Contributing to local communities
As an enduring partner of local communities in which we operate, we are committed to promoting their sustainable development. While hinging upon long-established social responsibility practices implemented by our production facilities, this partnership is perfectly tailored to meet today’s challenges and stakeholder expectations.
We seek to help the regions where we operate to achieve sustainable growth, and contribute to the development of local communities through our value chain, employment opportunities, infrastructure improvements and social investment programmes.
Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
We carefully consider the needs and expectations of our stakeholders when identifying our social investment priorities.
In 2020, PhosAgro continued to develop its social programme in line with the goals and provisions of the Strategy to 2025, focusing on sustainable development and organic growth. We cannot move successfully towards these goals without unlocking the full potential of local communities.
In 2020, PhosAgro conducted an assessment of its impact on local communities under UN SDGs. It revealed that the Company has a significant impact on the regions where it operates, including that achieved through social and charitable initiatives.
Through proactive and strategic engagement with stakeholders and communities, we help drive local development in their best interests. Our charitable activities are based on public benefit priorities and opportunities to partner with regional and local government authorities, local communities and non-governmental organisations, educational institutions and other stakeholders.
The Company’s charitable activities are carried out in line with its bylaws, the Federal Law On Charitable Activities and Charitable Organisations, and the Federal Law on Advertising.
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| Developing and implementing projects for children and young people with a focus on education, career guidance, technology and engineering teaching, and extra-curriculum education | Educated and Healthy Children of Russia (DROZD) University partnership programmes PhosAgro Schools |
| Preserving cultural heritage (supporting museum development) and promoting a healthy lifestyle | Spiritual Revival |
| Collaborating with regional and local government authorities to create modern social infrastructure (by providing new equipment to healthcare facilities, assisting in utilities development, building new and renovating existing sports and recreation facilities, etc.) across our geographies | Our Favourite Cities |
| Volunteering | Connecting Generations Volunteers of the trade union youth movement #Wearetogether DROZD project |
| Providing support to vulnerable groups in terms of access to healthcare services, development opportunities and the aid they need | Targeted assistance initiatives |
We have a single Group-wide process framework in place to manage social programmes across PhosAgro entities, which is underpinned by the following bylaws:
- Codes of Ethics of PhosAgro and Apatit;
- Codes of Ethics of the companies managed by Apatit;
- Policies on Charitable Activities of PhosAgro, Apatit and the companies managed by Apatit;
- Rules for the Provision of Charitable Assistance by Apatit and the companies managed by Apatit;
- Regulations on Business Unit Interaction and Document Execution for the Provision of Charitable Assistance by Apatit and the companies managed by Apatit.
The budget for charitable projects is set annually as part of the overall budgeting process and is approved by the Company’s Management Board.
Importantly, most projects are implemented by the Company in partnerships based on co-financing arrangements. This helps to ensure stronger engagement of the public, local authorities and the business community, while maintaining the principles of partnership.
Any new projects are carefully scrutinised by PhosAgro’s Management Board as required by the internal regulations. Every year, the Management Board reviews the results of charitable activities and decides on whether or not to continue supporting a programme or a project.
In line with the Company’s Policy on Charitable Activities, the main criteria for selecting projects are as follows:
- a project should aim to provide support to particular population groups, community organisations or charitable foundations;
- a project should not contradict the principles or requirements of the Company’s policies or other bylaws;
- a project should not constitute a disguised payment for any service, act, omission, connivance, patronage, empowerment or provision of other unlawful benefits to the Company and/or its partners.
| Group level | Management Board and CEO | The Management Board: reviewing and approving the Company’s annual charity budget and adjusting it as necessary The CEO: deciding on the necessity and appropriateness of the Company’s participation in charity projects and programmes, ensuring the preparation of relevant materials for the Management Board, and supervising the drafting of the Company’s annual charity budgets |
| Deputy CEO | Leadership and coordination of activities related to charity, sponsorship and community investment | |
| Office for External Communications | Coordination of community projects and programmes Raising the need for developing new bylaws Administering all information on ongoing projects Arranging public hearings and opinion surveys Process management, etc. | |
| Company level | Government Relations Department, Information Policy Department, HR and Social Policy Department (responsible for community investments of the Group companies) | Within the limits of the charity and sponsorship budgets of the Group companies
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| Social Development Departments of the Group companies | Administrative support through the project management system:
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| Commissions for Social Issues and Charity at the Group companies | Within the limits of funds allocated to the CEOs of the Group companies
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New projects may be proposed in the following way:
- on the recommendation of the Company experts with a view to creating favourable conditions in the cities where the Company operates (including qualified personnel training, support for veterans’ organisations, development of green spaces, animal conservation, etc.);
- based on public hearing discussions and agreements with regional and local government authorities;
- based on social surveys;
- following successful meetings between Company executives and representatives of community organisations.
Funding for new projects is subject to approval by the Management Board. The availability of partners (regional and local government authorities, non-profit organisations, etc.) plays an essential role in decision-making. The Company has set up its own office for external communications which is in charge of charitable activities administration.
PhosAgro is committed to accountability and transparency in relations with non-governmental organisations and government bodies based on openness, dialogue and partnership.
Our key social programmes
The mission of Our Favourite Cities programme implemented by PhosAgro since 2003 is to improve the quality of urban environment and promote sustainable development of the cities where we operate, including Kirovsk, Cherepovets, Balakovo, and Volkhov. To this end, PhosAgro collaborates and maintains partnership with regional and local authorities, charitable foundations and non-governmental organisations, and has also established its own non-profit organisations.
As part of the initiative, the Company focuses on creating safe and convenient public spaces that form leisure destinations for local residents while also providing opportunities for physical and aesthetic development of children.
Most of the projects implemented in 2020 were aimed at the development of rural communities, which is fully consistent with the Company’s commitment to SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities.
The Company also continues a project to develop transport infrastructure in the regions where it operates. In 2020, the concrete covering of the airfield of the Khibini Airport was repaired as part of the project. The development of the road network continues in Volkhov, Cherepovets and Balakovo.
The programme has been underway since 2001. Its objective is to effectively combine high-quality education and physical training, moral and ethic development, and promotion of health of the younger generation. The key areas of working with children: organisation of athletic events, spiritual and patriotic training, environmental projects, artistic festivals, and mass cultural events. In 2020, despite the pandemic, we saw the number of alumni grow to 5,920 people.
The programme focuses on SDG 4 Quality Education, SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, and SDG 3 Good Health and Well-Being.
In 2020, three students of the DROZD programme became winners and awardees of international contests; 44 won prizes and awards in Russian contests; 233 gained recognition in regional and local competitions.
Increasing public access to sports and recreation facilities is an important area of focus for PhosAgro.
In 2020, we implemented a project for the construction of a sports centre with a 25 m five-lane swimming pool, a gym and a conference room at the Cherepovets Chemical Technical College. The pool features an advanced water purification system. The sports centre is accessible to people with disabilities. PhosAgro invested some RUB 16 mln to build the facility and will bear the cost of its maintenance going forward.
A project to build a climbing wall and a rope park was implemented by PhosAgro in the village of Kadui, Vologda Region, following consultations with the local residents. It will help improve leisure and recreation opportunities for children and youth, and promote creativity, sports and local tourism.
Several projects were implemented by the Company in Kirovsk:
- A new chairlift was launched on the southern slope of the Bolshoi Vudyavr Ski Resort to replace the outdated 20-year old one, and another magic carpet was added, doubling the resort’s total throughput capacity.
- The Company continued with the development of the Tirvas Ski Stadium, a major training venue for Russian skiers with internationally certified 5 km and 10 km tracks. It hosts two iconic races – Khibiny Race and Khibiny Spring – which traditionally open and close the skiing season of the Russian Cross-Country Skiing Federation. Plans for 2021 include upgrading the lighting along the ski tracks, installing a stationary snow-making system and a drainage system, asphalt paving of a roller skiing track for summer training, laying a cable for a timing system, building a biathlon shooting range with 30 stands, a tribune and a penalty loop, and a parking lot with a passageway.
Further plans to develop the DROZD-Khibiny youth cultural centre in Kirovsk include opening four gyms, a volunteer and rehabilitation centre, and a centre for military and patriotic training. In five years, the number of children attending the centre increased to nearly 2.5 thousand, tightening its need for new classes, so the Company decided to step in and partially finance the facility’s upgrade.
In 2020, a 300 sq m ski lodge was constructed and put into operation at a ski resort in Volkhov. The ski lodge is connected to the city’s utilities grids and has locker rooms, a first aid post, a cafe, a ski rental, a boiler room and a commentator’s booth with a panoramic view of the track. The area features newly completed landscaping, a parking lot, and football and volleyball playgrounds. It offers barrier-free environment with access for persons with disabilities and limited mobility.
Since 2012, PhosAgro has been supporting non-profit organisations which promote sports, tourism and healthy lifestyles. In 2020, the beneficiary organisations included:
- The Russian Olympians Foundation
- The Russian Chess Federation
- The Russian Cross-Country Skiing Federation
- The Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation
- The Russian Swimming Federation
- The Champion Foundation (Sambo 70)
- The Severyanka women’s volleyball club, whose team won the 2020 Girls’ U17 Volleyball European Championship as part of the Russian youth team and also retained leadership in the Russian Championship (winning five gold and one silver medals in 2020 overall)
- Avtodor basketball club
- Proton-Saratov volleyball club
- Turbina 2016 speedway team
- Kovrovets Motoball Club
PhosAgro has been providing charitable assistance in building and rebuilding orthodox holy sites both in Russia and abroad, while also pursuing projects fostering long-standing cultural and spiritual values. We assist in rebuilding and aiding 26 churches and provide support to the Secretariat of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Company also contributes to reviving a prerevolutionary tradition of building on-site churches
Supporting churches
Cherepovets
- Mineral fertilizers are shipped to five churches on an annual basis.
- Six churches receive assistance in repairing, and purchasing equipment.
- Assistance in maintaining three on-site churches.
Kirovsk
- Assistance in maintaining three church complexes and three on-site churches.
Balakovo
- Assistance in maintaining two church complexes and one on-site church of St Spyridon. In 2020, the Company financed the purchase of church bells (mobile belfry), church utensils and accessories, and books for the church’s newly created orthodox library.
- 2020 saw the launch of the first stage of the project to restore the Vernicle Image of the Saviour mosaic panel on the southern facade of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity. Completed works included the repairs of the seam roofing of the Sunday school, one of the oldest buildings in Balakovo and an architectural monument dating back to 1891.
- Repairs and furnishing of adult and children’s Sunday schools of the spiritual and educational centre were completed in the town of Volsk located 48 km away from Balakovo as part of the aid to the local Cathedral of the Life-Giving Trinity.
Volkhov
- The Church of St Andrew was built and consecrated. All interior finishing works were completed and exterior architectural lighting installed. An information board was mounted near the church to broadcast the Company’s corporate social responsibility videos. In 2021, a new spiritual and educational centre will be added to the church’s architectural ensemble, with the design stage already completed.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Company helped build a unique Wall of Memory memorial in Cherepovets featuring nearly three thousand photo images of local war veterans. The memorial has a shape of a waving banner and is decorated with granite. The images were made using photo printing technology and are weather resistant.
We see volunteering as an activity consistent with our corporate values as it helps strengthen social ties within the team, promote a positive image of a volunteer and get more people involved in socially important initiatives, which contributes to creating a favourable social environment in the regions where we operate.
In late May 2020, PhosAgro joined the #WeAreTogether campaign launched by the All-Russia People’s Front and the Medical Volunteers public movement. The proposal to join the campaign was raised by the members of PhosAgro’s youth organisation who engage in volunteering and was strongly supported by employees across all our enterprises. Participation in the #WeAreTogether campaign came as a natural step for PhosAgro in line with its corporate strategy to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.
As part of the campaign, the Company donated ventilators and two split systems to the Cherepovets-based coronavirus hospital. The devices were purchased in partnership between local entrepreneurs and PhosAgro.
Employees of the Volkhov branch of Apatit launched a fund-raising campaign to purchase laptops for schoolchildren from low-income families. The campaign helped collect RUB 550,000 and purchase 20 laptops that were handed over to primary and middle school students from low-income families in Volkhov.
The #WeAreTogether campaign launched in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak was also aimed at supporting doctors and volunteers. The proceeds were received by volunteers (23 people), members of the Veterans Council (15 people), primary healthcare practitioners (89 people), and health professionals of the additional medical station at the infectious hospital based on the Balakovo City Clinica Hospital (26 people).
Connecting Generations projects
Cherepovets
- Harmony recreation and cultural centre, with some 400 pensioners as regular visitors
- Annual aid to four non-governmental foundations
- In the Name of Good charity foundation (treatment and rehabilitation funding, equipment purchase)
Kirovsk
- Kukisvumchorr, Koashva, and Rodnik volunteer centres for pensioners and disabled people
- Assistance to Great Patriotic War veterans and equal-status persons, children of war and home front workers (apartment renovations, holiday congratulations and gifts)
- Annual aid to three non-governmental foundations
- In 2020, a local project Rodnik Volunteer Club – Club of New Opportunities was awarded financing as the winner in PhosAgro’s competition of socially important projects Solving the City’s Problems Together.
Balakovo
- Annual aid to three non-governmental foundations
- Funds are also allocated to the CEOs of the Group companies to provide assistance to organisations of veterans and disabled people on an ad-hoc basis.
PhosAgro supports and develops corporate museums across the regions were it operates. In recent years, they have emerged as important regional educational centres as well as venues for providing career guidance for young people and interactive platforms for promoting creativity and science.
In 2020, despite the restrictions on in-person activities, our corporate museums continued to actively participate in the life of their host regions, building up their audience through popular streaming services, social networks and online event platforms.
In 2020, the Company’s Green Planet centre for interactive education in Cherepovets launched the following new programmes: Eco Rescuers and Educating Children About PhosAgro programmes; АМ-3, Let’s Play With Chemistry, Take It And Make It, and The Art of Origami online master classes; Bookworms, Where Is The Logic, and I Doubt It (Facts About PhosAgro) intellectual games; Why Do We Need Acid, As Easy as ABC, The Wealth of Our Fertile Land, and In The Kingdom of Minerals online excursions.
In addition to interactive events involving visitor participation, a number of both offline and online exhibitions were held.
Corporate museums take part in the daily life of our enterprises, for example, they carry out training courses and social events and get employees involved in museum activities, which had a positive impact on the overall sentiment within the team during the pandemic.
The Khibiny Business Development Centre, an independent non-profit organisation, takes active action to promote small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Kirovsk with support from Apatit and the Kirovsk city administration.
Its priority focus areas are improving entrepreneurial literacy and providing information, consultations and marketing support.
The activities of the Khibiny Business Development Centre help to boost the local SME sector. The total number of SMEs registered in Kirovsk in 2019 and 2020 increased by 24.6% and 39.5% respectively as compared to 65 enterprises registered in 2018. Seven more SMEs were launched in Kirovsk in 2021 year-to-date.
In 2020, the centre provided support to 65 entrepreneurs.
The centre’s key programmes implemented in 2020 and 2021:
- The School for Social Entrepreneurs and NGOs
- The ABC of Entrepreneurship: Promoting and Supporting Youth Entrepreneurship
- The Centre for Arts and Crafts
- The School for Tour Guides and Travel Bloggers
Since 2003, we have been providing targeted assistance to vulnerable population groups. Commissions for Social Issues and Charity have been set up across the Group companies to consider new applications. The Group also partners with In the Name of Good charity foundation (Vologda Region), providing financial support for disabled children who need urgent treatment, in line with our commitment to SDG 3 Good Health and Well-Being.
In 2020, PhosAgro:
In 2020, the world faced an unprecedented threat from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Ensuring the safety of our employees, their families, and all residents of the regions where we operate has historically been number one priority for PhosAgro. Our ability to take timely, accurate and appropriate action let us buy time in a constantly changing environment and with limited knowledge about the virus in the early days of the pandemic. Our strong teamwork, responsible behaviour and support for the measures taken to fight the outbreak helped PhosAgro protect the health of employees and maintain production and supply chain integrity.
The unacceptable risks of business closure or interruption prompted the management of the Company, which makes an essential contribution to the nation’s food security, to develop and actively implement a plan to prevent the spread of COVID-19 prepared in coordination with the federal and regional authorities.
PhosAgro has been supporting the healthcare sector from the onset of the pandemic and continues to do so.
Amid the pandemic, PhosAgro has actively supported small and medium-sized restaurant businesses, helping them to survive. In Cherepovets, PhosAgro arranged the delivery of meals for doctors treating COVID-19 patients. The project totalling RUB 6.9 mln of investment relies on the hot meals prepared by the city’s cafes and restaurants whose normal operations have been interrupted by the pandemic. A large order from PhosAgro has helped local entrepreneurs to keep staff busy in turbulent times.
PhosAgro’s CEO Andrey Guryev had been elected co-chairman of the RSPP Coordinating Council for COVID-19 at its establishment in April 2020, and became its head in mid-October. High-profile infectious disease doctors have been engaged to contribute to the work of
| Indicator | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 2,133.2 | 2,851.2 | 3,213.8 |
| Contributions to charities, NGOs and research institutions (not related to the organisation’s commercial research and development) | 470.2 | 597.7 | 624.4 |
| Funds allocated to support community infrastructure such as recreational facilities | 950.9 | 1,413.2 | 1,869 |
| Direct spending on social programmes, including arts and educational activities | 712.1 | 840.3 | 720.4 |