143
Good Practice
CSR Management
Global Compact International Yearbook 2013
signed a long-term cooperation agree-
ment with the aim of jointly building
footbridges in structurally weak regions
of Central and South America. These
bridges are an important part of the
public infrastructure, as they provide
the local people with access to educa-
tion, medical care, and markets. They
thus permanently create better living
conditions and open up opportunities.
Group-wide commitment
In the meantime, the entire HOCHTIEF
Group is involved with B2P. Apart from
Flatiron, HOCHTIEF’s other American
subsidiaries also work with the NGO,
and HOCHTIEF Europe’s collaboration
began in 2012. While the US subsidiaries
are focusing their efforts on projects in
Latin America, HOCHTIEF is also active
in Africa. To date, the collaboration has
resulted in seven bridges in Latin America
and one in Rwanda. Further projects are
already being planned for the coming
years. Two bridges in Rwanda and three
in Nicaragua are to be built in 2013 alone.
The initiator, Flatiron, still has the great-
est level of involvement: In strategic
partnership with B2P, the constructions
experts developed the prototype of a
suspension bridge that can be built any-
where in the world in a similar form and
with few means.
Teamwork is central
HOCHTIEF’s involvement with B2P is
not restricted to the financing of bridge
projects and the provisioning of know-
how to the NGO. A crucial advantage of
this sponsorship is that the company’s
employees can get involved directly as
well. For each project HOCHTIEF seconds
a 10-member team to build the bridge on
site, together with the local villagers and
B2P representatives. There, everybody
has to work hard: It often takes pure
muscle to deliver stones, cement, wood,
and sand to the construction site, where
they are then processed rapidly, using
simple means. It is worth noting that
the group of volunteers is not only made
up of employees with practical and con-
struction site experience: Anybody from
engineers to financial experts can apply
for a place on the team. It is only the key
positions – involving construction or lo-
gistics management, for example – that
require specialists. Ultimately, employees
from entirely disparate corporate units
and professions end up working hand
in hand.
In-house identification with the B2P
projects is high. At Flatiron alone, since
this collaboration started the number of
employees who agree with the statement
“
My employer’s community involvement
is good,” rose from 64 to 91 percent.
For each project – including the first
HOCHTIEF project in 2012 – around 10
times as many volunteers applied than
were required, despite the prospect of
camping in the most basic conditions
and the physically challenging work.
The comments from those chosen to take
part are positive, with team spirit, the
chance of doing some good, and getting
to know different cultures making up for
some of the physical pressures. Those
employees who primarily work at a desk
are particularly enthusiastic about the
opportunity of “physically producing
something themselves.” And it is not only
the local volunteers who are motivated
by seeing the bridge grow little by little
every day: For HOCHTIEF, too, as the
sponsor, it is of great advantage to see
directly where and how funding is being
used and to know that it is going straight
to where it is needed, with no detours.
Benefits for all involved
The collaboration between HOCHTIEF
and Bridges to Prosperity has positive ef-
fects for all sides: The local communities
benefit directly in the shape of an im-
proved infrastructure and, thanks to the
bridges, are strengthened for the future.
B2P can call on the construction group’s
expertise and carry out its mission with
the funding that is made available. Fi-
nally, with this collaboration HOCHTIEF
has found the ideal way of realizing its
social responsibility: The company can
bring in its core competences, the inter-
nal networking and motivation effect is
enormous, and every bridge built delivers
clearly measurable results. HOCHTIEF
and B2P – all in all, a true community-
involvement success story!
Tangible development aid
Bridges to Prosperity was founded in 2001 with the aim of providing people in
remote and structurally weak regions with access to education, medical care,
and markets through the construction of footbridges. While functioning infra-
structure is routine in industrial countries, in developing countries simply cross-
ing a river to the neighboring community can often be a dangerous undertaking,
or involve detours of many kilometers.
B2P uses the example of a project in Nepal to show just how great the impact
of such a bridge can be for the local people. Data prior to and after the bridge
construction were compared: The number of pupils attending classes rose by
12
percent; medical facilities recorded a 25 percent increase in patients; and
per capita income rose by 20 percent.
In the 11 years since it was founded, B2P has built more than 100 bridges in
Africa, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia, eight of which were
built together with HOCHTIEF Group companies.