Accordingly, in addition to making new investments in further real estate projects, we have committed ourselves to putting a part of the profits earned from the sales of our properties into measures to sustainably improve conditions for the environment and for society.
With respect to both real estate development and investment in CSR measures, we have chosen the Balearic Islands as our first focus.
From every real estate sale we make, we invest a seven per cent share of the profit in CSR measures. This places us at a level well above the two per cent of profits that small and medium-sized German companies invest in this area on average.
We use the largest part of this capital for the promotion of innovative start-ups whose work is dedicated to sustainable, ecological and social issues.
We are firmly convinced that current social and ecological challenges can be met most effectively and sustainably by innovative companies.
In the Balearic Islands, as all across Spain, one such challenge is the high rate of youth unemployment. Many young people here depend on seasonal summer work. During the winter, a large proportion of them are unemployed and must live from meagre unemployment benefits.
We seek to make a contribution to fighting this problem by investing a share of the profits we generate in promoting the founding of new companies and fostering the entrepreneurial spirit – thereby making more of Spain’s young people independent of the usual seasonal work.
We are pursuing this promotional objective in two steps:
Step 1: Set-up of an accelerator programme to support start-ups in the early phase
Step 2: Investment in start-ups that have successfully completed the accelerator programme
The first step of our promotional programme calls for the set-up of a start-up accelerator.
We aim to establish this jointly with local partners to help start-ups in an early phase of their development to more quickly implement their business concept on the market.
In doing so, we seek to support the young companies by providing them with workplaces with the necessary infrastructure, with coaching and workshops on start-up-related topics and with mentoring by experienced entrepreneurs and experts.
Along with forming local partnerships, we plan to collaborate with a network of specialists from across Europe in order to offer the companies optimal support.
The start-ups that take part in the programme will be chosen by a jury that we select, one whose members share, in particular, our concern with social and ecological sustainability.
At the conclusion of the accelerator programme, the start-ups will have the opportunity to present their business idea to selected business angels and investors in order to raise capital and gather valuable contacts for the further development of their concept.
In the second step, we plan to invest shares of our profits from real estate sales in innovative start-ups as venture capital.
As soon as more capital becomes available to us through sales of our properties, we want to invest a part of this in start-ups that have successfully completed our accelerator programme.
In choosing the start-ups, we will focus on companies that deal with social and ecological issues around sustainability and mobility. We plan to invest 90 per cent of the profits that we generate through investments in start-ups in new measures to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.
Supporting young, innovative companies in achieving their aims will represent the largest part of our CSR measures.
But we won’t leave it at that! We are always open to further ideas as to how, with SOY, we can assume responsibility and help to take on, and find solutions to, the smaller and larger social and ecological challenges of the world around us.
Rolling up our sleeves and getting to work – that’s our thing!
