Worldline [Euronext: WLN], the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, is proud to announce it has been awarded another first-class score of 88/100 in this year’s evaluation by the extra-financial rating agency Gaïa Rating. Over the past three years, Worldline has improved its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance by 6 points, according to Gaïa Rating’s ESG evaluation. Through these consistent improvements, the rating agency now puts Worldline among the top five businesses in France, recognised for its responsible and sustainable practices.
Thanks to this excellent performance, Worldline’s score is 37 points above the average of 51/100 for the 390 businesses assessed this year. This recognises the continuous enhancements made year after year to the Group’s environmental, social and governance policy and the commitment shown by its external stakeholders, supported by Worldline’s Trust 2020 CSR program.
In the Social category, Worldline scored 85/100, up 5 points on the previous year. This improvement underlines the transparency and exhaustiveness of its “social characteristics and practices” disclosures, in particular concerning competency development, social dialogue and working conditions/quality of life in the workplace. Worldline also ranks among the top performers in the Health and Safety category in its sector of activity.
In the Environmental category, Worldline again scored a remarkable 98/100 for the transparency of its climate strategy and for implementing a policy and objectives aimed at purchasing renewable energies and mitigating its greenhouse gas emissions.
In the Stakeholder Relations category, Worldline was awarded a score of 84/100, up 7 points on the previous year. This score reflects Worldline’s commitment to promoting its own responsible practices to all its stakeholders, especially under its sustainable policy vis-à-vis its suppliers.
In the Governance category, Worldline’s initiatives to raise awareness and train its employees in ethical conduct and responsible business practices, including its new code of ethics and introduction of a whistleblowing system, came to fruition. As a result of all these efforts, Worldline’s score was 2 points higher than in 2019 in all governance-related aspects.
Sébastien Mandron, Worldline’s Corporate Social Responsibility Officer, commented: “This recognition from Gaïa Rating is a tangible endorsement of the measures we have implemented under Worldline’s CSR strategy, one of our Group’s top priorities. Our high score again this year reflects the commitment shown by all our teams, a level of commitment that was invaluable because of the pandemic-related and economic environment that caused significant disruption and continues to shroud 2021 in considerable uncertainty. Despite this backdrop, we remain actively engaged in this long-term endeavour, which requires all our employees to play their part in building a Group that cares about making its model sustainable over the long term, within a more responsible economy.
Worldline has an ambitious vision of its social and environmental responsibility, which came clearly into focus in June 2020 when we officially announced our core purpose of uniting the Worldline community with our long-term, coherent and shared vision.”
