Our Values and Global Standards

How we act is critical to the successful implementation of our strategy and how our stakeholders perceive us. This is what our four core values represent: creative, open, responsible, entrepreneurial. They guide our actions and define how we want to work together – as a team, with our customers and our partners.

Creative: We make great products and solutions for our customers. This is why we embrace bold ideas and give them space to grow. We act with optimism and inspire one another.

Open: We value diversity, in people, opinions and experience. This is why we foster feedback based on honesty, respect and mutual trust. We learn from setbacks.

Responsible: We value the health and safety of people above all else. We make sustainability part of every decision. We are committed to strict compliance and environmental standards.

Entrepreneurial: We focus on our customers, as individuals and as a company. We seize opportunities and think ahead. We take ownership and embrace personal accountability.

Our standards fulfill and in some cases, exceed existing laws and regulations and take internationally recognized principles into account. We respect and promote:

• The 10 principles of the U.N. Global Compact
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the two U.N. Human Rights Covenants
• The core labor standards of the ILO and the Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (MNE Declaration)
• The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
• The Responsible Care^® Global Charter
• The German Corporate Governance Code

We stipulate rules for our employees with standards that apply throughout the Group. We set ourselves ambitious goals with voluntary commitments and monitor our performance in terms of environmental protection, health and safety using our Responsible Care Management System. We mainly approach our adherence to international labor and social standards using three elements: the Compliance Program including our Code of Conduct and compliance hotlines, close dialog with our stakeholders, and the global management process to respect international labor norms. Our business partners are expected to comply with prevailing laws and regulations and to align their actions with internationally recognized principles. We have established appropriate monitoring systems to ensure this.