“Sustainably active beyond the factory gates”

Annette Wagner: Bosch’s leitmotif is “Invented for Life.” The sustainability and EHS (Environment, Health, Safety) division, as it exists today, grew out of a traditional workplace safety and environmental protection department that focused on risk. In our Ideas Lab, we want to work out the opportunities of sustainability for Bosch and therefore for the environment and society. To do this, we are pursuing new paths, setting ambitious goals for ourselves and increasingly involving Bosch employees in our sustainability engagement approach.

Annette Wagner: That is a big word. I believe that sustainability can only work if many people pull in the same direction. We see that with the carbon-neutral position at our 400 locations worldwide for Scope 1 and 2 (categories for emissions). This works via four levers: energy efficiency, regenerative captive power generation, green electricity and – where the three other levers are exhausted – compensation measures. But in the end, it is a lean team in head office that drafts concepts, develops the policy deployment, and ensures the reporting is carried out. But ultimately, we only managed it with the strength of the entire team in the factories that implement the energy efficiency measures or switch to green electricity contracts. I also believe that with the new legislation – such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the EU Taxonomy – the topic of sustainability is developing from simple hype to a core topic for companies. As such, many areas relating to sustainability, finance, purchasing and human resources can only be successful if they work hand in hand.

Annette Wagner: Sustainable action in management was already important to our company founder, Robert Bosch. This aspiration has continued to prevail at the company even after his death. As early as 1996, management adopted 10 principles on environmental protection that became an equally important goal alongside product quality and economic viability. Then, in 1998, the first environmental report was published. Today, our sustainability strategy goes beyond the topic area of climate protection, and includes the aspects of health, human rights, water security, the circular economy and diversity.

Annette Wagner: Not to lose track of things in spite of the high complexity. The topic of sustainability has developed rapidly over the past four years. At the regulatory level, on the one hand, I think of the German Supply Chain Act as an example. Then there are the planned sustainability reporting requirements at EU level, as previously mentioned. But also on the content side, it is no longer sufficient today to consider one’s own work activity. At Bosch, this means that we and our sustainability management – whether it’s in the area of climate protection, human rights or circular economy – also take into consideration our more than 24,000 suppliers and our broad product range at all times. So, we are sustainably active beyond the factory gates.

Annette Wagner: At Bosch, we understand sustainability to be the balance between the economic, environmental and social dimensions of our business activities as part of responsible corporate governance. In our target vision “New Dimensions Sustainability 2025,” we identified six topic areas on which our strategies are built: climate protection, water security, circular economy, diversity, human rights and health. There we developed the respective goals and KPIs that we track and report on in our sustainability report and on our website.

Annette Wagner: It’s important to take the people in the company along with you and to include them. After all, their behaviour shapes our culture. Their knowledge, engagement and creativity drive Bosch forward. Simply put, it is the people at Bosch who produce measurable successes from abstract goals. In order to activate this potential, we provide impetus in a targeted way – from the company-wide “Sustainability and EHS Award”, with which we have honoured the sustainability performance of teams at our business locations for many years, through to the campaign “Green Heroes,” for which employees could introduce their own path to achieving more sustainability. As such, many activities have been launched globally, and have created an overwhelming resonance across the company.

Without the involvement of our suppliers, our ambitious goals couldn’t be achieved. Climate and environmental protection is a joint task – and we also want to convince our suppliers of this. To an increasing extent, we already consider CO₂ emissions and the relevant activities for climate protection through the award of tenders. For this purpose, we developed award concepts in 2021 and tested them extensively in all key business areas over a period of two years. We also want to contractually compel suppliers chosen in 2022 to join the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). We are aware of the importance of these steps for our suppliers, and have regularly made them aware of our activities since 2020, with the goal of motivating them to engage in their own climate protection activities.

Annette Wagner: Without data, there is no basis on which to work out sensible strategies. Also, it would be impossible for us to outline our development transparently, as we do in our sustainability report. Therefore, our partner team is busy compiling and checking all data from 400 business locations worldwide, from CO₂ and water security through to workplace safety. With the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the importance of this task will continue to grow, because the same requirements will be placed on sustainability performance indicators in the future as the ones that are already applied to financial KPIs.

Annette Wagner: With Greentech, business opportunities are emerging for us in the form of new products and services. We promote the development and application of highly diverse technologies. So, for example, we are positive about hydrogen as an energy source, and are investing in technologies like “hydrogen-ready” boilers as well as stationary and mobile fuel cells. With the progress we have made in these areas, we are supporting sustainability at home and for mobility purposes.

Annette Wagner: International investors with global investment portfolios are increasingly demanding high-quality, transparent, reliable and comparable reporting from companies when it comes to climate and other ESG (environmental, social and governance) topics.

We are also seeing that many sustainability ratings were integrated by the large rating companies, such as Deutsche Börse and ISS ESG or Morningstar and Sustainalytics.

Previously, standard company ratings and ESG ratings were strictly separate, but we are now seeing that financial market participants are also scrutinising our services in the sustainability area.

With the taxonomy disclosures, we will gain another layer of transparency – it will be exciting to see how the financial markets pick up on this information.

Annette Wagner: International investors with global investment portfolios are increasingly demanding high-quality, transparent, reliable and comparable reporting from companies when it comes to climate and other ESG (environmental, social and governance) topics.

The concept will be the same. The interpretation process will extend even further – from one’s own company to the direct suppliers through to the entire supply chain. We are seeing this in the drafts of the European Supply Chain Act. And the seriousness will increase: financial and sustainability reporting will be viewed on equal terms, and the value of a company will no longer be assessed based solely on financial performance indicators.