Strategy and Management

Stakeholder dialogue

The achievement of sustainable development goals requires society-spanning communication and cooperation – be it at the site, nationally or internationally. In this context, we work in a constant process of interaction with many different societal groups, including investors, customers, analysts, political decision-makers, employees, representatives from the supply and value chains, and non-governmental organizations. After all, our stakeholders determine the success of our business to a great extent. They have a central impact on the framework conditions that we are subject to – be it the financing of our business, our public image, or ultimately the success of our products.

Systematic stakeholder dialogue

We therefore systematically seek out dialogue with our stakeholders. Active and differentiated communication with various stakeholder groups is a major component of our corporate strategy. We see it as an opportunity to adapt to new requirements at an early stage and to avoid the associated risks and exploit opportunities. We want this cooperation to create value-added for both parties. We take stakeholder suggestions seriously and incorporate them into our planning and decision-making processes.

Von Stakeholdern gewünschte Formen der Einbindung in die Nachhaltigkeitsarbeit

In addition to our conventional media, we maintain direct dialogue with our stakeholders at all levels of the Bayer Group and in all subgroups and service companies. This discourse covers both Bayer’s sustainable development strategy and specific themes: on site at Bayer, such as at the international supplier day in Leverkusen

or at the national and international level, such as with the climate policy

. Bayer pursues dialogue, for example, in numerous multi-stakeholder initiatives, in national and international councils, at specialist workshops, in the context of public-private partnerships, at trade fairs, during podium discussions and lectures, and with various stakeholder groups.

Through our membership in national, European and international industry associations, we contribute our expertise in a constructive and dialogue-oriented manner to specialist and political discussions such as those relating to biomonitoring. As an organizational stakeholder of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), we support the further development of sustainability reporting and advocate a transparent and comparable reporting system.

Regular stakeholder surveys

Through regular surveys, we aim to determine the expectations and assessments of our stakeholders so as to derive from this information impulses for our sustainable development activities. In this connection, the Bayer Sustainable Development Report is an important communication tool. In the first global survey of our most important stakeholders, which was conducted at the beginning of 2007, we received valuable insight into the acceptance of our sustainable development activities and into themes that are considered to be particularly interesting (for the results, see the Sustainable Development Report 2006

In August 2007, we surveyed the German readers of our Sustainable Development Report. This survey found that more than 84 percent considered the publication to be good or even very good. The respondents had clear opinions not just on the quality of the report, but also on the activities of the Bayer Group: More than 80 percent consider our sustainability management to be good or very good. This figure shows us that our sustainable development strategy is in line with the concerns of our stakeholders.

To ensure that this continues to be the case, we entrusted an external institute with the task of carrying out a detailed telephone survey of important international stakeholders (analysts, customers, consultants, suppliers, NGOs, associations/industry federations, scientists, government agencies) at the beginning of 2008. The desired themes listed by the stakeholders as regards our sustainable development strategy are comparable with the expectations on our reporting: In both cases, the climate and environment are key focus areas. With regard to involvement in our sustainable development activities, the stakeholders prefer dialogue in small, theme-oriented groups to major podium discussions or Internet forums.

Our employees are also important to us as stakeholders: Managerial employees throughout the Bayer Group are surveyed approximately every two years

while all employees are surveyed by their respective subgroups and service companies at regular intervals

Themenwünsche der Stakeholders für zukünftige Nachhaltigkeitsberichte