While expanding the business globally, COSCO SHIPPING Ports persists in integrating the principles of sustainability into its daily operations and corporate culture to fulfill its corporate responsibility and commitment to the environment and society. In 2023, the Company broadened its sustainability approach to "GRAND", using Governance, Resilience, Agility, Nature and Dynamic as the foundation. The Company continues to deepen energy conservation and carbon reduction strategies, accelerate the process of carbon neutrality and just transition, steadily promote the construction of smart ports, aid in building a green shipping industry chain, and create shared value for stakeholders.
The Company has been actively supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. The SDGs that are most relevant to business operations have been identified and integrated into its five sustainable development areas.
The Company's Five Key Areas of Sustainable Development
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT AND DOUBLE MATERIALITY ASSESSMENT
The Company endeavours to maintain good and close communication with stakeholders to gain an in-depth understanding of their suggestions and expectations on the Company's sustainability strategies, goals and daily operations in order to further improve the management of sustainable development. The Company conducts materiality assessment of sustainability issues annually and introduced the concept of double materiality since 2023 which identified risks and opportunities that might have a significant impact on the Company's operations and development from both financial and non-financial perspectives, to understand the concerns of stakeholders. For more information, please refer to our Sustainability Report.
The table below outlines the objectives and channels for maintaining regular engagement with key stakeholders in the Company's daily operations:
| Stakeholder Groups | Objectives | Channels |
| Customers | Strive for service excellence by understanding customers' concerns and expectations for the Company's business and sustainable development as well as sharing industry prospects and development strategy with customers to maintain long-term relationships with mutual trust | Meetings, business visits, expositions, seminars, customer satisfaction surveys, service hotlines, instant messaging software, emails |
| Employees | Value the opinions of employees to constantly improve our staff policy, as well as attract and retain talents to lay the foundation for long-term business development | Company website, social media platforms (including WeChat and LinkedIn accounts), presentations, meetings, labour unions, emails |
| Shareholders and Investors | Maintain close communication with shareholders and investors and understand their concerns as well as share our business update to enhance their understanding in the financial and non-financial performance, results and future development of the Company | Meetings, roadshows, investor conferences, company website, corporate communications (including, but not limited to, financial reports, sustainability reports, announcements, circulars and press releases), general meetings |
| Suppliers and Partners | Ensure that suppliers and partners understand and follow the Company's policies and expectations to improve service quality and act on its social responsibility | Tendering, contract and agreement negotiations, regular assessments, business exchanges, seminars |
| Governments and Regulator | Comply with the requirements and guidelines of government authorities and regulators and understand their policies and priorities in respect of sustainable development | Subject-specific reports, information submission, forums |
| Non-governmental Organisations and Local Community Groups | Establish good relationships with non-governmental organisations and local community groups, maintain sound reputation, and identify and respond to different environmental and social risks | Company website, social media platforms (including WeChat and LinkedIn accounts), community public welfare activities |
MANAGEMENT APPROACH
The Company is committed to maintaining a high standard of corporate governance by having a well-defined governance structure and clear management policies and procedures in place, and continuously optimising its risk management and internal control systems.
In compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and ethical standards, the Company strictly prohibits illegal and unethical behaviour such as corruption, bribery, fraud, and money laundering, and provides regular anti-corruption training to employees to strengthen the Company's culture of integrity and honesty.
As the development of smart ports progresses, the Company has published and continuously improved multiple management policies regarding data privacy protection and cybersecurity to provide institutional norms and guidelines for related work.
Climate Resilience
The Company is dedicated to standardising the operational management of its Subsidiaries based on the green and low-carbon philosophy. The Company has developed management policies and corresponding contingency plans for energy saving and emission reduction, responding to extreme weather and climate events, providing its Subsidiaries in China with specific policies and guidelines in relation to environmental management, such as issuing the Typhoon Prevention and Disaster Relief Work Plan and the Comprehensive Emergency Plan for Safe Production, as well as encouraging the Subsidiaries to formulate the Emergency Plan for Extreme Weather and Emergency Plan for Environmental Emergencies on the basis of the Company's policies, in order to prepare measures to respond to natural disasters caused by climate change such as typhoons, severe convective weather, landslides, and flooding. The energy use of the terminals is managed through policies like Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Management Policy and various measures are taken to ensure efficient and responsible use of energy, improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions from pollution.
The Company practises corporate social responsibility in the aspect of investment management. It has developed the Investment Management Policy to regulate investment management. Before making any investment decision, the Company conducts feasibility studies on the project to review its environmental protection and energy-saving performance, safety regulations and its capacity for sustainable development. In terms of projects approved for implementation, the Company carries out relevant safety and environmental protection work pursuant to the management policy to ensure that such projects are implemented in accordance with requirements under the investment decisions.
Supply Chain Management
The Company has developed a set of basic rules and policies, and management procedure for procurement management to specify the procurement standards of the Company and its Subsidiaries, strengthen centralised management, and establish a sound internal control process for procurement business and a response plan for major procurement risks. All aspects of the procurement process are under supervision and management, and the procurement department keeps complete records to ensure the traceability of the procurement process. The Company also encourages business partners, suppliers and contractors to comply with the requirements of the Company's Anti-corruption Policy. The supervision and audit departments of the Company and its Subsidiaries carry out regular or special audits on the procurement work. In case of non-compliance, the Company will hold the responsible personnel accountable.
At the supplier admission stage, the Company carries out research on suppliers from the market according to its procurement needs, requires potential suppliers to submit basic information for review, requires all suppliers to complete the Questionnaire of the Vendors for Self Assessment for Compliance with Social Norms and sign the Vendors' Commitment of Anti-Business Bribery to ensure that they clearly understand and comply with the Company's business ethics requirements and forbid any illegal and unethical business activities. The Company strictly requires all interested suppliers to conduct a self-assessment in the areas of legal compliance, safe production and occupational health, environmental management, prohibition of child labour and forced labour, remuneration and working hours, anti-discrimination, employees' rights, and their management of upstream suppliers.
The Company formed an assessment panel to strictly review the qualifications of suppliers, comprehensively considering their legal compliance and performance records, business reputation, taxation records, technical capabilities, and ability to deliver on an on-going basis, quality control and assurance measures, as well as their commitment to product or service safety guarantees, in order to select suppliers with excellent performance. For products with a major impact on production and construction safety, the assessment panel will conduct on-site inspections to confirm the actual situation of the interested suppliers.
The Company and its Subsidiaries carry out annual dynamic evaluations on suppliers who have been engaged in the year to evaluate their basic qualifications, cost competitiveness, delivery and performance, quality control, customer service, business innovation and safety and environmental performance. For suppliers who have not been engaged in the year, the Company conducts an annual qualification review to verify their business registration certificates, special industry certifications and license documents and ISO quality certification system documents, among others. Suppliers who fail to participate in or pass the annual review as required, and suppliers who have not been engaged for a long time, will be removed from the supplier database.
The Company has established a sound supplier reward and punishment system. Those who are evaluated as excellent suppliers can be given priority for partnership under the same contractual conditions, and standard business partnerships will be maintained with good suppliers, while the Company also provides environmental and social training to suppliers or subcontractors. Suppliers who violate laws and regulations, fail to meet professional qualifications, fail to properly perform contractual obligations, are exposed to major quality and service risks, cause safety and environmental incidents, or engage in commercial fraud or bribery will be blacklisted and prohibited from commercial transactions.
The Company is under prudent and meticulous business management and strictly complies with laws and regulations in respect of products and services in China and places where it operates.
The Company has formulated the Customer Service Management Policy and the Customer Service Hotline Policy to regulate the customer management and retention, customer service guarantee and the handling of complaints and disputes of the Company and its Subsidiaries, with a view to establishing a high level of service standards and strengthening customers' confidence in the Group.
The Company proactively encourages terminal companies to implement sustainable operations, improve service quality management, and engage third party audit agencies to conduct evaluation with the objective to constantly enhance its service standard.
The Company strictly complies with environmental laws and regulations , and ensures compliant and legal operations by the Company and its Subsidiaries. The Company strictly abides by laws and regulations related to natural resource management in the places where it operates and uses natural resources appropriately and reasonably with reference to good management practices in the industry, making every endeavour to minimise the consumption of natural resources and the impact of business operations on the environment.
The Company has developed the Infrastructure Management Policy to ensure that the environmental protection facilities and safety equipment have passed special inspection and acceptance or filing in accordance with the requirements of relevant authorities. Before commencing all large-scale projects, the Company engages professional environmental assessment agencies to assess the environmental impact caused by such projects, to ensure that local environmental requirements are met prior to construction.
To ensure the effective implementation of biodiversity conservation, the Company has developed the Management Policy on Ecological and Environmental Protection to regulate the daily management of ecological and environmental protection, environmental monitoring, environmental management of construction projects, management of environmental protection facilities, and emergency treatment and management of environmental pollution accidents in its Subsidiaries in China. The Company has also developed the Supervision and Inspection Management Policy on Ecological and Environmental Protection and the Measures for Performance Evaluation of Ecological and Environmental Protection to standardise risk prevention methods of its Subsidiaries in China in areas of water pollution, solid waste, hazardous waste, food and domestic waste pollution, and conduct investigation and treatment of hidden hazards of environmental incidents that may cause toxic and harmful substances to enter water, air and soil, in order to standardise the pollution prevention and ecological and environmental protection work of the Subsidiaries in China, and enhance the awareness of biodiversity protection.
In addition, the Company conducts quarterly comprehensive inspections and special inspections of its Subsidiaries in China to ensure that sewage discharge and waste treatment are legally compliant with local standards. The Company has formulated a management policy related to hazardous waste and general waste and formulated an emergency plan for hazardous waste disposal. Any failure in effectively performing the supervision and inspection of ecological and environmental protection, or violation of relevant laws and regulations that causes environmental pollution accidents, will be handled by the Company in accordance with the management policy. In addition, the Company regularly sorts out and investigates environmental pollution sources and ecological risks of its Subsidiaries, and requires them to file relevant reports, such as work summaries on the investigation and control of environmental pollution related risks or information concerning energy saving and emission reduction in accordance with the management policies.
Employee
The Company complies fully with the laws and regulations in relation to labour force, employment, diversity, human rights, occupational safety and health in the regions where we operate to protect the basic rights of employees. The Company has formulated the Human Resources Management Policy and the Employee Handbook to manage human resources and staff conduct. These policies set out the Company’s expectations on its employees’ ethics, as well as the ethical norms and procedures they should follow in their daily work to uphold high level of ethical standards and conduct.
Health and Safety
The Company highly values the safety of its employees and is dedicated to creating a safe and healthy working environment. The Company strictly implements safety management-related measures to minimise the risk of safety accidents. The Company has established a comprehensive safety production management and occupational health management system and implemented a safety production responsibility system that clearly defines the responsibilities of employees at all levels. The Company also requires its Subsidiaries to incorporate subcontractors into its safety management system to implement unified control.
Community Engagement
The Company also actively builds close relationships with the communities in where it operates and always considers the potential impacts of its operations on the local economy, environment and society. As a leading ports operator in the world, the Company proactively builds up long-term collaborations with various community organisations by leveraging its local community networks, resources, and talents. The Company spares no effort in fulfilling its corporate social responsibility, and proactively participates in various charitable and community services to create value for local communities, with the aim to jointly build a harmonious, inclusive and sustainable communities.
