Evonik drives sustainability

• Specific greenhouse gases slightly reduced
• Chief Human Resources Officer Thomas Wessel says: “Long-term economic success and assuming entrepreneurial responsibility are two sides of the same coin.”
• Sustainability management strengthened by creation of special corporate division

Essen, Germany-based Evonik systematically advanced its commitment for more sustainability last year. The company reports on the advances that were achieved in its Sustainability Report 2014. Evonik’s Chief Human Resources Officer Thomas Wessel explained in this context: “Long-term economic success and assuming entrepreneurial responsibility are two sides of the same coin.”

The specialty chemicals company globally assumes responsibility for its businesses, employees, the environment and society. In doing so, Evonik takes a targeted approach in increasing its contribution to a sustainable development with its resource-saving products and solutions and the continuous improvement of its processes. Wessel remarked: “We are reacting to a growing demand from our customers for products that strike a balance between economic, ecological and social factors. When it comes to sustainability, Evonik considers the entire value chain—from raw material supply to product application.

A  focus on environmental goals
Evonik aims at improving the company’s ecological footprint. The company makes a contribution to climate protection by consistently working on reducing its specific greenhouse gas emissions, among other things. Compared to the previous year, they were cut by one percentage point in 2014. Compared to the reference year 2012, they are now 93 percent.

By 2020, Evonik wants to cut its specific greenhouse gas emissions by 12 percent in comparison to the production in 2012. The performance indicator includes direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. In the same period, the specific water consumption indicating water consumption during production is to be reduced by 10 percent. In 2014, it had increased by eight percentage points and is thus up three percentage points from 2012. Regardless of this, Evonik holds on to its goal.

Pronounced safety culture
For the protection of employees and neighbors, the company globally anchored high standards in a uniform safety culture across the Group with a new safety mission statement that was introduced in 2014. Wessel said: “Our motto is: `Every accident is one too much.´” In 2014 once again, Evonik was able to keep the number of lost-time accidents at a low level. Accident frequency for Evonik employees was thus at 1.2 in continuing operations—as in previous years—staying below the self-defined target of 1.3. The figure indicates the number of accidents of Evonik employees and contract employees under Evonik's direct supervision per one million working hours which have resulted in lost working days.

As part of Evonik's strategic development, the Executive Board decided in summer 2014 to manage the sustainability topic in an independent corporate division in the Chief Human Resources Officer’s area of responsibility. Topics derived from the sustainability strategy are implemented via binding objectives in the business and corporate units.

Evonik is well positioned in sustainability indexes and ratings
In 2014, Evonik was included in the stock market indexes for responsible investment, FTSE4Good Global and STOXX® Global ESG. STOXX Limited lists the company in the Global ESG Leaders index.
The Sustainalytics and Oekom Research rating agencies count Evonik among the leading companies when evaluating sustainability performance. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) rated the Group on a very high level of 91B in its first participation in the Investor CDP 2014.

Sustainability Report complies with GRI requirement A+
As in previous years, the latest Sustainability Report also fulfills the requirements of the high level A+ of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). In this, the Group takes the Sustainability Reporting Guideline G3.1 as orientation. GRI sets an internationally recognized standard for comprehensive sustainability reporting. Large parts of the report underwent an assurance review by an auditing firm.

The Sustainability Report 2014 can be downloaded from the Internet under: www.evonik.com/responsibility.