
FIDES : 6 commitments to strengthen trust
- Protect customers’ interests
- Develop products and services which integrate social and societal concerns
- Facilitate access to products and services by largest number
- Establish responsible suppliers and subcontractors relations
- Build up dialogue with stakeholders
- Be ethic in business and operations
RESPECT: 7 commitments to benefit people and our ecosystem
- Act in line with the Group’s values and cultures
- Encourage staff’s development and employability
- Promote quality of life at work
- Promote economic, social and cultural development in local areas
- Promote our social commitments to suppliers and other external stakeholders
- Promote staff participation and social dialogue
- Ensure equity and promote diversity
DEMETER: 6 commitments to protect the environment
- Develop “green” products and services (indirect impacts)
- Encourage green innovation in our industrial production (direct impacts)
- Control our direct environmental footprint and preserve the nature
- Build up dialogue with stakeholders
- Consider environmental factors in purchasing processes
- Formalise policies and processes which integrate environmental factors in our activities
FReD is more than just a support tool; it is also a yardstick designed to assess and monitor the progress of each project. One progress point is earned when the plan moves to the next level. Because FReD was conceived to be objective, it assesses progress rather than absolute values. Year after year, the average of each entity’s self-assessments will be used to compute the Group’s overall progress on the FReD Index.