Responsibility
Foreword
“Only companies that
operate sustainably will succeed”
operate sustainably will succeed”
;)
Werner Wenning, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer AG
There is no doubt that the past two years since the publication of our last Sustainable Development Report have been extremely successful for Bayer, both from an operational and from a strategic point of view. Our impressive business results are the consequence not least of the largest restructuring operation in the Group’s history. As an inventor company, we are now focused on our expertise in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Our prime goal is to improve people’s quality of life and make that life more pleasant through our innovative products and services.
For Bayer, success is not something that can be measured solely in statistics and growth rates. We want to bring commercial efficiency, ecology and social commitment into harmony with each other. To do this, we aim to acquire a leading technological and economic position in our industry, and, at the same time, set standards in environmental protection and social commitment. It is our conviction that, in the medium and long term, only companies that operate sustainably will also enjoy economic success.
For Bayer, such considerations are not new. When terms such as “corporate social responsibility,” “Responsible Care” and “sustainable development” did not yet exist, our company was already very much committed to the concepts they now stand for. Consequently, “respect for people and nature” and the “sustainability of our actions” are among our key corporate values. Quoting our Mission Statement: “We believe our technical and commercial expertise entails a duty to work for the good of all humankind, to demonstrate social commitment and to make a lasting and positive contribution to sustainable and environmentally compatible development.”
Bayer takes its role as a socially responsible corporate citizen very seriously. This can be seen, for example, in our signing of the United Nations Global Compact, through which the company has, for example, committed itself to protect human rights, foster environmental protection, encourage better working conditions and fight worldwide corruption. Fundamentally, it sets out to support responsible globalization.
Climate protection plays a major role in this respect. Our positive greenhouse gas record is particularly satisfying. Through wide-ranging investment, we have been able to significantly reduce the emission of greenhouse gases – a path we intend to continue treading in the future.
Bayer also makes a substantial international contribution to sustainability in its role as the first private-sector partner to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in the area of youth and the environment. Together with unep, we have launched a number of worldwide projects. We not only sponsor the activities financially to the tune of EUR1 million a year, we also help to implement them. One of the projects is the “Young Environmental Envoy” program founded by Bayer, through which, every year, young people from all over the world are invited on a study trip to Germany to give them an opportunity to experience modern environmental protection first-hand.
We currently sponsor around 300 projects across the globe as part of our social responsibility program. The company has also taken up the problem of child labor in Brazil, which we help to combat via the well-known Abrinq Foundation. In India, too, we have launched various campaigns against child labor. All our social projects are aimed at sustainably improving the future opportunities – particularly of young people.
In complying with our policy guidelines, we see the sustainability of our actions to be a fundamental principle. One example involves illegal price agreements. We have obligated our employees in all the countries in which we operate to comply in full with the laws and regulations in place in those countries. We will not tolerate violations. In 1999, we published directives on legal compliance and corporate responsibility, describing our rules clearly and unambiguously. We made these directives even stricter in 2004.
With its many products and services, Bayer serves customers everywhere. In line with our slogan “Bayer: Science For A Better Life,” we have made it our aim to benefit people around the world in matters of health care and nutrition, and quite simply, to improve their quality of life. Our slogan also stands for the wide-ranging contributions made by the company in an economic, ecological and social respect.
I hope this Report provides you with an interesting insight into our company, its goals and its activities.
Kind regards
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