In order to comply with international reporting standards and ensure comparability with other companies, our report takes its lead from the latest guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI G3). This can be seen in our
GRI index.
We ourselves rate the extent to which the GRI G3 guidelines have been met as A+. For us, it was crucial that our main sustainability themes are derived from the GRI principles for determining the content of the report (materiality, stakeholder inclusiveness, sustainability context and completeness). As a result, the report’s organisation and content reflect our sustainability strategy as well as external analyses and insights gained from talks with our stakeholders.
The report is divided into a company portrait, a description of the challenges we face in the various sustainability-related areas, an explanation of the strategy derived from these challenges and from our core area of business, and a section on our sustainability programme. This is followed by a description of our strategic management approach. After this are three chapters in which we explain in depth how we are living up to our responsibility toward the environment, our employees and society. This section is supplemented by a comprehensive range of data tables.
Scope and method of the report
The 2009/2010 Sustainability Report concerns the business years 2009 and 2010 of the Heidelberg-Cement Group, with each business year extending from 1st January to 31st December. The key financial figures included in this report correspond to those in the Group annual accounts and management report of HeidelbergCement’s Annual Report for 2010. This is also the case with the key figures concerning our workforce and occupational safety. For the environmental and occupational safety data, we have drawn up the report in line with the guidelines of the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI). The guidelines are available in full at
www.wbcsdcement.org This year marks the first time that a selection of the cement business line’s key figures on environmental protection and occupational safety were subject to an independent review, as required by our membership in CSI. The review also fulfils the wish of our stakeholders to have key indicators independently verified.
Data collection
We collect data at the level of individual facilities with the help of specific methods and systems. Internal reporting and consolidation are conducted by central electronic KPI data management systems at the Group, where the key figures are also checked to determine their credibility and completeness.
Standardised Group-wide definitions of all of the relevant key figures are available on the intranet, as are the procedural guidelines for the reporting processes.
Publication
This Sustainability Report is published in German and English. The editorial deadline was 29th July 2011. The last report was published in August 2009. In line with the two-year reporting cycle, the next printed Sustainability Report will appear in 2013. We will make updated data and information available on our website in 2012.
Disclaimer
The information and key figures contained in this report were collected with great care. All of the report’s content was checked by the responsible employees. We cannot fully exclude the possibility that information might be incorrect. The information contained in the report is not intended to represent an assessment of compliance with applicable laws, regulations or accepted industry sustainability practices.