January 17,2020

I am pleased to confirm that Fulcrum is working hard to commit to the SDG’s, we believe that sustainability is critical and essential to the success and prosperity of our company. Thanks to the support of our staff we are continually improving the integration of the SDG’s in supporting Good Health, continuous Education to our Staff, reducing Gender inequalities and most important is the responsible consumption and production.
Despite the fact that the economic situation in the country has deteriorated dramatically in recent months and although our priority now is on the urgent needs of the daily challenges of work and we are operating in survival mode, we have not lost sight of our SDG’s goals. We do believe and strongly support the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact. We have a strong commitment to anti-corruption and we refuse to give in to extortion or bribery. We only hire staff that are 18 years old and above. We treat all our staff fairly and justly and we do not discriminate based on gender or occupation. We try to promote as much as we can our eco-friendly packaging to support the environment.
We are happy to share our progress with our stakeholders using our channels of communication.

Best regards,
Youmna Al Ashkar
General Manager

• Ensure that the facilities are well maintained by checking all of them on a monthly basis as a part of the preventive maintenance program that is implemented in our premises.
• Check the fire extinguishers and the fire blankets on regular basis to ensure that they are functioning properly and also, we are dealing with a professional company to fulfill the job.
• Ensure all employees are respected, treated without discrimination and protected from all kinds of harassment through adding these points to our rules and regulations. And in case harassment incident was faced, full support is offered from the management team to ensure the problem is solved properly.
• During the last strikes faced in Lebanon, the safety of the employees was considered a priority, so those who could not attend were excused without taking any action related to attendance or salaries.
• Encourage employees of different genders to improve their professional and academic skills by offering them the needed support.
• Check the characteristics of the machines, equipment, and chemical substances before being used, and ensure that the usage instructions are well followed by the concerned people.
• Ensure all the food raw materials are conforming with the Lebanese and international standards.
• Reject the food items that contain any toxic food additive and in case there is no substitute, the needed studies are conducted to minimize the related risk as much as possible.
• Check the safety of our end products via taking random laboratory samples, doing daily inspection and implementing strict procedure while handling any potential hazard food to prevent any food safety risk.
• Replace the polystyrene boxes that were used for takeaway orders by cardboard ones because this kind of plastic release harmful chemicals when used to pack hot items.

Follow up is always done by Management , line Supervisors ,and agents

Reports of internal and external auditors and filled checklists are the indicators we rely on to monitor and evaluate the performance

• Refuse any kind of forced labor via respecting the rights of our employees and trying to continually support and motivate them.
• Clarify all the details related to each position by setting clear job description that should be signed before starting a new position.
• Set strict hiring criteria that respect the local regulations and hire only people that are 18 years old or above.
• Ensure that our employees are paid on time and offer them some additional allowances and bonuses at special occasions. During the last economic problems faced in Lebanon, our employees ‘rights are considered a priority and the needed precautions were taken to ensure they will be paid on time.
• Evaluate each employee before being hired by monitoring his performance after providing him with the needed trainings during the probation period.

Follow up is always done by Management, line Supervisors, and agents

Reports of internal and external auditors and filled checklists are the indicators we rely on to monitor and evaluate the performance
Also 360 evaluation is done for our employees on a yearly basis
• Many administration staff got their master’s degree in 2019.

• Avoid the environmental damage by reducing the waste:
- Using biodegradable and recyclable plastic packages, replacing the plastic straws by paper ones and replacing the polystyrene boxes by cardboard boxes.
- New strategies were implemented to reduce the paper consumption
- A waste water treatment system was installed in our kitchen to decompose the organic waste before the water evacuation
• Control the electricity consumption in our kitchens, outlets and offices by setting new procedure and replacing all the conventional lights by LED ones.
• Minimize the consumption of detergents by using specific dispensers to prepare the detergents’ solutions. These dispensers were installed in our kitchen and outlets. On the other hand, the detergents ‘usage instructions are shared with the hygiene staff and the detergents are well stored and labeled to prevent any mishandling of these chemical substances.

Follow up is always done by Management, line Supervisors, and agents
Quality team members check the specifications of any product before making the final decision to purchase or not

Reports of internal and external auditors and filled checklists are the indicators we rely on to monitor and evaluate the performance
• Although many electrical appliances were added to the production line, the electricity consumption decreased by 2.08 percent in 2019.
• After implementing the new strategies, around 109000 papers will be saved per year
• After limiting the preparation of detergents solutions on the usage of the dispensers, the detergents’ consumption decreased by around 10 percent in 2019.
• Plastic waste was reduced considerably when the usage of plastic bags, straws, and polystyrene boxes was stopped

• Ensure that the local regulations are always respected
• Set a list of requirements that should be respected by the suppliers in order to be considered as approved suppliers.
• Implementing many policies and procedures that show the actions taken to prevent any type of anti-corruption

Follow up is always done by Management, line Supervisors, and agents

Reports of internal and external auditors and filled checklists are the indicators we rely on to monitor and evaluate the performance