Sustainability Management

Schaeffler has anchored the value of sustainability in its corporate strategy. On this basis, aspects of sustainability have also been integrated into the company’s decision-making processes and clear responsibilities have been determined.

The Schaeffler Group’s Sustainability Governance is responsible for defining, monitoring, and reporting on the Schaeffler Group’s sustainability-related performance. In addition, it guides the orientation of the Sustainability Strategy “Responsibility for tomorrow.” The Supervisory Board of the Schaeffler Group is at the top of this organization and the Executive Board reports to it on relevant sustainability developments once a year. A key role is held by the Competence Center for Sustainability, which reports to the Executive Board as a source of inspiration, coordinates groupwide sustainability activities, is in charge of performance and issue monitoring, and is responsible for transparent communication and stakeholder dialog.

The Sustainability Governance Structure at Schaeffler

The Steering Committee for Sustainability is a panel of experts comprised of representatives of relevant departments that meets four times a year. Its tasks include cooperation with the Competence Center for Sustainability on determining the content of sustainability reporting, development of strategic sustainability objectives, and KPI definitions.

The Sustainability Office is responsible for operational sustainability work. Working with the Competence Center for Sustainability, it develops measures and projects to implement the Schaeffler Group’s 24 material topics.

Material Topics of Schaeffler’s Sustainability Management

In the framework of a materiality analysis, the Schaeffler Group identified 24 topics that it adopted into its sustainability management. These topics form the foundation of sustainability at Schaeffer and are each assigned to one of the four fields of action “Sustainable Management,” “Customers and Products,” “Environment and Energy,” and “Employees and Society.” They strategically guide how Schaeffler will meet growing challenges all along the value chain.

Material Topics of Corporate Responsibility at Schaeffler

Within the framework of the materiality analysis, employees, customers, and suppliers were invited to participate in an online survey assessing the relevance of sustainability topics for Schaeffler as a responsible corporation and to formulate sustainability-related expectations towards the company. The results of this materiality analysis were verified by the Schaeffler Group’s Sustainability Governance and used to create a materiality matrix. This matrix helps in prioritizing the topics of the sustainability work and reporting. In addition, an analysis was conducted regarding the question of at which points in the value chain the Schaeffler Group comes into contact with certain topics and can influence them. This helps determine the reach and limits of Schaeffler’s corporate responsibility.