Materiality and stakeholder management

The basis for the selection of central fields of action and the further development of the Sustainability Roadmap is the Schaeffler Group’s materiality analysis. It was prepared in 2016 together with key stakeholders in accordance with the requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and updated in June 2018 with the involvement of the company’s Executive Board.

In addition, a media and environment analysis was conducted. Its results were taken into account in the final derivation of the issues that are material to Schaeffler. The Schaeffler Group’s materiality matrix, which was updated accordingly for the reporting year, identifies 17 key issues.

The non-financial risks associated with the material topics are collected and analyzed annually in line with the risk management process. In 2018, the analysis revealed no reportable risks in the reporting year in accordance with CSR-RUG (Section 289c, paragraph 3 German Commercial Code (HGB)). The risk report in the Group management report of the Schaeffler Group provides comprehensive information about the company’s risk management system as well as significant risks that have a medium or high negative impact on assets, finances or income.

Further information on opportunity and risk reporting can be found in the annual report 2018, Page 75 et seq.

Stakeholder dialogs

Through continuous interaction with the relevant stakeholder groups, the Schaeffler Group fosters various dialog formats around the world on current and potential future topics.

Schaeffler’s key stakeholders include its customers, employees, suppliers, and service providers, as well as non-governmental organizations, politics and government agencies, residents, associations, trade unions, investors and analysts, universities, research institutes, and the media.

Examples of successful stakeholder dialogs include customer events like the Schaeffler Colloquium, the Premium Supplier Days supplier event, and the industry-specific product safety days. In addition, the Schaeffler Group interacts with policymakers and is a member of various organizations, such as industry and interest groups.

A complete overview of all memberships is available at www.schaeffler.com/sustainability/memberships 

Stakeholders’ demands on Schaeffler’s sustainability performance are constantly increasing. Against this background, Schaeffler uses multipliers, such as rating platforms and rankings, to report transparently on progress with regard to key topics. For example, the Schaeffler Group has been active on the EcoVadis platform for sustainability assessments in global supply chains since 2016. The goal of EcoVadis’s assessment methodology is to evaluate the quality of a corporate sustainability management system. In doing so, the corresponding guidelines, implementation measures, and results of the company are taken into consideration.

The Schaeffler Group's key topics

In 2018, the Schaeffler Group once again had its sustainability performance evaluated by EcoVadis and achieved the Silver Recognition Level for the second time. The overall result was improved by another ten points to 60 out of 100 points (prior year: 50/100).