Our corporate culture guides responsible business conduct. Our Guiding Principles define how we work together and act across the Group. They provide employees and business partners with guidance for reliable collaboration. Our Code of Conduct and the policy statement “Human Rights Code & Social Principles,” along with the Supplier Code of Conduct, support this approach. Our compliance management is also based on these principles. It supports compliant and lawful conduct across the Group. We actively involve our stakeholders in our sustainability processes.
The full Executive Board is responsible for CR (Corporate Responsibility): It discusses and decides on important CR matters. Group Corporate Responsibility (GCR) develops Group-wide policies and guidelines to continuously evolve our corporate culture in terms of innovation and social responsibility. Organizationally, Group Corporate Responsibility reports to the CEO’s area of responsibility. The management teams of the respective business units and national companies are responsible for implementing our CR strategy. Our CR policy formally sets out binding cornerstones for our sustainability management across all Group entities.
Measure to manage: Since 2009, we have used group-wide metrics known as ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). They allow us to track progress toward our sustainability goals and further develop how we manage them, enabling us to measure our progress and continuously improve our performance: the ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). These include metrics on resource consumption and management in environmental areas, on environmental and social aspects of the supply chain, and on our social engagement activities. We publish a complete overview of our ESG KPIs and their development in our Corporate Responsibility Report. Our climate performance is linked to the variable Remuneration of senior management and can increase or reduce it depending on the extent to which targets are achieved.
We align with international standards and norms. Our integrated Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) management system supports the integration of environmental and occupational health and safety requirements into business processes and workflows across the Group. Our Group-wide HSE management system holds umbrella certification in accordance with the international standards ISO 45001 (formerly OHSAS 18001) for occupational health and safety and ISO 14001 for environmental management.
