Henkel Achieves Record Sustainability Performance in 2017

Kathrin Menges, Vice President of Human Resources and Chair of the Sustainability Board at Henkel, said: "In 2017, we made significant progress in implementing our sustainability strategy and achieving our sustainability targets. We are proud that many international rating organizations have recognized our achievements with excellent ratings and see Henkel as one of the world's leading companies in the field of sustainability."

Creating Sustainable Value

Henkel wants to create sustainable value for its customers, employees, shareholders and society as a whole. At the same time, it plans to triple its resource efficiency by 2030. In the 2017 fiscal year, Henkel once again made strong progress toward achieving its mid-term targets for 2020 (compared to 2010):

• Energy consumption and CO₂ emissions (per ton of product) decreased by 24%.
• Waste volume (per ton of product) was reduced by 32%.
• Water consumption (per ton of product) was reduced by 24%.
• Occupational safety (per million hours worked) improved by 17%.
• Net sales (per ton of product) increased by 5%.
• Overall, Henkel increased the ratio between value created and the resulting environmental footprint by 43% compared to 2010. Henkel plans to increase resource efficiency by 75% by 2020.

In line with the Paris Climate Agreement and the obligations undertaken by the international community to limit global warming to below two degrees, Henkel is committed to actively contributing to climate protection. Henkel therefore focuses on reducing the carbon footprint of its production by 75% by 2030. On the other hand, Henkel is also working to source 100% of the electricity it uses in production from renewable sources by 2030. The priority target for this goal is to reach a 50% share by 2020. Henkel maintains its long-term vision of becoming a climate-conscious organization.

More Than 50,000 Employees Trained as Sustainability Ambassadors

Kathrin Menges, attributing the progress they achieved in 2017 primarily to employees' strong ownership of sustainability, said: "Since 2012, we have implemented one of Henkel's largest training initiatives by training more than 50,000 employees as sustainability ambassadors. On the other hand, we do not want to limit ourselves to imparting knowledge to our employees about sustainability. We want to encourage them to share this knowledge with colleagues, suppliers, customers and even school-age children in order to create social impact. This is an important step for sustainability to play a greater role in the daily activities of every employee."