Interests and Views of Stakeholders

As an employer, we have a significant impact on the personal and professional development of our employees. We can have a positive influence on our employees by offering them a safe workplace, and personal and professional development opportunities, as well as promoting a healthy work-life balance with fair pay and social benefits. These factors may have a profound effect on the personal development, satisfaction, health, and general well-being of our employees outside of their working lives.

Our engagement with our own workforce involves open and transparent communication, fostering employee development, and designing an attractive working environment.

The dialog between Beiersdorf and its employees takes place at various levels, such as at staff meetings, through employee representatives, via annual employee surveys and in one-on-one employee meetings.

Dialog with our customers as a key stakeholder group is extremely relevant.

Participation in the “Consumer Goods Forum,” an organization that brings together consumer goods retailers and manufacturers from around the world to work on trusting and future-ready relationships with consumers.

Dialog with this group of stakeholders is highly relevant, as industrial customers have their own sustainability targets that we must address with our products and technologies. Demanding customer requirements may also have the effect of accelerating our own transformation.

Communicating and raising awareness of the Beiersdorf sustainability agenda, targets, progress and specific examples of sustainability measures among industrial customers.

On the other hand, we must convince industrial customers of our own commitment and illustrate the added value of more sustainable products.

Each tesa business unit has its own sustainability manager to coordinate customer requirements and enable specialist cooperation.

Our suppliers can have a positive impact throughout our value chain, and are therefore key stakeholders. Open dialog with suppliers enables us to work together to define sustainability standards, initiate improvements, and increase transparency in the supply chain.

Integrating external knowledge and promoting close cooperation with our suppliers through dialog and joint projects.

Strategic supplier management with clearly defined standards in terms of quality, working conditions, and environmental protection.

Dialog with suppliers on decarbonizing the value chain (Net Zero/reducing Scope 3 emissions).

Involvement in the “AIM-Progress” international collaboration initiative, a global forum of leading fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturers.

Distributors are a relevant group of stakeholders as they are involved in the daily shopping decisions of customers and can steer them towards more sustainable products. Our partnerships with retailers enable us to make the supply chain more sustainable while also meeting the needs and expectations of consumers in an increasingly environmentally conscious market.

Participation in events, programs, campaigns and platforms offered by retailers on sustainability.

Participation in annual reporting via retail or third-party platforms; provision of our latest sustainability data.

Strategic top level dialog on sustainability, e.g., top-to-top meetings; participation in annual discussion formats between sustainability experts.

Investors play a key role in the long-term performance of our company and are therefore a relevant stakeholder group. We convey our sustainability strategy and performance to investors to enable them to make well-founded decisions as well as to understand their expectations of our company.

Annual/regular events based on the financial calendar at which sustainability information is also provided (Annual General Meeting, annual report publication, etc.).

Specific meetings with investors who specialize in sustainability and/or demand certain minimum standards.

Ongoing support from Investor Relations (responding to investor/rating queries; needs-based, topic-specific meetings with investors/rating agents on sustainability matters).

Annual participation in the CDP rating process.

Policy makers are a relevant group of stakeholders as they shape the framework for corporate and market development. We raise policy makers’ awareness of the value chain for the beauty and body care industry and the key role played by the sector in both economic and societal terms.

Cooperation with companies from the beauty and body care sector for the “Value of Beauty” alliance. The alliance’s mission since January 2024 has been to foster a fundamental understanding of the beauty and body care industry in relation to the economy, sustainability and innovation, health and well-being, and society and culture. The alliance underscores the role of the industry in driving sustainability and climate action at European level, such as through sustainable sourcing of raw materials and product development, production, transportation, consumption, research and innovation.

The nature of our business means that we always operate in social spaces, which makes local communities and neighborhoods relevant stakeholders. We also consider the local communities directly linked with our value chain to be key stakeholders. We are therefore keen to make a contribution to social development, environmental protection, and climate change mitigation at local level.

Cooperation with various organizations at local level with the aim of giving back to the local communities and being visible in the community (e.g., through the “Hanseatic Help” and “Die Arche” charities).

Activity directly in palm (kernel) oil cultivation areas with the aim of improving the local working and living conditions of farmers for the long term.

The well-being of workers along our entire value chain is a key priority for us, making them a relevant group of stakeholders. We ensure good working conditions and monitor our suppliers accordingly.

Establishing various grievance mechanisms to enable workers in the supply chain and all other stakeholders to report noncompliant behavior or voice concerns.

Various media channels and audit reports of our direct and indirect business partners; we receive information via these channels if business partners in upstream supply chains have, or are suspected to have committed breaches of human rights or labor and environmental standards.

Participation in multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the “Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil” (RSPO) and “Action for Sustainable Derivatives” (ASD), which offer comprehensive reporting systems. Reports from affected communities of suspected noncompliance are investigated jointly, and assessed for veracity, and suitable actions determined.

Partnerships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs); we consider the perspective of vulnerable groups in our strategy.

NGOs expect us to actively advocate for sustainable development. Our close and critical dialog with NGOs helps us to refine our sustainability strategy and scrutinize past behavior.

Strategic partnership with the “World Wide Fund for Nature” (WWF); since 2016, this cooperation has enabled us to understand the WWF’s perspective on a range of sustainability matters and to integrate them into our sustainability strategy.

Cooperation with aid organizations “Care” and “Plan International.”

Additional cooperation with NGOs at local level (e.g., “Das Geld hängt an den Bäumen” and “Hanseatic Help”).