For IBSA, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a set of values and tangible actions that means increasing the quality and daily well-being of People and Society, while returning part of its value in the form of projects for the benefit of the community.
The importance that social responsibility has for IBSA is testified by the concrete and tangible commitment of the company’s three Foundations.
Established in 2012, IBSA Foundation for scientific research is the main promoter of the Group’s social responsibility activities. Among its many initiatives, the Foundation offers funding and scholarships in the medical-scientific sector, and also contributes to fostering the dialogue between humanistic and scientific knowledge, with approaches that involve the community at all levels – from Institutions to Academia – and with creative and innovative languages designed to train new generation and inspire their growth paths.
The vision outlined is to “go beyond care”, fully aware of the importance of the benefits of combining participation in cultural activities with care pathways. The mission is to promote an authoritative and accessible scientific culture through dissemination, participation in an international scientific network and support for research. Among the various initiatives, in fact, IBSA Foundation promotes Forums – where internationally renowned scientists discuss the new frontiers of scientific research – and dedicates resources to the establishment of scholarships for young students and fellowships for young researchers in various sectors of basic and clinic research. These activities also include projects such as La Scienza a regola d’Arte (“State-of-the-Art Science”), Let’s Science! – a creative path of scientific dissemination through comics – and Cultura e Salute (“Culture and Health“), which was created to promote initiatives and synergies between the world of culture and that of healthcare, to improve the quality of life and well-being of people in health centres and in daily life. Born in 2016, Parole Fertili: Viaggio alla ricerca di un figlio (“Fertile Words: Journey in Search of a Son”) is a narrative project conceived as a digital story sharing community: a large laboratory where to experiment how cultural and health aspects can take on important dimensions of care. Finally, IBSA Foundation’s blog describes the most recent discoveries in the field of health and in the medical, scientific and artistic sectors.
IBSA Foundation for children is a non-profit organisation whose purpose, among others, is to manage IBSA’s nursery Primi Passi, a day-care centre for children aged 4 months to 4 years, created to give tangible help to employees and the population of Canton Ticino in one of the most critical phases of parenthood, promoting a better balance between parenting and work commitments.
The pedagogical approach, implemented by Montessori-trained professionals, is based on the theories of active pedagogy, which considers every child competent and eager to know and learn with her own rhythms, through the enjoyment of knowing how to do things.
The IBSA Foundation for the pension fund of employees was founded in 1958 with the purpose of managing the assets of the social security fund for employees working for IBSA. The decision to manage pension funds through a foundation stems from a commitment to maintaining independence, while minimising risks.
The fund’s assets are managed by an external organisation, in compliance with the mandate assigned by IBSA, which precisely indicates the investment strategy, the type of investment assets and the risk profile, with the latter set by the company on the basis of its overall parameters for the approach to the risk itself. These assets belong to the employees and are intended to ensure their financial security during retirement, or in the event of health problems. Currently, the coverage ratio is well above 100%, and the financial performance offered is higher than that required by law for corporate pension funds.
