Sustainability

25.07.2016
Skadi Menne

Why Klasmann-Deilmann publishes a Sustainability Report

CSR, GRI, SGS and MEO

Klasmann-Deilmann documents its own social, environmental and business commitment in its annual Sustainability Report. The first Report was for the 2011 financial year, and this year it comes out for the fifth time. This makes Klasmann-Deilmann the first company in the substrate industry to have its sustainability performance externally assessed. Each Report – and they have, since 2013, complied with Global Reporting Initiative guidelines – records and evaluates the previous year’s activities.

What has been achieved on the journey towards a sustainable company policy guided by the ecological and social principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Which steps have yet to be taken? In which areas is there room for improvement, and what does this entail? Klasmann-Deilmann has been providing answers to these questions every year since 2012 in its Sustainability Report, which describes the previous year’s activities and subjects them to critical assessment. The Report adheres to the G4 guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), ensuring comparability with other firms’ sustainability reports at international level.

Managing Director Norbert Siebels explains the rationale behind it. “In producing this Report, we are embracing our responsibility to the environment and society.” Managing Director Moritz Böcking adds, “Another aim is to create a basis for open and fair dialogue with our political and social stakeholders.”

Corporate and product carbon footprints form an integral part of the Report. These disclose all CO2 emissions, taking into account all climate-related factors along the value chain ‘from raw-material extraction to the factory gate, including transport’. The footprint is calculated by a specialist outside agency, the Cologne-based MEO Carbon Solutions GmbH, and the results are verified by a second external organisation, SGS United Kingdom Ltd., to the ISO 14064 standard.

The Report also covers the raw materials used, production and sales, as well as Klasmann-Deilmann’s commitment in the fields of renewable energy, nature conservation and climate change mitigation. Also presented are measures towards sustainable corporate governance at different levels, such as energy management, logistics, procurement, certification, customer satisfaction, social involvement and work with professional associations. Another focus is on personnel management. The content of the Sustainability Report is prepared by an in-house Working Group on Sustainability which, alongside top management, includes individuals representing and responsible for all the different parts of the company.