Ferrovial is made up of the parent company, Ferrovial S.A. and its subsidiaries. For detailed information on the companies, see the group in the Consolidated Annual Accounts.
In 2019, there were operations that involved changes in the group due to the acquisition of companies, the awarding of new contracts and the start of new businesses. There have also been corporate restructurings. For more information, see pages 102-103 of business performance.
The report includes all the companies in which Ferrovial has economic control, meaning a participation of more than 50%. In these cases, 100% of the information is reported. The list of dependent and associated companies can be found in Annex II of the Consolidated Annual Accounts, pages 218-223. Although the Services business is treated as an activity classified as financially discontinued because it is available for sale, to comply with the requirements of Law 11/2018, non-financial information does include this division in its perimeter, offering a complete vision of all aspects and impacts of the business. Therefore, in cases where material is considered, data from the Services division are disaggregated.
Also, following the indications of the GRI Guide Sustainability Reporting Standards, Ferrovial provides information on the indicators and material aspects of “outside the organization”, when the data has sufficient quality, and always separately. Ferrovial considers that the most relevant impacts are those related to the 407 ETR Toll Roads in Canada and the airports in the United Kingdom, companies in which its shareholding is less than 50%. Some indicators of interest associated with these assets are those related to indirect emissions (scope 3), user satisfaction, taxes paid and collected, and number of passengers travelling through airports.
Ferrovial guarantees the traceability of information related to the Corporate Responsibility scope thanks to a reporting system, which has been available since 2007, which provides detailed information on a company level, facilitating partial consolidation by geographical location or business. In 2019, a thorough review of the requested information was carried out to adapt the system to the information requirements of the different stakeholders of the company. The software used has enabled corporate management to gather quarterly information for management and internal reporting to Senior Management.
In 2019, the reporting system collected 550 quantitative and qualitative indicators, in 118 companies, thanks to the collaboration of more than 200 users.
During 2019 there have been a series of changes in the scope of the companies or in the information available from previous years that may affect comparability with the data contained in reports from previous years. To guarantee the maximum transparency and comparability of the data, the body of the report shows when an indicator from previous years has been modified or shows significant changes that affect the comparability of the information. The preparation of the report has taken into account the comments or recommendations on the Statement of Non-Financial Information for 2018 made by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).
Ferrovial is committed to the transparency of the information it shares with the market, through the continuous improvement of communication channels with all its stakeholders, based on innovative corporate information that, in addition to financial aspects, considers the environmental and social variables.
The company considers stakeholders to be individuals or social groups with a legitimate interest, who are affected by the present or future actions of the company. This definition includes both the stakeholders that form part of the company’s value chain (shareholders, employees, investors, customers and suppliers), considered as partners in the development of the business, as well as external stakeholders (Administrations, Governments, media, analysts, business sector, unions, third sector and society in general), starting with the local communities in which the company develops its activities.
This relationship is dynamic since the environment changes more and more rapidly. To a large extent, Ferrovial’s business depends on its relations with the Public Administrations of the countries in which it operates. Ferrovial holds decision-making positions in organizations that promote Corporate Responsibility at a national and international level, such as Fundación SERES, Forética, Spanish Network of the Global Compact and the Spanish Association for Quality (AEC). In 2019, Ferrovial chaired the Spanish Group for Green Growth.
Ferrovial is characterized by absolute political neutrality, developing its activities for both Public Administrations and private clients in the countries where it operates. The company does not make economic or in-kind contributions to political parties or electoral candidates. However, Ferrovial forms part of business or foundation representation organizations for commercial exchange between countries associated with the development of its activity or to the geographical area in which it operates. Through its presence and collaboration with these organizations, the company aspires to contribute to the progress and development of all those fields of action in which it is present. In recent years the economic contribution with these entities was around 1.2 million euros per year, which includes the Association of Construction Companies and Infrastructure Concessionaires (SEOPAN).
Ferrovial’s considerations of the principles related to the content of the report are explained in the specific section on materiality. For more information on the AA1000 APS2008 and GRI Standards, see page 119 of GRI Indicators.
Ferrovial considers relevant matters to be all those that can exert a substantial influence on the assessments and decisions of the stakeholders, affecting the ability to meet their present needs without compromising future generations.
The company has established a biennial process for carrying out its materiality study, whose last edition took place in 2018. In its analysis phase, the requirements of reporting frameworks such as GRI and SASB, requests from socially responsible investors and sustainability indexes and relevant sector reports were considered, and an online survey was conducted with representatives of various stakeholders in the main markets in which the company operates. In 2019, using the base of the previous year, the issues that were the most relevant for the company and its stakeholders during the year were analyzed. Therefore, the Report offers a balanced and objective view of those issues that, due to their nature, have affected the company significantly.