Planet First!

The Charity Lotteries are socially driven organisations. We want to make the world better. Therefore we support the work of charitable organisations and raise awareness of their work in the fields of culture, climate, health, social cohesion, human rights and combating poverty.

The money that we provide to help these beneficiaries make a contribution to a better world is earned by operating charity lotteries. However, we need to practice what we preach: it is our goal to stimulate what is best for the planet and its people all over the world, therefore we have to set the right example.

Our CSR Approach: Planet First!

In 2009, the lotteries in the Netherlands, Sweden and Great Britain adopted a firm stance towards CSR. Together with the Institute for Sustainable Innovation & Development (INSID) we formalised a sustainability vision, called ‘Planet First!’. This ‘Planet First!’ vision shaped our CSR strategy. Furthermore, we considered the sustainability issues important to our main stakeholders at that moment: participants, beneficiaries, employees, government and political parties. This was achieved by carrying out a material issue analysis that led to the following relevant CSR themes: Fair and Real Cost Pricing, Planet, People and Openness.

Our CSR strategy and the theme selection is based on the believe that we need to start with setting the right example within the boundaries of our own organisation. We do realise that our societal impact lies beyond our own organisation with the beneficiaries receiving our contributions and winners receiving their prices. The themes of Planet and People focus mainly on our own internal organisation, while the themes of Openness and Fair and Real Cost Pricing focus on maximising our positive societal impact.

Fair and real cost pricing

Fair and real cost pricing is an important principle. For this reason, during 2011, we have developed our own sustainable procurement code (supplier code of conduct) for all our suppliers with conditions on the protection of human rights, working conditions, health, safety, environmental impact and integrity. This will require suppliers in the entire value chain to adopt Corporate Social Responsibility and encourage them to make sustainable innovations.

Planet

More priority must be given to our planet. In our operations, we aim to reduce our impact on our living environment by reducing our carbon footprint, using ‘green’ electricity and implementing sustainable solutions.

People

The Charity Lotteries are organisations with passionate and engaged people; every employee can develop and be him- or herself. We want to propagate this further in the coming years by investing in employee engagement and the professional development of employees.

Openness

Responsible lottery participation, transparency, integrity and complying with legislation and regulations are important principles in CSR for us. We will achieve this by working on excellent and open communication with participants, politicians, media and other stakeholders.

Dialogue with stakeholders

We have regular contact with various stakeholder groups - participants, beneficiaries, employees, government and political parties and suppliers – to increase involvement at both sides and enhance transparency about the activities of our lotteries. During these engagements, CSR related themes are on the agenda and key topics and concerns of stakeholders are discussed. We do not have a structured system in place yet to capture all topics and concerns that have been raised through stakeholder engagement, and how we have responded to this. More information about the dialogue with these stakeholders and examples of our responses can be found in the GRI-index.

CSR management

The four CSR themes have been translated into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The aim of these KPIs is to measure and report on progress towards the objectives of the CSR themes. The KPIs of the Charity Lotteries are reported upon every six months. The guidelines for the process, the indicators and data quality are set down in a reporting manual. This facilitates and guarantees internal monitoring and planning of activities that drive performance on CSR themes. Moreover, we can provide our Management Team and Executive Board with insight into the risks and opportunities to be managed as a basis for decision-making. The Executive Board is responsible for the execution of the CSR strategy together with Managing Directors and the Planet First! core team. The Planet First! core team consists of four Sustainability Ambassadors, one ambassador from every country, and the Head of International Sustainability Ambassadors. The Executive Board discusses the targets, the results achieved in CSR and the progress made towards objectives. Their aim is to actively involve every employee by regularly informing them about the CSR strategy and our ambitions for the future. One of the major achievements of 2012 is that we established a new reporting system for CSR data, which will make it easier to measure our progress and compare between countries.