Social responsibility

Projects with apprentices

Geberit assumes social responsibility and combines this with the core topics of water and basic sanitation. Commitments should be linked to Geberit’s know-how and the corporate culture. This approach contributes to the mission of achieving sustained improvement in the quality of people’s lives.

This mission includes social projects involving Geberit apprentices, which have been carried out since 2008 as part of the company’s social responsibility. During their assignments in developing and newly industrialised countries, the young apprentices not only gain new intercultural, linguistic, professional and social competencies, but also often end up as ambassadors for the company and its social commitment following these formative weeks abroad. The social projects make a tangible contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, which include giving all humans access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation by 2030.

Ten apprentices travelled to Cambodia in 2019. Working in close cooperation with a Swiss non-governmental organisation that is committed to helping the people in Cambodia and with the support of Geberit South East Asia, several schools in Siem Reap province were renovated and equipped with new sanitary facilities in November 2019.

Globally engaged

Geberit continued its partnership with the Swiss development organisation Helvetas with a series of initiatives and supported the new Helvetas campaign with a substantial sum of money. In March 2019, a group of 16 Geberit employees from the Nordic Countries travelled to Nepal and helped build a drinking water supply at a village community in the west of the country. The reporting year also saw a knowledge transfer project launched, where two Geberit employees will travel to Nepal in 2020 in order to pass on basic know-how in sanitary technology as part of a training project. The “Change of Perspective” project was also implemented again, as two Swiss plumbers travelled to Nepal in November 2019, working there for a week with two Nepalese colleagues. A major donation was also made to support Helvetas-run water projects around the world.

The Geberit Group’s social commitment is rounded off by a multitude of other initiatives at a local level. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, for example, simple assembly and packaging work is regularly awarded to workshops for people with disabilities. In the reporting year, this work amounted to around CHF 8 million and gave almost 500 people meaningful work.

As a basic principle, all social projects and the use of funds are regularly checked by Geberit employees in the respective country or in partnership with non-governmental organisations, including after completion of the projects in question. For an overview of donations and financial contributions, see Investments in infrastructure and services primarily for public benefit. All donations are neutral from a party political point of view. No donations were made to parties or politicians. As a rule, no political statements are made, and no political lobbying is carried out. This is ensured globally as part of the annual audit of the Code of Conduct.