Targets and Target Achievement 2021
Business success tomorrow means creating value for the environment, society and business. That is why we have set ourselves ambitious targets along our entire value chain. We report transparently on our target achievement so that our stakeholders can track our progress. In order to grow profitably, we want to grow sales volumes faster than global chemical production, further increase our profitability, achieve a return on capital employed (ROCE) considerably above the cost of capital percentage and increase the dividend per share every year based on a strong free cash flow.
We also pursue broad sustainability targets. In this context, we significantly raised our CO2 reduction target in 2021. We want to strengthen the sustainability focus of our product portfolio and will update our portfolio steering targets in 2022. We also strive to strengthen the sustainability of our supply chains and use resources responsibly. We want to further improve safety in production. In addition, we aim to promote diversity within the company and create a working environment in which our employees feel that they can thrive and perform at their best.
The objective of these targets is to steer our business into a sustainable future, and at the same time, contribute to the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We are focusing on issues where we as a company can make a significant contribution, such as climate protection, sustainable consumption and production, and fighting hunger.
Status of Target Achievement
Profitable growth
Achieve a return on capital employed (ROCE) considerably above the cost of capital percentage every year5
2021 target
>9%
2021 status
13.5%
Grow sales volumes faster than global chemical production every year
2021 target
>6.1%
2021 status
10.6%
Increase the dividend per share every year based on a strong free cash flow
2021 target
>€3.30
2021 status
€3.401
Effective climate protection
Reduce our absolute CO2 emissions2 by 25% by 20305
2030 target
16.4 MMT
2021 status
20.2 MMT
Sustainable product portfolio
Achieve €22 billion in Accelerator sales by 20253, 5
2025 target
€22.0 billion
2021 status
€24.1 billion
Responsible procurement
Cover 90% of our relevant spend with sustainability evaluations by 20256
2025 target
90%
2021 status
85%
Have 80% of our suppliers improve their sustainability performance upon re-evaluation6
2025 target
80%
2021 status
74%
Resource efficiency and safe production
Reduce worldwide process safety incidents per 200,000 working hours to ≤0.1 by 20256
2025 target
≤0.1
2021 status
0.3
Reduce the worldwide lost-time injury rate per 200,000 working hours to ≤0.1 by 20256
2025 target
≤0.1
2021 status
0.3
Introduce sustainable water management at our production sites in water stress areas and at our Verbund sites by 2030
2030 target
100%
2021 status
53.5%
Employee engagement and diversity
1 Dividend proposed by the Board of Executive Directors
2 Includes Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. In March 2021, we replaced our previous target of CO2-neutral growth until 2030 (baseline 2018: 21.9 million metric tons of CO2e) with a new, more ambitious climate protection target to reduce absolute CO2 emissions by 25% compared with 2018 (new target: 16.4 million metric tons of CO2e).
3 We already reached our 2025 sales target for Accelerator products in 2021. Consequently, we will update our product portfolio steering target over the course of 2022.
4 We regularly calculate the employee engagement level. The most recent survey was conducted in 2020. The next survey is planned for spring 2022.
5 Most important key performance indicator
6 Limited assurance