Vivendi

J-B. Lévy, Pascale Thumerelle, Michel Serres
© Jean-François Deroubaix/Gamma/Eyedea

Vivendi’s first Sustainable development Seminar, January14th - 15th 2010

Held on January 14 and 15, 2010, Vivendi’s first Sustainable development seminar brought together 70 participants and stakeholders representing civil society and the company’s various business units around the world. It was an opportunity for Vivendi to remind the main guidelines of its sustainable development policy, and for stakeholders - including investors, extra-financial ratings agencies, specialists, academics and NGO representatives - to express their expectations. Testimonies from Business Units also illustrated the sustainable development issues’ integration into their activity.

Vivendi’s specific issues (promotion of cultural diversity, protection of youth and sharing of knowledge), defined as soon as 2003, are today seen as being both strategic and well managed at company level. This helped Vivendi gain a leading sustainability position in its sector.

Other sustainable development issues discussed included, management of human capital, personal data protection and human rights within our supply chain.

The speech delivered by Académie Française member and Stanford University professor Michel Serres was a particular event highlight. "You are among the few who understand that information shapes our world and who put this knowledge into practice," said Serres. "Information is not only sustainable and everlasting; it is also unquestionably the driving force behind all development."

Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy remarked that this message highlights the importance of the company’s mission: as a creator of social ties, Vivendi has a duty to safeguard such sustainable development issues and integrate them into its strategy.

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The year 2008 was marked by a deepening of dialogue with our stakeholders. Several meetings with employees and the academic, associative, institutional, and financial communities at the French, European and international levels were held. They were opportunities for Vivendi to better describe its sustainable development policy and its specificities and to seek analyses and opinions to aid the group in making progress in its approach and towards its objectives.

Employees

In 2008, six sessions of the Sustainable Development Committee attended by employees of corporate headquarters and the business units dealt with a range of themes, including the United Nations Global Compact, the role and missions of the Health, Safety, and Working Conditions committees, the protocol for reporting on sustainable development indicators, environmental certification, the work of the Auditors, etc. Employees of corporate headquarters met three times during the year to hear presentations and discussions relating to the group’s sustainable-development policy (results and perspectives), the launch of the Create Joy solidarity program and preparations for EMAS environmental certification, expected during the first half of 2009. A meeting with the Secretary General of the Work Council continued the exchange begun in 2007 on the occasion of a training session held at the initiative of Vivendi’s Social Affairs department.

Network of partners

With a concern for making progress in the analysis of its specific issues, Vivendi continued its involvement in multi-partner initiatives.

Concerning the protection of youth, Vivendi, as a member of the EU Commission’s “Safer Internet Plus” program, regularly consulted with its different business units on the implementation of this program in a context of self-regulation. On a national level, Vivendi extended its network in 2008 by working with “Enfance et Média” collective testimony, which has 100,000 member associations. In the United States, where two of the group’s five business units (Activision Blizzard and Universal Music Group) are headquartered, Vivendi brought together experts from civil society and the academic community to build a network to work on this issue testimony. On the theme of cultural diversity, Vivendi, a member of the Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity, was invited by UNESCO to celebrate the World Day for Cultural Diversity on May 21, 2008 for its action in favor of promotion of local talents. Concerning the issue of sharing knowledge, Vivendi is continuing its reflection to define appropriate indicators on a group level. These indicators would serve to assess progress in the areas of knowledge, well-being, and nurturing of social ties by the services and content produced by our various business activities. Vivendi is also a founding member of the Observatory for Corporate Social Responsibility (ORSE) and the Institut de mécénat et de solidarité (IMS) (fr) in France. The group has a correspondent of the HALDE, a French supervisory body for fighting against discrimination and promoting equal opportunity. The group shows solidarity through its support of a number of associations. During the year 2008, meetings with the university community were an opportunity for students from Sciences-Po Paris, the HEC MBA program and the École Polytechnique to become more familiar with Vivendi’s vision in the area of sustainable development and to discuss our specific issues.

Investors

Vivendi’s financial communication policy aims to provide all shareholders with accurate, precise, and sincere information on the group’s strategy, situation, results, and financial development. It complies with the procedures put in place in application of French standards (the Financial Security Law). The role of sustainable development issues in this communication has grown during the year. The Investor Relations department, in Paris and New York, which maintains ongoing relations with analysts at brokerage firms and managers and analysts of investment funds, intensified the role of sustainable development policy in its communication efforts. These include meetings held in world financial capitals and participation in investor conferences by group executives. In 2008, 503 institutions were met with to provide commentary on the group’s results and its perspectives. 60 days of “road shows” and meetings with investors (see Marie-Pierre Peillon’s testimony) were held. These are complemented by meetings with analysts and investors throughout the year. Executives of Vivendi and its business units also participated in 15 investor conferences. Vivendi’s Sustainable Development and Investor Relations departments held “road shows” on sustainable development for analysts and investors in charge of socially responsible investment. The shows introduced the group’s approach, results and perspectives to 32 of the most representative institutions in Paris, London, and Holland in 2008, compared to 16 in 2007 and 10 in 2006.

Shareholders

Throughout 2008, Vivendi worked to increase the awareness of its individual shareholders to sustainable-development concerns and the commitments the group has made in that area. Many initiatives were taken. The first of the “Thursday is Vivendi” meetings aimed at individual shareholders, held June 5, 2008, was devoted to the general principles of sustainable development and Vivendi’s concerns in that area. The same was done at the Actionaria exhibition, held November 21 and 22 in Paris, and at the Forum de l’investissement (Investment Forum) in Nice on November 6 and 7, 2008. The group’s sustainable-development policy was a specific focus of an informational meeting led by Philippe Capron, Vivendi’s Chief Financial Officer, on October 14, 2008 in Lyon. All these events are scheduled to be repeated in 2009. For all questions relating to sustainable development and Vivendi’s strategy and financial policy, shareholders can call the Shareholder Information Service at 0 811 902 209 (local rates from a fixed line) or send e-mail to shareholders@vivendi.com. Finally, out of concern for good corporate governance, a Vivendi shareholders committee is being set up in 2009. It will enable close, constructive dialogue with individual shareholders and increase their involvement in the life of the group.