26457 - Porr AG

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Environmental & Social Review Summary

Project Number

26457

Company Name

PORR AG

Date ESRS Disclosed

Feb 12, 2008

Country

Southern Europe Subregion

Region

Europe

Last Updated Date

May 4, 2024

Environmental Category

B - Limited

Status

Completed

Previous Events

Approved : May 28, 2008
Signed : Jun 3, 2008
Invested : Feb 5, 2010

Sector

Construction and Real Estate

Industry

Financial Markets

Department

Gbl Ind, Manufact, Agribus & Services

Project Description

Algemeine Baugesellschaft-A. Porr A.G. (Porr or the company) will undertake a series of small-to-mid size real estate and waste management (landfill sites and waste water treatment plants) projects in 2008 and 2009 in central and southeastern Europe (CSE). These sub-projects would have a total project size of less than €30 million each and could be located in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania, and Ukraine, with a specific focus on the Balkans.

Overview of IFC's Scope of Review

IFC’s review to the project has included the following:

- a visit to the Wienerwaldtunnel project,
- a railway tunnel in Austria under construction by Porr;
- review of Porr’s Management Manual for its integrated quality,
- occupational health and safety and environmental management systems;
- review of presentations made by Porr’s Human Resources and Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety management teams;
- review of accident statistics;
- and meetings with Porr’s Human Resource and Environment and Occupational Health and Safety management teams.

This review will be supplemented by additional review of sub-projects when they are sufficiently well developed to make such a review worthwhile.

E & S Project Categorization and Applicable Standard

While all Performance Standards are applicable to this investment, IFC’s environmental and social due diligence indicates that the investments will have impacts which must be managed in a manner consistent with the following Performance Standards:

- PS1: Social and Environmental Assessment and Management Systems;
- PS2: Labor and Working Conditions;
- PS3: Pollution Prevention and Abatement; and
- PS4: Community Health, Safety and Security.

In as much as the sub-projects are not fully defined, impacts related to PS5, Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement, PS6, Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Natural Resource Management, PS7, Indigenous Peoples and PS8, Cultural Heritage cannot be completely excluded. However it is expected that Porr’s social and environmental assessment process would identify the possibility of such impacts and modify project design to avoid or satisfactorily mitigate these impacts.

The key environmental and social issues associated with this project are Porr’s environmental and social assessment process, and the use of this process to design suitable mitigation of potentially wide project related environmental issues. These will include but not be limited to issues of energy efficiency and life and fire safety in real estate projects to appropriate siting and design of environmental controls at a landfill site or waste water treatment facility. Occupational Health and Safety, particularly during projects’ construction phases also requires careful management.

The potential anticipated social and environmental impacts are relatively limited in scope, and may be readily mitigated. This is therefore an environmental category B project.

Environmental and Social Mitigation Measures

Porr has presented information which shows how it uses its integrated management system to develop mitigation of environmental, safety and other social impacts of its projects, and to ensure that upon implementation of these measures the project will comply with appropriate regulations in the countries in which the projects will be developed and with IFC’s Policy and Performance Standards for Social and Environmental Sustainability and applicable Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines. The information about how these potential impacts will be addressed by the project is summarized in the paragraphs that follow

- Environmental and Social Assessment and Management:

Porr has a strong (100 plus staff) environmental and OHS management team and considers that management of environmental and OHS risk is integral to management of broader business risk. These business risks are controlled in the context of Porr’s Integrated Management System which has received certification of its compliance with ISO 9001:2000, ISO 14001:2004 and OHSAS 18001:1999.

All potential projects undergo social and environmental assessment, which is designed to meet all local regulatory requirements and the standards that Porr would expect to meet were it constructing the project in Austria. Porr’s internal environmental assessment includes design of measures to mitigate potential E&S risk. These mitigation measures are costed, and costs included in the project proposal, and therefore environmental risk mitigation is fully funded.

Environmental management is included in the issues discussed at project start-up meetings, and in this way continuity is provided to ensure that the construction team is familiar with the environmental measures included in the project design. For each project, environmental and OHS responsibility are assigned, and emergency response plans prepared. Regular inspections ensure continued implementation of the environmental controls.

Porr is a contracting company, and essentially responds to invitations to tender. However, before bidding for a project, it does undertake basic checks of the viability of the project specification. These checks will essentially comprise verification that designs are sound, and soil quality and stability checks. In the case of solid waste landfills which may be funded by this project, checks would include consideration of local geological features such as ground water level, confirmation of absence of porous rock or faults from the proposed project site, the proximity of the project site to water resources and use of liners and other means for leachate control.

- Labor and Working Conditions:

Porr has a human resources policy, which is based upon a collective agreement between Porr and its works council. Human resources policies and procedures meet PS2 requirements, and the requirements of the countries in which Porr operates.

There is an agreement that manual staff work paid overtime during summer months, some of which time is “banked” so that an annual salary may be paid when weather conditions prevent outside work during winter.

Lost time accidents are recorded when they cause three or more days’ absence from work, as is normally the case in Austria. The recorded frequency of lost time accidents in Porr in 2006 was 52 per million man hours worked. This is a higher figure than some other contracting companies known to IFC, though the headline figure may reflect the type of data collection. Porr has undertaken to contact other contracting companies in Austria who have the same data recording system to benchmark its OHS performance against peers.

- Pollution Prevention and Abatement:

Any landfill project which may be funded by this facility will be designed to EU standards. This will include confirmation that the proposed site’s geology is suitable for a landfill, containment systems using a plastic membrane lined with concrete, leachate collection and reuse in the site, and treatment before discharge for excess leachate, and landfill gas collection.

Uses of landfill gas will be site specific. If present in large quantities it will be used for electricity generation, but if in smaller quantities simply flared.

Landfill design will also feature long term monitoring to identify potential contamination which could result from failure of leachate collection and control devices, and possible migration of landfill gas outside the project boundaries.

Porr has employed innovative building structure and controls, including heavyweight construction, chilled and heated ceilings and automatic lighting control in its buildings in order to limit energy consumption and would expect to do the same in buildings supported by this project.

- Community Health, Safety and Security:

The most significant community impacts are likely to result from road traffic associated with solid waste management activities. These will be limited by driver training and design of routes and are not expected to be significant.

Engineering controls incorporated into landfill design, as described above, will limit impacts of these projects on communities.

Real-estate projects will be designed to all applicable local fire code, and also a recognized Western European code.

- Land Acquisition:

Porr will usually develop projects on land made available by the project developer which may in some cases be local or national government. The countries in which projects may be developed have significant protection for those whose land is expropriated, even when land is illegally occupied, and it is therefore highly unlikely that Porr will be asked to develop a project on land that has not been acquired in compliance with IFC’s PS5 requirements. Porr will nevertheless screen for compliance with PS5 of projects to be financed by the IFC facility.

Stakeholder Engagement

In addition to disclosure by IFC, this ESRS will be made public on Porr’s website,

http://www.porr.at

and at Porr’s offices in Vienna.

Attention: Helmut Beck
Allgemeine Baugesellschaft A. PORR AG
Absberggasse 47, A-1103 Wien, Austria

+43 (0) 50 626-3531 (phone)
+43 (0) 50 626-3495 (fax)
helmut.beck@porr.at (email)

In addition, there will be additional disclosure of project-specific environmental information, including where the environmental impact assessments will be made available, for the minimum disclosure period required by IFC’s disclosure policy before IFC’s commitment to lend to sub-projects.

**Information on IFC's Policy and Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability can be found at www.ifc.org/sustainability

IFC supports its clients in addressing environmental and social issues arising from their business activities by requiring its real sector clients to set up and administer appropriate grievance mechanisms and/or procedures to address complaints from Affected Communities in relation to environmental and social issues arising from IFC's clients' business activities. Since 2012, IFC's Financial Intermediary clients applying the Performance Standards are required to develop External Communications Mechanisms to receive and review inquiries or complaints from any interested party regarding the E&S risks and impacts of their operations.

For IFC projects that are active or under consideration, individual(s), or their authorized representative(s), who allege they have been or will be adversely affected by E&S risks or impacts arising from IFC's clients' business activities, may submit a complaint to IFC directly for consideration. When receiving an E&S complaint, IFC engages with complainants and works with its clients to find solutions to E&S concerns as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Complaints can be submitted to IFC online at www.ifc.org/escomplaints or by email to EScomplaints@ifc.org.

IFC complaint response is separate from and complementary to IFC’s clients’ project level grievance mechanisms and IFC’s Independent Accountability Mechanism (CAO). Lodging a complaint directly with IFC does not, at any time, restrict access to CAO.

Affected communities have unrestricted access to the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the independent accountability mechanism for IFC and MIGA. CAO facilitates the resolution of complaints related to IFC and MIGA projects and sub-projects, undertakes reviews of IFC’s and MIGA’s environmental and social compliance, fosters public accountability for their commitments, and enhances the environmental and social performance of IFC and MIGA.

Independent of IFC and MIGA management and reporting directly to the IFC and MIGA Boards of Executive Directors, CAO helps resolve issues raised about the environmental and social impacts of projects through a neutral, collaborative, problem-solving approach via its Dispute Resolution function. It also reviews IFC’s and MIGA’s compliance with environmental and social policies, assesses related harm, and recommends remedial actions through its Compliance function. Additionally, CAO provides advice to IFC, MIGA, and their Boards to enhance environmental and social sustainability performance and minimize the risk of harm.

Complaints may relate to environmental and social harm regarding any aspect of the planning, implementation, or impact of a project or sub-project, and can be made by any individual, group, community, entity, or other party affected or likely to be affected by the environmental or social impacts of an IFC- or MIGA-financed business activity.

Complaints can be submitted by any of the following methods:

Online form: available at https://www.cao-ombudsman.org/
Mail/Hand Delivery to: 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA
Voice mail: +1 202 458 1973
Email: cao@worldbankgroup.org
SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal: +1 202 650 2627

CAO receives and addresses complaints in accordance with the CAO Policy, which can be accessed at: https://www.cao-ombudsman.org/policies-guidelines.

This Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) is prepared by IFC to disclose its findings and recommendations related to environmental and social considerations regarding potential investments. Its purpose is to enhance the transparency of IFC's activities. For any project documentation or data included or attached herein, whether prepared by the project sponsor or otherwise, authorization has been given for public release by the project sponsor. IFC considers that this ESRS is of adequate quality for release to the public, but has not necessarily independently verified all of the project information therein.
It is distributed in advance of IFC Board of Directors' consideration and may be periodically updated thereafter. Board dates are estimates only and this document should not be construed as presuming the outcome of the Board Directors’ decision. The following ESRS is disclosed in accordance with IFC's Access to Information Policy (AIP).

The map is for illustrative purposes and does not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of the World Bank, concerning the legal status of any country or territory or concerning the delimitation of frontiers or boundaries. Country borders or names do not necessarily reflect the World Bank Group's official position. In some cases, available project location information is limited to the country of the project's activities. Locations are approximate.

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