Vivendi

Our sustainable development policy

Vivendi’s contribution to sustainable development consists of enabling present and future generations to satisfy their need to communicate, responding to their desire for entertainment, feeding their curiosity, developing their talents, and encouraging exchange among them.

Vivendi conducts a stringent sustainable development policy that puts its economic, social and environmental performance into perspective with regard to its business activities and its geographical locations. The sustainable development policy is backed up by specific commitments and guidelines.

Our main sustainable development issues

The sustainable development policy is defined by Vivendi’s characteristics as a Group:

• producer and distributor of content;
• at the core of technological broadband and mobility evolutions;
• centered on the subscription model;
• conquering new markets in strong growth countries.

• The first of those characteristics implies that the Group appraises the opportunities and risks its content and services can represent for various audiences. Vivendi has defi ned three specific sustainable development issues:
  • accompanying youth in its uses of media ;
  • promoting cultural diversity ;
  • sharing knowledge.

• The second characteristic necessitates Vivendi’s reconciling the digital revolution with recognition of the needs of its stakeholders (employees, customers, artists, suppliers, civil society, and others) and with regulatory requirements. Managing human capital, leveraging content, vigilance towards suppliers, and dialogue with partners are all sustainable development issues.

• The third characteristic raises the issue of collection and processing of personal data of subscribers and customers of the Group’s business units. In all countries where Vivendi operates, the expectations of subscribers as regards to content offerings and services must be satisfi ed while at the same time keeping to a stringent policy of personal data management.

• The fourth characteristic requires an evaluation of Vivendi’s contribution to local development in countries undergoing strong growth where the Group operates – as regards to employment, investment in infrastructures, development of local talent and access to new information and communication technologies, which is one of the keys to success focused on by governments in the education of young people.

Groupwide mobilization

The Chairman of the Management Board regularly includes sustainable development issues in the agenda of meetings of the Management Board and the Risks Committee. Throughout the year, he brings together experts from civil society to share analysis of the development of the Group’s activities in the light of these sustainable development issues.
The Group’s Sustainable Development Department leads the process by closely associating the head offi ce functional divisions and the business units.

The 2009 Progress & Perspectives for 2010-2011 table

Vivendi publishes its Sustainable Development Report each year. For the seventh consecutive year, the 2009 edition of Report has been examined and reported on by an external auditor, Salustro Reydel of KPMG International, one of Vivendi’s Auditors, regarding the procedures implemented by the group to report, validate and consolidate social and environmental performance indicators, with verification of a selection of indicators.

Vivendi is listed on several sustainable development indexes. Also, in November 2009, Vivendi was classified by Goldman Sachs among the five worldwide best placed companies in the media sector as regards to economic performance and sustainable development criteria.