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| New challenges for the company of the future |
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The pursuit of the right balance between the need for development and the new demands for social accountability: the search for this harmonisation constitutes one of the real challenges for today's commercial enterprises. Costa Cruises' response has been to do our work to the best of our ability, to achieve economic results, to contribute to sustained development while also addressing the concerns that arise in the social context in which we operate, as it evolves over time. For a company like ours, which satisfies the holiday demands of over 600,000 people a year by means of an organization of about 10,000 employees from 60 countries, this means an ongoing commitment to quality, safety, environmental protection, respect for labor rights and decent working conditions.
B.E.S.T. 4: A STEPPING STONE ON THE ROAD TO EXCELLENCE
Costa Cruises' commitment to constantly improve its corporate management processes was recognised by RINA (shipping classification and certification company) in May 2004 with the conferral of the B.E.S.T. 4 (Business Excellence Sustainable Task), an integrated system of voluntary certification of our compliance with the highest international standards in the areas of:
 social accountability (SA 8000)
 environmental protection (UNI EN ISO 14001)
 workplace health and safety (OHSAS 18001)
 quality (UNI EN ISO 9001).
The B.E.S.T. 4 epitomises the modern vision of the enterprise, which broadens the concepts of "excellent management" and "wealth creation", adding to their traditional economic connotations the capacity of the company to fit into the social and environmental context in which it operates.
The certification scheme implies a commitment to ongoing improvement through shared objectives, regular audits, the gradual implementation of corrective actions and the announcement of the results obtained. Costa Cruises' commitment is formalized in programmatic statements regarding its integrated quality, environment, safety and social accountability policy. The B.E.S.T. 4 has a concrete effect on corporate organization: all processes (whatever the sphere of company activity concerned) are combined to form one integrated system. The objective is to optimize the use of resources and maximize operational effectiveness.
Compliance with the certification standards is supported by investments in the training of personnel and in technology ensuring the greatest possible reliability and continuity.
 click here to download the B.E.S.T. 4 certificate (jpg image)
The activity results
Application of the new corporate management system B.E.S.T. 4 has brought to satisfactory and encouraging results, in particular in the Social Accountability issue (SA800). Below you can find a summary of our work:
 January - September 2004
 October 2004 - June 2005
 Sustainability Report 2005
 Sustainability Report 2006
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