Combined Non-financial Statement of the Beiersdorf Group and Beiersdorf AG

In accordance with Germany’s CSR Directive Implementation Act (CSR-RUG), Beiersdorf reports on material non-financial aspects of its business activities in its Annual Report. These include aspects regarding the environment, employees, society, human rights, and anti-corruption. The following sections of the Annual Report constitute the Combined Non-financial Statement (NFS) for the Beiersdorf Group (Consumer and tesa Business Segments) and Beiersdorf AG, as defined under sections 315b and 289b of the Handelsgesetzbuch (German Commercial Code, HGB). 

Alongside the NFS, the tesa Business Segment publishes a separate sustainability report with more detailed information on sustainability activities and projects during the reporting year.

Application of international reporting frameworks

Due to the different materiality requirements set out in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards, United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and Germany’s CSR Directive Implementation Act (CSR-RUG), neither the Beiersdorf Group nor Beiersdorf AG applied any international frameworks in accordance with section 315c(3) of the HGB in conjunction with section 289d of the HGB to prepare the Non-financial Statement. The Consumer Business Segment, however, follows the GRI Standards and publishes a separate GRI index. 

Both business segments are UNGC members and provide annual progress reports (“Communication on Progress” – COP) outlining the successes achieved and measures taken in the reporting period to implement the ten principles of the UNGC in the areas of human rights, working conditions, environmental protection, and anti-corruption. In 2023, the UNGC introduced a new digital platform on which to submit the COP, though technical problems led to the platform being taken offline temporarily. As a result, submission of the COP was voluntary in the reporting year, and Beiersdorf will resume its reporting in 2024.

Material non-financial topics for the business segments

Both business segments conduct materiality analyses to strategically identify and review sustainability topics. In the Consumer Business Segment, such an analysis was last carried out in 2021. The following material topics were identified during this process: Climate protection, circular economy, sustainable land use and biodiversity, sustainable use of water, diversity and inclusion, education and training, employer attractiveness, occupational health and safety, safeguarding human rights, community engagement, compliance and business ethics, and product safety. 

The tesa Business Segment last updated its materiality matrix with members of relevant specialist departments in 2020. The material non-financial topics identified are climate and energy, product sustainability, resource efficiency, water, employee development, diversity and equal opportunities, occupational health and safety, human rights, prevention of anticompetitive behavior, and product safety. For an overview of all material non-financial topics relating to the Consumer and tesa Business Segments, together with section and page references, please refer to our index to the Non-financial Statement. 

No changes were made to the materiality analyses of the Consumer and tesa business segments in the reporting year, meaning that the aforementioned topics remain material. The materiality analyses are to be merged at Group-level and restructured in 2024 in order to meet future reporting requirements in accordance with the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

Statement scope

Disclosures on the material NFS topics are mainly provided separately for the tesa and Consumer Business Segments. In principle, all information is reported jointly for the Beiersdorf Group and Beiersdorf AG. Key figures that are collected separately for Beiersdorf AG are listed in the table “Relevant Key Figures for the Non-financial Statement of the Beiersdorf AG.” 

The Chantecaille business is managed as a separate business unit and is not included in the reported key figures due to its comparatively low sales volume. Likewise, the majority shareholding S-Biomedic, which was acquired in 2022, is not included in the key figures for reasons of materiality.¹ Due to the limited data availability with regard to non-financial topics, our NIVEA-KAO business in Japan is also not included in this statement. There is one exception, however: The calculation of CO₂e emission figures does include NIVEA-KAO.²

Since fiscal year 2021, we have also been reporting on revenues, capital expenditures, and operating expenses associated with environmentally sustainable activities in the NFS in accordance with Article 8 of the EU Taxonomy Regulation. The Consumer and tesa Business Segments report jointly on the EU taxonomy. 

The Non-financial Statement has been subjected to a limited assurance engagement by the auditing company EY GmbH & Co. KG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft based on the International Standard on Assurance Engagements 3000 (Revised). 

In order to avoid redundancies, reference is made to passages in the Combined Management Report that contain non-financial disclosures. This relates to the areas “Business and Strategy” and “People at Beiersdorf.” Some of the information in these sections also forms part of the Non-financial Statement. The relevant sections are marked with ↱↲ in the Combined Management Report.

¹ With the exception of compliance and employee KPIs.

² The CO₂e emission figures recorded for NIVEA-KAO comprise Scopes 1 and 2 as well as the following Scope 3 items: packaging and raw materials as well as finished goods production, each from the category “Purchased goods and services” and “Upstream transportation.”