Social and Relationship Capital – CSR

SABIC GLOBAL CSR STRATEGY AND FOCUS AREAS CONTRIBUTE TO SAUDI VISION 2030 AND UN SDGS

Our global CSR strategic tool, RAISE, guides our approach to charitable donations, sponsorships, partnerships and employee-volunteer programs. SABIC’s four priority focus areas allow us to direct our efforts towards addressing global mega-trends, including impacts from climate change, trends in urbanization and consumerism, and advances in economics and technology. We assess the impact and effectiveness of our programs through the Social Return on Investment (SROI) Model.

Across the year, we invested more than US$ 28.9 million in 124 global CSR programs, reaching over 160,000 people in 20 countries. We also engaged in several global and regional platforms totaling US$ 26.0 million investment with various stakeholders for partnerships in business growth and sustainability solutions toward people’s prosperity and goodwill.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION

We aim to foster innovation and quality education and create career pathways for youth in STEM fields. Our primary operating model is through partnerships with charities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), schools, and communities and other stakeholders for a collaborative approach.

SABIC’s Global Initiative for Education and Innovation continued once again this year; we partnered with Junior Achievement Worldwide and INJAZ Saudia to deliver impactful, hands-on, immersive learning benefitting 63,434 students in 12 countries - Argentina, Egypt, India, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, UAE, USA and Vietnam. This initiative brings real-life case studies into the classrooms and cultivates critical thinking and teamwork through experimental learning. Among the programs offered was “How to be a leader in my community” urging students to think critically and ethically while taking ownership of life decisions. “Lights of Our Future” aims to inspire students’ creativity and innovation in environmental preservation and tackling waste management. Meanwhile, “Connected with Tomorrow” offered students career perspectives and information on what behavioral skills are important for the job market.

Our second major initiative under Science & Technology Education is SABIC Global Back to School Initiative involving work with governments, NGOs, schools and communities across the world to help students succeed in their education. The initiative reached students in eight countries this year - Argentina, Brazil, USA, UK, China, Netherlands, Spain and Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Takaful Foundation, programs offered included after-school tutoring, workshops in artificial intelligence and robotics, in addition to backpacks for 60,000 disadvantaged students.

SABIC supported the World Robot Olympiad 2022 in partnership with the Saudi Wireless Sports and Robot Federation, which brought together over 100,000 participants from more than 73 countries. The Saudi Arabia team achieved 1st place in the Olympiad. SABIC also partnered with Mawhiba to sponsor the 2022 Saudi science and engineering team that won 22 awards at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2022 held in Atlanta, USA.

We inaugurated the SABIC Life Gallery project at King Salman Science Oasis in Riyadh to provide an exceptional educational experience to visitors. Our Life Gallery project contains a variety of edutainment activities providing an exceptional experience to visitors about our planet, from the beginning of human life to the current time through a tour full of surprises and suspense.

Over 700 students participated in the SABIC Summer Innovation Program 2022, in partnership with Takaful Foundation, held in Riyadh, Jubail, Yanbu and Abha. The three-week program focused on concepts and practices in sustainability. SABIC also sponsored a Technical Camp for orphans in partnership with Bena Orphanage Care Association benefitting 120 students involving activities aiming to help build a culture of scientific curiosity among Saudi youth.

We helped support underdeveloped primary schools in China, where employees and their families provided young students in remote areas with personalized shoes, school bags and other school supplies to support their learning and growth. In Tortuguitas, Argentina, SABIC volunteers provided 200 backpacks to students in two local elementary schools. Meanwhile in Campinas, Brazil, SABIC partnered with Grupo Primavera Institute to provide 145 backpacks and school supplies to underprivileged students.

In Cartegena, Spain, SABIC employees were assigned as mentors to guide university students through the final project of their studies, motivating them toward engineering research and innovation. Meanwhile, younger students in La Aljorra were provided with tablets to assist them in accessing educational content through online platforms.

HEALTH & WELLNESS

SABIC aims to promote a broad, holistic concept of wellbeing in the communities in which we work and in society at large. We do so through two complementary initiatives: the SABIC Global Health Initiative and the SABIC Global Social Initiative. That our efforts are organized under these two initiatives is a recognition that health and wellness require both social and medical interventions. In 2022 our programs in Health & Wellness reached 10 countries – the US, Argentina, KSA, Somalia, Pakistan, China, Vietnam, the UK, the Netherlands and Spain.

We established the Madinah Autism Center in Saudi Arabia, with a capacity of 500. it offers vocational rehabilitation and treatment plans, research opportunities, training, and societal awareness of autism. SABIC also invested SAR 3 million into Jazan Autism Center for detecting autism early, aiming to reach over 570 beneficiaries annually in the region.

On World Blood Donor Day, we organized blood donation programs in Jubail, Yanbu, and Riyadh where 315 staff members donated blood. Furthermore in Houston, the US, for the second year, SABIC continued its relationship with the Gulf Coast Regional Center for SABIC employees to donate blood.

At the community level, we encourage the importance of maintaining an active lifestyle in the digital age. Given that health is one of the main pillars of our social responsibility strategy, we sponsored the Riyadh Marathon 2022 to motivate members of society to participate. Around 10,000 contestants participated in the 42-kilometer run, with 200 runners being SABIC employees. In the US, 50 SABIC employees participated in the Houston Marathon weekend. In the UK, 40 SABIC Teesside employees partook in the Headlight Charity Walk to raise funds for the Russ Devereux Foundation, a local mental health charity.

We believe that a key element in promoting healthy behaviors is raising awareness and making available the necessary facilities for tackling the situation. To this effect, we launched five breast cancer screening clinics in Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with Zahara Association and the Ministry of Health. We also partnered with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to create awareness about breast cancer, providing mobile mammograms to serve SABIC employees, their families, and other tenants at CityWest, Houston.

In China, SABIC worked with the Shanghai Charity Federation to donate material support such as facial masks and personal protective equipment during COVID-19 quarantine for those in cabin hospitals. Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, we continued support of our medical insurance program with a two-year partnership with Kanaf association to enhance health conditions of 3,000 underprivileged people.

In 2022, SABIC’s Global Social Initiative included several programs around the world as part of our CSR strategy to help the communities in which we operate.

SABIC employees continued to demonstrate their strong commitment to societal needs, such as in Spain where we partnered with local NGOs to support the underprivileged with food collection and blanket campaigns. We also worked with Vietnam Red Cross to donate US$20,000 in family food parcels.

In Saudi Arabia, we partnered with SABIC Employees Charity Fund (Berr) to provide 4,000 winter clothes for beneficiaries of charitable associations. SABIC employee volunteers also worked with NGOs in Argentina to donate warm clothes and blankets for the disadvantaged during the winter season. Employees also volunteered to prepare food baskets at our Riyadh headquarters for families in need as part of an initiative that ensures 18,000 families annually in the Kingdom receive our food baskets. In the US, SABIC volunteers sorted and packed 11,772 pounds of food for families in Houston.