Our corporate responsibility policy is based on the principles of Environmental Awareness, Social Awareness, Social Openness, Trust and Ethics.
Our main concern is to acquire more in-depth knowledge of the social reality that surrounds us by cooperating with, and supporting local charities, as well as health, cultural and sports institutions.
As managers of the shopping centre we are continuously interested in the issues that affect the surrounding community. We regularly organise events aimed at the local community, often focussed on cultural or environmental issues, and frequently aimed at specific groups such as children and the elderly.
We work closely with specific charities by setting up collections at the shopping centre and also through direct donations to local communities and businesses. Within the company we have implemented a system that allows our employees to easily participate in volunteering projects around the community, on the company’s time.
At Sonae Sierra, we are committed to implementing a zero accident culture and we seek to ensure that our stakeholders’ health is never at risk. The continuous work we carry out through our Personæ project, has led us to implement and promote our safe conduct and risk reduction practices within the shopping centre, which have had exceptional results. These practices include Safety Preventive Observation (SPO), that audits the company and identifies unsafe working conditions.
As well as SPOs we hold regular Health and Safety training sessions for all our employees, shop owners and service providers in all the countries where we are present, as well as regular Health and Safety Meetings with our local stakeholders.
We are also aware that all visitors to our shopping centres must, on no account, be at risk of any health and safety issues. Considering the number of visitors we have on a daily basis, we are committed to enforcing rigorous control of our emergency evacuation plans, as well as carrying out regular emergency drills.
In order to guarantee solid compliance with our Health and Safety measures, Sonae Sierra has chosen to implement a Health and Safety Management System and the company abides by all regulations in the OHSAS 18001 international guidelines. This system was certified in 2008 in corporate terms, and during the same year, Sonae Sierra’s first shopping centres in Portugal and Brazil were certified in Health and Safety in the Workplace.
According to Sonae Sierra’s Corporate Management System, Mercado Bom Sucesso is committed to developing and implementing Health and Safety policies, objectives and plans based on the current legislation and regulations and risk assessment, involving all people visiting or working at the shopping centre.
Protecting the environment for current and future generations is one of Sonae Sierra’s main concerns, and we focus on the following four main areas of impact:
We strongly believe that innovative and committed Environmental Management can improve our proposal for added market value, by reducing costs and risks associated with incorrect environmental practices.
Sonae Sierra’s approach to the environment is based on the implementation of our Environmental Management System (EMS), that adheres to the ISO 14001 regulation. Our EMS includes all business activities we participate in and is enforced in all countries where we operate. Its objective is to increase ecological efficiency and to promote adequate control of significant environmental impact that may occur due to our business activity. Thus, we maintain our commitment to all points outlined in our Environmental Policy.
As part of Sonae Sierra’s Corporate Responsibility policy, Mercado Bom Sucesso is committed to sustainably improving parameters related to its environmental performance, through increasingly effective resource management.
We believe that in order to achieve a sustainable future, we must maintain and improve awareness of environmental issues.