Social Impact

Social Impact
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Aon's Better Being Podcast

Our Better Being podcast series, hosted by Aon Chief Wellbeing Officer Rachel Fellowes, explores wellbeing strategies and resilience. This season we cover human sustainability, kindness in the workplace, how to measure wellbeing, managing grief and more.

Aon Insights Series Asia

Expert Views on Today's Risk Capital and Human Capital Issues

Aon Insights Series Pacific

Expert Views on Today's Risk Capital and Human Capital Issues

Aon Insights Series UK

Expert Views on Today's Risk Capital and Human Capital Issues

Construction and Infrastructure

The construction industry is under pressure from interconnected risks and notable macroeconomic developments. Learn how your organization can benefit from construction insurance and risk management.

Cyber Labs

Stay in the loop on today's most pressing cyber security matters.

Cyber Resilience

Our Cyber Resilience collection gives you access to Aon’s latest insights on the evolving landscape of cyber threats and risk mitigation measures. Reach out to our experts to discuss how to make the right decisions to strengthen your organization’s cyber resilience.

Employee Wellbeing

Our Employee Wellbeing collection gives you access to the latest insights from Aon's human capital team. You can also reach out to the team at any time for assistance with your employee wellbeing needs.

Environmental, Social and Governance Insights

Explore Aon's latest environmental social and governance (ESG) insights.

Q4 2023 Global Insurance Market Insights

Our Global Insurance Market Insights highlight insurance market trends across pricing, capacity, underwriting, limits, deductibles and coverages.

Regional Results

How do the top risks on business leaders’ minds differ by region and how can these risks be mitigated? Explore the regional results to learn more.

Human Capital Analytics

Our Human Capital Analytics collection gives you access to the latest insights from Aon's human capital team. Contact us to learn how Aon’s analytics capabilities helps organizations make better workforce decisions.

Insights for HR

Explore our hand-picked insights for human resources professionals.

Workforce

Our Workforce Collection provides access to the latest insights from Aon’s Human Capital team on topics ranging from health and benefits, retirement and talent practices. You can reach out to our team at any time to learn how we can help address emerging workforce challenges.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Our Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) collection gives you access to the latest insights from Aon's thought leaders to help dealmakers make better decisions. Explore our latest insights and reach out to the team at any time for assistance with transaction challenges and opportunities.

Navigating Volatility

How do businesses navigate their way through new forms of volatility and make decisions that protect and grow their organizations?

Parametric Insurance

Our Parametric Insurance Collection provides ways your organization can benefit from this simple, straightforward and fast-paying risk transfer solution. Reach out to learn how we can help you make better decisions to manage your catastrophe exposures and near-term volatility.

Pay Transparency and Equity

Our Pay Transparency and Equity collection gives you access to the latest insights from Aon's human capital team on topics ranging from pay equity to diversity, equity and inclusion. Contact us to learn how we can help your organization address these issues.

Property Risk Management

Forecasters are predicting an extremely active 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. Take measures to build resilience to mitigate risk for hurricane-prone properties.

Technology

Our Technology Collection provides access to the latest insights from Aon's thought leaders on navigating the evolving risks and opportunities of technology. Reach out to the team to learn how we can help you use technology to make better decisions for the future.

Top 10 Global Risks

Trade, technology, weather and workforce stability are the central forces in today’s risk landscape.

Trade

Our Trade Collection gives you access to the latest insights from Aon's thought leaders on navigating the evolving risks and opportunities for international business. Reach out to our team to understand how to make better decisions around macro trends and why they matter to businesses.

Weather

With a changing climate, organizations in all sectors will need to protect their people and physical assets, reduce their carbon footprint, and invest in new solutions to thrive. Our Weather Collection provides you with critical insights to be prepared.

Workforce Resilience

Our Workforce Resilience collection gives you access to the latest insights from Aon's Human Capital team. You can reach out to the team at any time for questions about how we can assess gaps and help build a more resilience workforce.

Social Impact
Impact Report 2024

Social Impact

Better decisions for a better world. Explore Aon's environmental, social, and governance impact.

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Introduction

Our colleagues are at the core of everything we do as a firm, and our commitment to them is an essential part of how we do business. Creating an inclusive workplace and supporting colleague wellbeing are foundational to Aon’s culture and values and add to colleagues’ sense of belonging. We live these values through continuous connection and a robust feedback process with our colleagues, empowering their decision making and professional growth and highlighting their inherent value within our organization and as members of our community. 

Our commitment to building a culture that fosters inclusion, wellbeing, learning and development and civic outreach is central to our workplace programs and community initiatives. These same values are fundamental to how we serve our clients, our business practices and our philanthropic initiatives.

Jump to Section

  1. Engagement

  2. Talent and Talent Development

  3. Inclusion

  4. Wellbeing

  5. Advancing Career and Social Mobility

  6. Professional Growth Opportunities

  7. Philanthropy and Community Impact

Engagement

We continue to regularly check in with our colleagues and seek feedback to be more agile in addressing their needs. In 2024, we received more than 93,0001  colleague responses to our formal annual Colleague Support Survey and regular Pulse surveys, which supplement the various listening sessions we conduct with our teams and senior leaders. In our annual Colleague Support Survey, we heard from a near record number of Aon colleagues — with an 86 percent participation rate. Engagement overall rose six points to 86 percent — meaning nearly nine out of every 10 colleagues feel engaged at Aon.

Colleagues are seeing themselves in our Aon United strategy and the direction of our firm. In our 2024, 89 percent of colleagues indicated they understand how they contribute to Aon United in their role (up from 79 percent in 2023), 86 percent feel personally committed to our Aon United strategy and building our brand (up from 73 percent in 2024) and 93 percent of colleagues say they understand how their job contributes to the success of the company.

Once again, colleagues celebrate and recognize their managers — with favorability on manager support at 86 percent, up three points from 2023 and 10 points over a global benchmark provided by our survey partner Perceptyx.

Talent and Talent Development

We continue to invest in our colleagues and work to help them achieve their full potential by supporting the various dimensions of their “whole selves,” including their personal wellbeing and professional careers. This inspires our colleagues to bring their best, authentic selves to work each day and drives them to continue to improve how we serve our clients.

We focus on attracting talent who strengthen and complement our existing teams and priorities. This approach enables our firm to deliver more integrated and impactful solutions to address our clients’ greatest challenges. We supplement our capabilities with the leverage and insight of Aon Business Services — all designed to serve our Aon United culture.

To support colleagues in reaching their full professional potential, we provide targeted and meaningful learning and development opportunities. In 2024, Aon colleagues participated in more than 142,000 hours of facilitated learning session (up 16,000 from 2023 for virtual and in-person) as well as online self-paced courses. We continued our signature Pinnacle and Catalyst programs for senior leaders and piloted a new program, Aspire, for emerging senior leaders.

Our people managers continue to be a key strength at Aon and are one of the key drivers of colleague engagement. As of the end of 2024, nine-out-of-10 Aon colleagues affirmed that that their manager cares about them, surpassing the top quartile benchmark from our survey vendor’s clients worldwide by three points.

Inclusion

We recognize that inclusive teams produce better insights and solutions, deliver differentiated and distinctive outcomes for clients and advance our long-term success. That is why we are committed to promoting a culture of inclusion and belonging where colleagues can bring their authentic selves to work, where opportunity and success are driven by their capability and behavior and where our operations reflect the clients, colleagues and communities we serve around the world.

To reinforce inclusion as a core value, we equip colleagues to live out this commitment in their daily work. Our Inclusive People Leadership strategy is grounded in colleagues leading the charge, embracing Aon United values and modelling behaviors that reflect those values. This commitment is reflected in our latest Colleague Support Survey, which recorded an aggregate colleague favorability in our Inclusion Index score of 84 percent, compared to 80 percent the previous year.  

Aon has also been recognized for its commitment to inclusion. In 2024, Forbes’ Best Employers for Women list recognized Aon for making progress in growing the ranks of women in leadership roles and creating more inclusive and engaging workplaces for women.

Aon also continued to make progress on our inclusion strategy throughout 2024 under the leadership of our Global Inclusive Leadership Council (GILC). Aon’s GILC is responsible for engaging the Regional Inclusive Leadership Councils to ensure global practices and initiatives are executed across the organization to create an inclusive workplace.

By taking part in voluntary business resource groups led by colleagues, Aon colleagues have a forum to find connection, support and the opportunity to meet colleagues from across levels, business areas and locations around the world. Examples of current chapters include the Aon Pride Alliance, Women's International Network, Aon Veterans United, Multicultural Network, Black Professional Network, Mental Health, Empowering Abilities, Asian Pacific Islanders, Latino Professional Network and Women in Technology. In 2024, 109 business resource group chapters spanned 19 countries, including several global chapters.

Diversity chart

Wellbeing

Aon continues to focus on enhancing our approach to colleague wellbeing, including strengthening how we define wellbeing, building frameworks that include mental health, individual, team and organizational resilience and establishing an organizational wellbeing maturity curve, which identifies five levels of wellbeing maturity from foundational to leading. 

Using global and broadly understood terms and data measures, we have established clear foundations from which to drive change. This enables our firm to target our programming more precisely and pursue innovative partnerships and solutions as well as deliver best practices internally and extend our impact externally to clients. We have also set a regular reporting cycle to measure our progress and drive success. 

In 2024, we introduced five guiding wellbeing principles that help promote a culture of wellbeing within our firm.

  1. Prioritize — which encourages effective goal setting.  
  2. Set Boundaries — which helps colleagues establish an effective work-life balance. 
  3. Recover — where colleagues are encouraged to take regular breaks during their day and plan longer times away.
  4. Seek Support — all colleagues and their families have access to free, confidential support through our Employee Assistance Program
  5. Share your Stories — by sharing experiences colleagues will be better able to understand each other better and be accountable. 

Once again in 2024, we granted our colleagues two days off as “wellbeing days,” in addition to many opportunities to attend global wellbeing sessions and learn from helpful resources on our new wellbeing site.

As of December 31, 2024, Aon’s Wellbeing Index engagement score is 81 percent favorability, up from 78 percent in 2023. Additionally, our colleagues’ perception of their managers support for wellbeing has increased to 86 percent, from 84 percent in 2023, while our colleagues’ perception that Aon cares about their wellbeing has increased by 8 percent, scoring at 78 percent in 2024, up from 70 percent in 2023.

We experienced a 15-point increase in support of the statement: “I am aware of and feel empowered to utilize the wellbeing resource available to me as an Aon colleague.” This is a testament to our increased communication and investment in programming, including the full global rollout of a single Employee Assistance Program that provides support, resources and counselling to colleagues and their families.

Impact Story - Helping Businesses Manage Complex Healthcare Costs

Around the world, businesses are facing surging healthcare costs due to a combination of poorly managed chronic conditions, cancers, aging populations and the development of more complex and expensive treatments. 

Employers, along with their employees, are feeling immense financial pressure as their health benefits costs rise to unsustainable levels. Much of those costs are driven by high-cost claimants, which are growing in number and frequency. 

In 2024, Aon launched the Health Risk Analyzer to help organizations take a proactive risk management approach to their healthcare costs. Built by our team of data scientists, actuaries and clinical and pharmacy experts, Aon’s Health Risk Analyzer incorporates proprietary models, machine learning and risk simulation techniques — along with the latest market trends — to provide companies with a data-driven view of what's driving costs today and analyze future high-cost risk and volatility. 

In an ever-changing healthcare and workforce landscape, the Analyzer’s continuous monitoring helps business leaders implement real-time mitigation and evolve their strategies. This knowledge allows businesses to manage risk, budgets and claims management, paving the way for a more secure and sustainable future.

Advancing Career and Social Mobility

Aon strives to create a more inclusive future through hiring, talent development and other initiatives. Through targeted programs, we seek to provide more paths for the next generation of leaders to succeed and grow — helping businesses and communities thrive.

Apprenticeships and Early Careers

Aon is proud that our ground-breaking U.S. apprentice program continues to improve and scale. We are equally proud that so many of our peer organizations have adopted similar pathways.

Aon’s apprentice program serves as an alternative route into a permanent role for motivated, high-potential individuals. Our two-year apprentice program aims to eliminate barriers to talent without a four-year college degree. We pay apprentices a full-time salary (plus benefits) and cover their tuition, books and fees to a partner community college. During the program, our apprentices work with coaches and career navigators who help them learn critical on-the-job skills and articulate their professional pathways. 

In 2024, we graduated our second national cohort of apprentices from the program, most of whom were promoted out of the apprentice role and into the business role they have been apprenticing toward in our firm. This year, we continued to welcome new apprentices and celebrate their many successes at our firm.

In 2020, Aon made a commitment to invest $30 million by 2030 to expand our U.S. apprenticeship program. This work continues, with seven U.S. cities now represented in our apprentice networks. 

“Aon’s apprenticeship program brings so many talented colleagues to our firm and is an important platform to help young people build thriving careers and create new opportunities and professional networks,” said Lisa Stevens, Chief Administrative Officer for Aon. “Expanding our network has also allowed our firm to build a more resilient workforce, embed inclusion into our firm’s culture and drive better outcomes for our clients.” 

We have appointed a total of 802 apprentices since the inception of our programs in the UK in 2012 and in the U.S. in 2017. In the U.S., typical apprentices enter their first corporate position through the program while pursuing associate's degrees at a local community college. In the UK, apprentices are high school graduates who join a government-approved apprenticeship program as an alternative to university. In the U.S. and the UK, the programs are certified by the Department of Labor and the Department of Education, respectively. 

In the UK, the award-winning Work Insights Programme has dramatically altered our approach to work experience, enabling state-educated students aged 16-18 to spend three days at an Aon office. In 2024, more than 840 young people participated in the Work Insights Programme, bringing the total number of students on the program since its launch in 2023 to more than 1,400 young people.

Well over half of the 2024 program’s cohort visited offices outside of London. To support such a geographically spread endeavor, more than 700 Aon UK colleagues — or a tenth of our UK workforce — from across our business volunteered their time to help provide a meaningful and rewarding experience for the students. 

$30M

Aon made a commitment to invest $30 million by 2030 to expand our U.S apprenticeship program

Professional Growth Opportunities 

Every year, Aon asks teams of early-career colleagues from across the firm in both the Launch (college graduates) and Apprenticeship programs to take part in the Launch Aon United Challenge so they can build their internal networks, increase their Aon IQ and help our firm shape our business for the future.

  • Mentorship and Educational Partnerships

    Aon continues to expand career pathways for the next generation of leaders through our investment in university partnerships. Aon has established innovative internships, scholarships and curriculum at six universities across the U.S., with a focus on first generation-serving institutions including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs).  

    Over the course of 2024, our investment in this Career Acceleration Network included:

    • Launching an innovative risk management curriculum at Brooklyn College. 
    • Funding a new position to expand the actuarial sciences curriculum at Morgan State University in Baltimore. 
    • Announcing our latest corporate partnership with University of Illinois Chicago.

    In December, Aon and Brooklyn College published a joint opinion article in Crain’s New York Business highlighting the role local universities play in enabling economic mobility and the opportunity for employers to partner with those schools.

    Aon also supports professional development around the world. In Latin America, the Aon Institute, which runs several social initiatives, is also focused on preparing high-school-age students in Brazil’s public schools to work and find jobs. There are three main pillars of the program: training, assistance campaigns and volunteering.

    Since the program launched in 2013, Aon has helped 528 students, providing educational guidance, school supplies, transportation and lunches — supporting vulnerable students and addressing multiple dimensions that enable them to learn and thrive. Aon colleagues mentor students and participate in lectures; in 2024, there were 50 speakers from Aon covering topics within insurance. On top of that, 23 Aon colleagues volunteered as mentors, supporting students in their final projects. 

    Furthermore, NFP, an Aon company, is a sponsor of Texas Empowerment Academy (TxEA). NFP’s initial $60,000 investment in 2022 has helped fund TxEA’s campus expansion and the company has recently committed to provide additional funding for 2025-27. Meanwhile, the company’s colleagues have engaged in a variety of volunteer and student mentoring activities at the academy.

    In South Africa, Aon’s learnership program introduces young learners to the country’s insurance sector with a comprehensive 12-month program, followed by opportunities to further build their knowledge through an internship. Since we established the program in 2006, we have mentored 629 young people, 91 of whom have gone on to work for Aon on a permanent basis. This program not only equips participants with valuable skills but also opens doors to lasting careers in the insurance industry. Aon in South Africa has also partnered with a local startup recruiter. This collaboration not only strengthens Aon’s recruitment efforts but also supports the growth of small businesses in South Africa.

  • Veterans at Work

    We aim to have an impact on those with specific needs as they enter or participate in the workforce and veterans, in particular, face unique challenges. Their military experience often does not align naturally with private-sector roles and they may need guidance to understand how their existing skill sets can be applied to roles in civilian workplaces.

    Since 2010, Aon has partnered with American Corporate Partners, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping military veterans transition to the private sector through one-to-one mentoring with business leaders. Aon colleagues commit to year-long mentorships, providing career guidance to veterans transitioning back to civilian life. During this partnership, more than 200 Aon colleagues have mentored more than 600 veterans and active-duty spouses. Veterans who take part in the program expand their career opportunities, enhance their resume and interview skills and build a professional network.

    Part of Aon’s larger commitment to strengthening veteran wellbeing includes a focus on financial wellbeing for veterans and military families, and Aon has developed approaches to serve their unique needs.

Philanthropy and Community Impact

Aon is committed to creating positive outcomes in the communities where we live and work around the world. We believe in the power of volunteerism and philanthropic investment to make our communities stronger, better connected and more prosperous.

Our charitable work is driven by our firm-wide strategy and our colleagues’ local connections and commitment to amplifying our impact. In 2024, Aon and NFP’s combined charitable contributions totaled more than $16 million. 

In 2024, we deepened our global commitment to community service and volunteerism, helped our partners to mobilize quickly in the event of disasters and continued to forge new pathways into our firm and sector for non-traditional talent.

A few highlights from 2024:
  • In Spain, Aon colleagues volunteered with the También Foundation to support people with disabilities and reduced mobility participating in the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, which dates to the Middle Ages and can be more than 500 miles long. One colleague noted, “The Camino brings out the best in all of us; we are all accepted as we are.”
  • In Australia, Aon colleagues from Sydney partnered with local rangers at the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife to learn about their local ecosystem and participated in clean up and beautification efforts.
  • As a member of the Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program (ADGP), Aon contributes $500,000 a year and our total contributions are more than $7.1 million since 2010. This investment is split to support domestic and international preparedness and response efforts.
  • In 2024, Aon colleagues from Romania and the UK joined forces to build homes for Romanian families in desperate need in Romania for the charity Habitat for Humanity. UK colleagues raised £75,000 ($93,000) to help fund the project. 

As always, our Community Impact is driven by our Corporate Sustainability strategy and goals as well as our colleagues’ local connections and causes.

In 2024, Aon debuted a new program that allows our colleagues in North America to leverage grant funds to host local service events. Last year, we supported projects across the U.S. and Canada that engaged more than 300 of our colleagues, with a special focus on projects co-designed and co-developed with Aon company NFP. In Nashville, more than 40 Aon and NFP colleagues joined forces with Make-A-Wish of Middle Tennessee to grant a wish for young Millie, who is battling cystic fibrosis. Colleagues surprised Millie on Halloween with a “wish reveal” party to let her know her wish of visiting Disneyland was coming true.

Aon’s 2024 Philanthropic Contributions
  • Impact Story - Helping Black Women Join the Job Market in Brazil

    In 2024, the Aon Institute, which runs social initiatives across Latin America, launched a new program focused on training and entrepreneurship for black women in Brazil.

    Pretas e Prontas (which, in English, reads “Black and Ready”) offers free coaching and support to help Black women expand their work opportunities and support their search for financial independence. Our 2024 course, which included 30 women, strove to facilitate a fairer, more innovative and creative job market that respects differences.

    More than 70 Aon colleagues volunteered to lend their support to the program, speaking at some the coaching sessions and becoming a sponsor for some of the women students.

  • Impact Story - Improving Access to Education

    Special educational needs and disability (SEND) support can be challenging to get right when it comes to a child’s education, with many parents finding the complex benefits and school system difficult to navigate.

    For the last eight years, Aon has teamed up with Equip for Equality, Illinois’ largest provider of special education legal advocacy, to help parents secure the right education for their SEND children. Volunteers from Aon’s legal team in Chicago take turns to staff Equip for Equality’s helpline, which takes more than 2,000 calls a year. The service acts as the first point of contact for parents concerned that their children are not receiving the right attention and assistance from their schools. 

    Our volunteers go through the details of the child’s circumstances and, with the help of Equip for Equality, recommend further action for the family. Volunteer help is essential in enabling Equip for Equality to respond to all inquiries that come to the helpline.

    In one recent case, an Aon colleague handled a call from the parent of an eight-year-old with a learning disability who had concerns that their public school was not providing the appropriate support and had instead moved the child to another day school. The colleague escalated the case and Equip for Equality assisted the parents in having the child reintegrated into the public school as well as securing a new Individual Education Plan (IEP) for the student.

    Aon volunteers are also involved in taking on individual cases and working on a pro bono basis with a SEND child’s family, Equip for Equality and the local educational authorities to ensure the most appropriate support is provided. This process includes sitting in on meetings between educators and parents to draw up an IEP for a student. In a recent case, Aon worked alongside volunteers from a global law firm to represent the parents of a five-year-old deaf blind student to ensure they receive the right homebound services and education. To ensure that the child’s complex educational needs were met, the pro bono team advocated on the family’s behalf at several IEP meetings and negotiated with the district attorney to secure compensatory education.

    “Parents continue to be desperate for much-needed legal advice to navigate the complex special education laws that ensure their child with a disability’s right to an education,” explained Olga Pribyl, vice president for Equip for Equality. “We simply could not have supported the families of children with disabilities without Aon’s help.”

    “Working with Equip for Equality and our law firm partners to break down barriers for students with disabilities and enable them to have the best educational experience possible provides members of our Law & Compliance team with a meaningful opportunity to give back,” said Darren Zeidel, executive vice president, general counsel and company secretary for Aon. “Many of our Law & Compliance colleagues have signed up to work the helpline — and engage directly with students and their families — on an ongoing basis, which demonstrates that they value our work with Equip for Equality and feel positive about the impact Aon is having.”

  • Impact Story - Supporting Economic Recovery in Ukraine

    Since the Russian invasion in 2022, western insurers have largely stepped back from insuring business in Ukraine, making it harder for businesses to operate in the country. In response, Aon’s commitment to Ukraine has compelled our firm to build a global public and private coalition to support and invest in the country.

    As the largest global broker operating in Ukraine, Aon has been led by its team on the ground and our colleagues and contacts around the world to put our expertise, analytics and relationships to urgent work to unlock innovative solutions to this complex challenge.
    In June 2024, Aon launched a $350 million insurance program with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to build insurance capacity and accelerate new capital investment and economic recovery in Ukraine.

    The program, the first of its kind, consisted of a comprehensive $50 million reinsurance facility, the result of Aon working closely with DFC and the Ukraine Ministry for Development of Economy and Trade, and an additional $300 million in war risk insurance designed for Ukraine's healthcare and agriculture industries.

    The program was unveiled at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin in June 2024. “Capital will not go where it is not protected and this unprecedented program with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is intended to unlock and accelerate investment in Ukraine at a time when the need is most acute,” Eric Andersen, former president of Aon, told the conference.

    Beyond the initial program, Aon has remained a strong voice supporting the rebuilding of Ukraine’s economy. In September 2024, Aon and Marsh McLennan called on the insurance industry to help catalyze Ukraine’s economic growth — including the removal of blanket exclusions, which ignore the diversity of risk throughout the country.

    Furthermore, in December 2024, Aon launched a new 110 million euro ($115 million) insurance facility in collaboration with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to provide reinsurance capacity for international reinsurers and Ukrainian insurance companies to cover war-related risks in Ukraine.

    “Aon's steadfast commitment to Ukraine compels our firm to continue to identify new opportunities for businesses to invest in the country during the ongoing war. This innovative new facility in collaboration with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development further enhances the stability of the insurance market in Ukraine and strengthens the foundation for economic resiliency and growth,” said Greg Case, CEO of Aon, at the launch of the facility.

$16M

Aon contributed more than $16 million in 2024 to philanthropic causes.

Related Information

Impact Report 2024