Community Involvement and Construction Expertise

Bridge-building is one of HOCHTIEF’s core competences. During the 140 years of its corporate history, the construction group has built many bridges all over the world. Bridges connect people, span bodies of water and gorges, and even cross national borders and continents. Some of them – such as the Öresund Bridge, or the bridge over the Bosporus – are world-famous. Moreover, our Corporate Vision states: “We link people and organizations and create new ways to think and act.”

Since 2009 HOCHTIEF has been putting this part of its vision into very real practice in the area of corporate responsibility. At the time, HOCHTIEF’s US subsidiary, Flatiron, and the nongovernmental organization Bridges to Prosperity (B2P) signed a long-term cooperation agreement 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 education, medical care, and markets. They thus permanently create better living conditions and open up opportunities.

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 greatest level of involvement: In strategic partnership with B2P, the constructions experts developed the prototype of a suspension bridge that can be built anywhere in the world in a similar form and with few means.

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 construction 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 logistics 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.

The collaboration between HOCHTIEF and Bridges to Prosperity has positive effects for all sides: The local communities benefit directly in the shape of an improved 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. Finally, with this collaboration HOCHTIEF has found the ideal way of realizing its social responsibility: The company can bring in its core competences, the internal 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!