assured 2011
Foreword
Creating acceptance for innovation through sustainability
Our mission “Bayer: Science For A Better Life” never ceases to motivate us. We work very hard every day to build on our position as a world-class innovative company that improves the lives of many people with its innovative products and solutions.
In our core business fields we concentrate on the health of people and animals, on improving nutrition for a growing world population and on the area of energy and resource efficiency. And we do this with a great sense of responsibility and a clear commitment to sustainable business. Because only in this way can we create the societal acceptance that is of such importance for our innovations.
Specifically, this means that safety has top priority for us. The safety of our products and facilities is our license to operate. It is the foundation for gaining the trust of our customers, stockholders, public authorities, neighbors and employees that is absolutely essential for us.
That’s why safety training measures – both for our employees and for external service providers and suppliers – are standard operating procedure at all our sites worldwide. In addition, special events such as last year’s global Safety Day help to further strengthen awareness about safety in the office, laboratory and production plant. These constant efforts are paying off. Our safety performance is better now than ever before. We will do everything to make sure it stays that way.
The safe handling and use of our products lie at the focus of our activities, which include transparent communication and distribution of our product safety information. Here, we also follow the precautionary principle of the United Nations and the European Commission.
In addition to safety, integrity is also a key aspect of sustainability – which is why it is one of our four LIFE values (Leadership, Integrity, Flexibility and Efficiency). After all, it goes without saying that compliance with all relevant laws and regulations is an essential element of our global business activities. We focus constantly on the issue of legal compliance. That’s why at the beginning of this year, we further strengthened and increased the efficiency of our compliance organization. In this connection, we are making our business partners more aware of their obligations too and will allow them this year to be subjected to a third-party due diligence process.
As a globally operating company, we must and we intend to be a role model in our implemented values. For example, we were one of the first companies to join the United Nations Global Compact. We are expressly committed to its 10 principles in the areas of human rights, labor standards, environmental protection and anti-corruption, and also promote adherence to these principles as a signatory of the “Corporate Sustainability Leadership – LEAD” platform.
With this Sustainable Development Report, we are continuing our open and constructive dialogue with our stakeholders – a dialogue about challenges and opportunities, objectives and progress, and principles and values. With this in mind, I wish you pleasant reading.