Henkel’s sustainability strategy on course

The first report was published nearly a quarter of a century ago in 1992 – the year of the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro.
“The year 2015 was an important year for Henkel: We met the interim targets for the first five years of our long-term Sustainability Strategy for 2030. But we are not stopping now; we are already thinking a step ahead. In order to continue to drive sustainability, we have developed new ambitious targets for 2020 and defined additional areas for action along the entire value chain,” said Kathrin Menges, executive vice president for human resources and chair of Henkel’s Sustainability Council.
Achieving more while using less resources and tripling the efficiency by 2030 – that is the goal of Henkel’s Sustainability Strategy. The company said it has made great progress and has surpassed its interim targets for 2011 to 2015: energy efficiency improved by 18 per cent; water use by 23 per cent; waste volume by 17 per cent; occupational safety by 33 per cent; and sales by 11 per cent.
Overall, Henkel said it has improved the relationship between the created value and the environmental footprint by 38 per cent. By 2020, the company intends to reduce CO2 emissions of its production sites, water use and waste volume by 30 per cent per tonne of product compared to 2010. Occupational safety is to be improved by 40 per cent and sales by 22 per cent per tonne of product. The achievement of these targets would result in an overall efficiency improvement of 75 per cent by 2020 compared to 2010.
As a company, Henkel said it aims to create more value with a reduced environmental footprint. It also encourages others to offer contributions for more sustainability; this goes beyond dialogue with suppliers, customers and consumers. Henkel’s employees are at the centre of the Sustainability Ambassador programme. As a part of the programme, the company’s school project initiative continued to grow in 2015: Henkel’s employees receive training so that they are able to explain the importance of sustainable behaviour to others, including schoolchildren.
Since 2012, around 6,200 Henkel employees have become sustainability ambassadors, and the programme has reached around 63,000 schoolchildren in 43 countries.
Henkel’s achievements in sustainability were once again honoured in 2015 by various sustainability ratings and rankings. Henkel was included once again in the “Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World” Index and was rated “Gold” by EcoVadis. The company also received RobecoSAM’s Silver Class award.