Strategy
Our sustainability strategy is a direct reflection of our company’s commitment to “Purposeful Growth”. We are committed to driving transformational change by creating more value for our stakeholders, developing our business successfully, and acting sustainably for the benefit of current and future generations.
At Henkel, we see sustainability as a constant endeavor to make progress on present topics and keep learning about new issues, based on scientific knowledge. Global climate change is one of the greatest challenges humanity is facing today, requiring urgent and ambitious action. It is also critical to protect and regenerate our resources and life-support systems like forests, water and biodiversity, for present and future generations. At the same time, we are seeing global poverty and social inequality increase, which in turn jeopardizes human rights and the basis of social coexistence. And in the process, we acknowledge that companies like Henkel play a role in meeting these challenges and bringing about transformational change.
Responsibility for people, planet and society
Our corporate purpose defines the common ground that unites all of us at Henkel: Pioneers at heart for the good of generations. With our pioneering spirit, our knowledge, our products and technologies, we want to enrich and improve the lives of people every day and shape a viable future for the next generations. Sustainable business practices have been an integral part of our company culture for decades, and are also a central element of our vision of the future. Together with innovation and digitalization, sustainability forms the core of our corporate strategy, the Purposeful Growth agenda.
We will build on our particular strengths, such as the innovation of our business units, the comprehensive knowledge of our employees, as well as various contact points of our products and technologies with customers and consumers. We intend to work with others to create fundamental change.
We published our new 2030+ Sustainability Ambition Framework in 2022, which we link to the high aspiration of achieving a “Transformational Impact for the Good of Generations”. This measure includes the three dimensions of ESG in our vision of sustainability, and we have defined key areas of focus:
Our 2030+ Sustainability Ambition Framework
Our new sustainability strategy revolves around implementing our ambitions through concrete measures and projects to achieve practical progress. Our 2030+ Sustainability Ambition Framework sets our long-term ambitions in the three dimensions of Regenerative Planet, Thriving Communities and Trusted Partner and links to our high aspiration of achieving a “Transformational Impact for the Good of Generations”.
Key ambitions 2030+
Our key levers for change
We also defined how we aim to make progress across our value chain by defining three key levers to achieve systemic change:
- Products and technologies are the heart of everything we do. We create more value for our customers and consumers by constantly innovating to offer better performance with a reduced ecological footprint.
- People are key for our business and our sustainability-related activities. Our employees contribute to sustainable development through their engagement. Our suppliers, shareholders, customers and consumers and our neighbors play an important role in driving impactful change together.
- Partnerships are decisive for implementing and scaling sustainable advancements. We share knowledge and drive systemic solutions forward by working together with our partners along the value chain, and also with experts, universities, civil society and other companies.
Identifying relevant topics
To determine and categorize relevant topics for our business activities and reporting, we engage in a continuous process of recording and evaluating the challenges and opportunities of sustainable development using various tools. We assess the importance of the topics for the company, environment and society, and also for our stakeholders. The results of this process can be broken down into the three dimensions of Regenerative Planet, Thriving Communities and Trusted Partner, each with three themes that we identified in a materiality analysis. In these nine topic areas, we want to drive sustainable development around the world and along the value chain with our business activities.
