Strategie & Management

In dialogue with our stakeholders

Sustainable solutions can only be developed if all societal groups work together. That’s why Bayer specifically seeks dialogue at the local, national and international levels with representatives from politics, industry and society.

This includes our partners – employees, customers and suppliers – as well as our investors. Of equal importance to Bayer are public interests – those of our direct neighbors at our sites and of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), politicians and the general public. After all, Bayer operates within a scope of activity that is heavily influenced by scientific institutions and public administration bodies, as well as by legislation.

Close cooperation with these stakeholders creates value-added for all involved, as their suggestions influence our planning and decisions. At the same time, such cooperation gives us access to platforms on which we can openly communicate our viewpoints and receive important impulses for innovation.

Identification of major sustainability issues

We take the needs of our stakeholders seriously and strive to contribute to solving the pressing issues of our time – based on our values and in harmony with internal and external directives and laws. At the same time, we are charged with doing business efficiently, achieving economic success and increasing the long-term value of our company. We therefore select focus areas of our sustainability management and our reporting according to the following criteria:

In which areas are the challenges currently the greatest?
Where does our company harbor particular responsibility?
What areas are highly relevant to our business?
Where can we make a particularly substantial contribution to sustainable development?

Examples of stakeholder dialogue in 2008 with various stakeholder groups

Employees Employee surveys Development and signing of a code of ethics between the social partners of the chemical industry: the German Chemical Industry Employers’ Association (BAVC) and the German Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union (IG BCE) in the framework of the so-called “Wittenberg Process”	Customers Dialogue on hse issues including the declaration of substances Symposium on polyurethanes in Leverkusen, Germany Participation in the field days of the German Agricultural Society
Suppliers Supplier dialogue and presentation of a Sustainability Award for outstanding sustainability performance by Bayer suppliers in India Constructive dialogue with our suppliers to safeguard REACH preregistrations, thereby promoting long-term business relationships, ensuring delivery security for our customers	Public-private partnerships Collaborations with the WHO (Chagas’ disease, African sleeping sickness) TB Alliance (tuberculosis) Gates Foundation (malaria) Launch of the “Food Chain Partnership” program in Mexico
International initiatives UN Global Compact “Caring for Climate” and "CEO Water Mandate" Participation in the Global Roundtable on Climate Change (GROCC) Cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Cooperation with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) (e. g. reproductive health) Organizational stakeholder in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)	Science and research Sponsorship of the Volatile Organic Chemicals Control and Management Conference in Beijing, China Forums and conferences participated in by industry and governmental organizations, in cooperation with the Chanzhou Coatings Research Institute, China University professorships in the fields of medicine, pharmacy and chemistry Strategic alliances with universities in Cologne, Germany and Singapore Lectures and discussions at BayKomm on sustainable development, with visiting student groups from Germany and abroad
NGOS Cooperation with the Indian-based Naandi Foundation in the efforts to eliminate child labor Projects with the German Foundation for World Population (DSW) 7th International Dialogue on Population and Sustainable Development (in cooperation with Bayer)	Schools “Baylab” school laboratories in Leverkusen, Monheim, Berlin and Wuppertal, Germany Bayer education program “Making Science Make Sense” – since 2008, 11 countries have taken part in this initiative
Politics and society Participation in the “NanoDialog” between the German government and industry “Brainstorming for Berlin” dialogue series Discussions with neighbors, public authorities and elected officials on topics such as the co pipeline Discussions with representatives of the European Commission and European Parliament on topics such as the new E. U. crop protection policy Participation in the epaa (European Partnership on Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing)	(Industry) associations Member of the Board of Trustees of econsense Chair of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) Chair of the German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (VFA) Participation in numerous national, European and international associations, including the Federation of German Industries (BDI), the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), the American Council on Chemistry (ACC), the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) and the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC)

Differentiated approach

The goal of our stakeholder dialogue is to jointly develop innovative solutions for sustainable development. In this connection, it is important to take a differentiated view of the issues and interests. After all, the perspectives of the various stakeholder groups and the regional framework conditions for possible solutions often vary widely.

To enable the stakeholders to discuss challenges within their proper context and develop case-specific solutions, Bayer has integrated its stakeholder dialogue into its various functions, organizational units and regions. The large number of initiatives, committees, specialist workshops and information campaigns at the Group level and in the subgroups and service companies reflects the diversity of our business. Our stakeholder activities range from cooperation with local NGOs to participation in international sustainable development initiatives.

The table contains examples of activities that the Bayer Group and its individual subgroups and service companies implemented in 2008 within the scope of Bayer’s stakeholder dialogue. Due to the large number of different measures, the table illustrates only a small sample of our stakeholder activities.

Regular stakeholder surveys

Creating transparency with regard to our business, and our sustainable development activities and challenges is a basic principle of our stakeholder dialogue. This is grounded in the Bayer Sustainable Development Report, which is supplemented by the Internet site and the Management Report section of our Annual Report. We offer special reports and specialist publications on themes that are a current focus of public interest. In 2008, for example, Bayer AG brochures provided compact and vivid information on climate change, and the company addressed the public’s questions about the planned co pipeline at the site in Leverkusen, Germany through the Internet page http://www.pipeline.bayer.de/ (in German only) and a special brochure.

We regularly examine whether our reporting satisfies the information needs of our stakeholders. At the beginning of 2008, for example, we asked some 200 stakeholders of importance to Bayer (NGOs, associations, government agencies, analysts, customers, suppliers, politicians) by telephone which important themes of the future they believed we should address in connection with sustainable development, as well as their opinion of our reporting. In this survey, our stakeholders confirmed the themes that Bayer had identified as crucial to its sustainability management: climate change and the global water and drinking water problems. Other themes of importance to our stakeholders include environmental protection, human rights, sustainable health care and the question of how sustainable development can be anchored in business decisions.

With respect to dialogue, they prefer the exchange of viewpoints in smaller, theme-oriented groups, rather than major podium discussions or Internet forums.

This year again, we invite our stakeholders to evaluate our reporting and our sustainable development activities. At www.survey.sustainability.bayer.com/ they can share with us their opinion on this year’s Sustainable Development Report and formulate their expectations as regards future sustainable development activities at Bayer.