07/09/20
CSR at the heart of Manitou Group’s mission
“To improve working conditions, safety and performance around the world, while protecting people and their environment”: that is Manitou Group's guiding mission. In the space of eight years, the Group has come a long way in terms of CSR, initiating then gradually building up a CSR policy, which is now a fundamental pillar of its strategy. We look back on a constantly evolving process.
In 2012, after an initial consultation with the stakeholders to get an understanding of their key issues, Manitou Group was starting to build its CSR strategy. Its aim? To ensure the creation of sustainable solutions, delivered by the Group's men and women in close partnership with the whole supply chain. To initiate this transformation, it was essential to involve all areas of work within the company. A governance structure was therefore gradually developed with the help of a network of voluntary ambassadors.
In 2018, the Group established an initial partnership with the United Nations in the framework of the PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) Challenge to develop CSR in its North American subsidiaries. The integration of CSR issues into the company strategy accelerated with the introduction of an ambitious four-year action plan, the Elevation plan, consisting of 13 quantitative objectives. The "Reduce" label, which assures our customers of perfect transparency regarding the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions; ecodesign criteria in new products; expansion of the range of reusable parts and time allocated for volunteering or skills-based sponsorship are among the many initiatives undertaken.
Today, the Group continues its transformation and CSR is now a priority anchored in the company's mission. In order to adapt to the increasingly rapid changes in our environment, Manitou Group wants to reorient its CSR strategy. To do that, a new consultation has been launched in the context of a second PRME challenge with the Asian Institute of Management's MBA student competition, in Manilla. It is aimed at all the company's stakeholders.
The objective is twofold but complementary: to find out how the Group's current strategy is perceived by these stakeholders, but also to learn about their CSR issues to orient the company's strategy as closely as possible to the needs and expectations of everybody.
The consultation is underway; the final report is scheduled for September, when the students will present their analysis of the Group's strengths and areas for improvement on a range of topics: climate change, a low-carbon trajectory, diversity, safety at work, talent management, ethics, etc. This analysis will help us determine the strategic axes of the future CSR roadmap.