Today we define
Corporate Social Responsibility
as the way a company balances its economic,
social and environmental objectives
while addressing stakeholder expectations
and enhancing shareholder value.
But ACC has undertaken
social volunteering practices almost
from its inception, – long before
the term corporate social responsibility
was coined. The company’s earliest
initiatives in community development
date back to the 1940's in a village
on the outskirts of Mumbai while the
first formal Village Welfare Scheme
was launched in 1952. The community
living around many of our factories
comprises the weakest sections of rural
and tribal India with no access to basic
amenities.
Corporate
Social Responsibility Policy
“The
Company shall continue to have
among its objectives the promotion
and growth of the national economy
through increased productivity,
effective utilization of material
and manpower resources and continued
application of modern scientific
and managerial techniques, in
keeping with the national aspiration;
and the Company shall continue
to be mindful of its social and
moral responsibilities to consumers,
employees, shareholders, society
and the local community.
In pursuance
of the above objective, ACC acknowledges
the importance of the concept
of inter-dependence of all sections
of society. In particular, its
focus revolves around the community
residing in the immediate vicinity
of its Cement Plants and Mines
where it seeks to actively assist
in improving the quality of life
and making this community self-reliant.
In line with its abiding concern
for preservation of the ecological
balance and safeguarding the health
of the community, ACC has always
actively demonstrated its firm
resolve to protect the environment
Mindful of its
great tradition, ACC is deeply
committed to enhancing its reputation
and respect built over the years
in industry and society for its
professional style of management
based on philosophy of the best
in business ethics.”
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Community
& Rural Welfare
Our community development
activities revolve around the under-privileged
community that lives in the immediate
vicinity of our cement plants and is
thus more dependent on us. The range
of our activities begins with extending
educational and medical facilities and
goes on to cover vocational guidance
and supporting employment-oriented and
income-generation projects like agriculture,
animal husbandry, cottage industries
by developing local skills, using local
raw materials and helping create marketing
outlets.
At all our cement factories
we share our amenities and facilities
with members of the local community.
This includes sharing education and
medical facilities, sports and recreation.
Wherever possible we share access to
Bore Wells, drinking water and the usage
of colony roads.
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Education
Education is imparted
not only to children of ACC employees
but also more importantly to children
from rural areas who do not have access
to any medium of information or education.
ACC schools maintain high standards
and are open to other children of the
vicinity. Often these schools are the
most preferred centers of learning in
the district and adjoining areas. Wherever
possible, ACC provides funds and infrastructure
to help set up local schools, colleges
and centers for learning and education.
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Healthcare
ACC takes pride
in providing various forms of medical
assistance to the families of our employees
and also to all those living in surrounding
villages. Each factory has a medical
center with full-fledged doctors and
the latest of basic equipment. Mobile
medical services are provided in the
vicinity and regular medical camps are
held to eradicate diseases, offer medical
help, treatment and preventive care.
ACC has come out to
provide support to state and national
health initiatives such as the eradication
of malaria, dengue fever and the dreaded
HIV.
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HIV/AIDS
- Workplace Policy
ACC is desirous of playing a meaningful
role in the nationwide effort to eradicate
HIV/AIDS and has pledged to support
the Confederation of Indian Industry
in their initiative. ACC recognizes
that a fundamental step in this respect
involves a clear statement of the company’s
internal policy to deal with employees
affected by HIV/AIDS. CII has framed
a Code of Practice for Industry to guarantee
and safeguard the rights of employees
infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. We
adopt this as ACC’s internal workplace
policy for HIV/AIDS. The policy states
that::
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The company
will provide a safe and healthy
work environment for employees.
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The company
will educate its employees and the
family on prevention, care and counseling
of HIV/AIDS.
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The company
will educate its employees on safe
blood donation and transfusion.
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If an employee
has been infected, information about
the illness would be kept confidential
by the company. Only the immediate
superior would be kept advised to
prevent any medical eventuality.
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A HIV positive
employee will be allowed to continue
to work in his or her job unless
medical conditions interfere with
the specific job he or she is doing.
On account of health conditions
the employee may be shifted to another
comfortable position.
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The employer
should ensure that the co–employees
cannot or should not shun their
HIV positive peer or refuse to work
alongside them. In fact, the company
will assure his or her comfort level
in the work place.
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The company
will, as a policy, not discriminate
against any employee infected by
HIV/AIDS with regard to promotions,
training and any other privileges,
applicable to all employees of the
organisation.
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While the company
may ask a person who is being offered
a job to undergo general medical
tests before the issue of the appointment
letter, the test will not cover
HIV/AIDS, without an informed consent
and pre test counseling of the candidate.
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The company
will educate its employees and encourage
them to participate in voluntary
counseling and testing. However,
HIV/AIDS tests will not be a part
of any annual or regular health
check ups, without the employee’s
informed consent and pre test counseling.
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The company
will ensure that proper treatment
is available to employees infected
with HIV/AIDS. The company will
assist the employee in meeting the
cost of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs
within the prescribed limits as
fixed by the Company. The arrangements
for treatment will be made at hospitals
pre-identified by the company and
payment will be made directly to
the service provider. All other
(non-ARV) HIV/AIDS related costs
will be covered as per the company’s
prevailing scheme for Health and
Medical treatment.
It is hoped that this policy will help
build positive and supportive attitudes
towards those infected as well as promote
health and safety amongst the employees.
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HIV/AIDS
treatment - Anti Retroviral Treatment
Centres
 In close consultation
with the Confederation of Indian Industry
(CII), the management of ACC decided
to step forward to participate in the
national effort to eradicate the HIV/AIDS
virus that we recognize as being among
the country’s most important public
health issues.
As a first step, we
announced a Workplace policy for HIV/AIDS
that protects the fundamental human
rights of employees who may unfortunately
become affected by HIV/AIDS, while also
ensuring that these affected persons
get proper care and treatment. Next
we decided to set up an Anti Retroviral
Treatment Centre for HIV/AIDS treatment.
We chose to put up this project in Wadi
in the state of Karnataka where we have
the largest of our cement plants. Karnataka
also happens to be a state where the
virus is highly prevalent.
The ACC Wadi ART Centre
has all the basic physical infrastructure,
Laboratory facilities and trained medical
and support personnel. It is housed
in a new building constructed by us
on an independent piece of land outside
our plant and colony. The building has
an area of over 2500 square feet and
comprises a large reception area with
adequate seating, consulting rooms for
the doctors, rooms for social workers
and counselors, laboratory, pharmacy,
pantry and toilets.
The center is fully
equipped with new machines and medical
equipment as prescribed by NACO ART
guidelines. These include a state-of-the
art CD4/ CD8 cell counting machine.
We believe this is the only center in
the district and adjoining districts
with such a machine. The ACC Wadi ART
Centre has a full complement of medical
and support personnel including a doctor,
nurse, lab technicians and other staff.
The doctor has been trained at Christian
Medical College Vellore. The center
includes a Voluntary Counseling and
Testing Centre (VCTC). We will also
be tying up with reputed hospitals in
Gulbarga for referaal linkages.
We aim to develop the
skill and capability to run this center
at Wadi as a world-class facility for
the benefit of the public, with the
assistance of NACO, CII and prestigious
medical institutes such as CMC Vellore.
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Disaster
Relief
ACC and its employees
make timely contribution to help in
any national disaster. This is done
both at the corporate level, by local
units and employees. Apart from the
Kargil cause, collective contributions
by way of cash, food and clothing has
been sent to help victims of calamities
such as the Latur earthquake, Himachal
Pradesh floods, Orissa cyclone, Gujarat
earthquake, Tsunami and floods in Maharashtra.
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Gujarat
Masons’ Training
ACC’s contribution
to the rebuilding effort after the 2001
earthquake in Gujarat was unique. Anticipating
a scarcity of skilled masons and trained
supervisors for the reconstruction work
- especially in Kutch, Rajkot and Surendranagar
districts, the company evolved a scheme
to provide construction related training
to over 2500 unemployed persons (mostly
youth) in earthquake affected villages.
Our best civil engineers were deputed
to impart training on basic skills needed
to work as masons and construction site
supervisors and to make earthquake resistant
structures, using local materials. This
was perhaps the country’s first
formal training programme of this magnitude
for masons and site supervisors, organised
by ACC.
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Conservation
of heritage structures
The services of ACC’s
Concrete experts have often been utilized
in the restoration of several national
heritage buildings across the country
- such as sections of the Chhatrapati
Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria
Terminus) at Mumbai, the J N Petit and
David Sassoon Libraries in Mumbai, churches
in Goa, palaces and royal mansions in
Mysore and Hyderabad and other old structures
in the country.
The historic Vijayraghavgarh
fort in Madhya Pradesh was recently
restored under ACC’s patronage.
This is not a core business of the company
but an act of corporate volunteering
by way of sharing knowledge and expertise.
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Global Compact
ACC Limited is a signatory
to the United Nations Global Compact.
We are committed to the ten principles
of the Compact which foster better corporate
responsibility in the areas of human
rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
Established in 1936, this company has
from its very inception been conscious
of its obligations to the community
and has always kept in view its social
responsibilities. ACC’s Vision
vividly declares the company’s
commitment to its corporate social responsibility
and sustainable development issues making
these an essential part of the business
goals for the company. This communication
on Progress provides an insight into
our recent activities in support of
the Global Compact’s Objective
and our efforts towards continuous improvement.
Communication
on Progress
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Support
to national Sport
ACC has had an old
and close association with the game
of cricket. From the 1950’s to
the 70’s, many cricket legends
were employees of ACC during their active
cricket careers. This was in the days
before cricketers became like the superstars
they are today. ACC was then among the
few companies which went out of its
way to employ young cricketers, including
budding young Ranji Trophy hopefuls.
ACC joined hands with the Confederation
of Indian Industry to sponsor India’s
National Boxing team at the Athens Olympics
in 2004 and the Commonwealth Games.
ACC also sponsors and supports other
sports at National, regional and local
levels such as inter-regional Badminton
championships, youth soccer and Rural
Sports Meets.
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Awards
& Accolades
ACC was the first
recipient of ASSOCHAM’s first
ever National Award for outstanding
performance in promoting rural and agricultural
development activities in 1976. Decades
later, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry
selected ACC as winner of its Good Corporate
Citizen Award for the year 2002. Over
the years, there have been many awards
and felicitations for achievements in
Rural and community development, Safety,
Health, Tree plantation, afforestation,
Clean mining, Environment awareness
and protection. In 2006, we were selected
to receive the Good Corporate Citizen
Award of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce
and Industry.
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Awards & Accolades
- National Award
for outstanding performance
in promoting rural and agricultural
development –
by ASSOCHAM
- Sword of Honour
- by British Safety Council,
United Kingdom for excellence
in safety performance.
- Indira Priyadarshini
Vrikshamitra Award
--- by The Ministry of Environment
and Forests for "extraordinary
work" carried out in the area
of afforestation.
- FICCI Award
--- for innovative measures
for control of pollution, waste
management & conservation of
mineral resources in mines and
plant.
- Subh Karan Sarawagi
Environment Award
- by The Federation of Indian
Mineral Industries for environment
protection measures.
- Drona Trophy
- By Indian Bureau Of Mines
for extra ordinary efforts in
protection of Environment and
mineral conservation in the
large mechanized mines sector.
- Indo German Greentech
Environment Excellence Award
- Golden Peacock
Environment Management Special
Award - for outstanding
efforts in Environment Management
in the large manufacturing sector.
- Indira Gandhi
Memorial National Award
- for excellent performance
in prevention of pollution and
ecological development
- Excellence in
Management of Health, Safety
and Environment :
Certificate of Merit by Indian
Chemical Manufacturers Association
- Vishwakarma Rashtriya
Puraskar trophy
for outstanding performance
in safety and mine working
- Good Corporate
Citizen Award
- by PHD Chamber of Commerce
and Industry
- Jamnalal Bajaj
Uchit Vyavahar Puraskar
- Certificate of Merit by Council
for Fair Business Practices
- Greentech Safety
Gold and Silver Awards
- for outstanding performance
in Safety management systems
by Greentech Foundation
- FIMI National
Award - for valuable
contribution in Mining activities
from the Federation of Indian
Mineral Industry under the Ministry
of Coal.
- Rajya Sthariya
Paryavaran Puraskar
- for outstanding work in Environmental
Protection and Environment Performance
by the Madhya Pradesh Pollution.
Control Board.
- National Award
for Fly Ash Utilisation - by
Ministry of Power, Ministry
of Environment & Forests
and Dept of Science & Technology,
Govt of India - for manufacture
of Portland Pozzolana Cement.
- Good Corporate
Citizen Award - by
Bombay Chamber of Commerce and
Industry for working towards
an environmentally sustainable
industry while pursuing the
objective of creation of a better
society.
- National Award for Excellence in Water Management - by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
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