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Usage of Natural Ressources

11

The company discloses the extent to which natural resources are used for the company’s business activities. Possible options here are materials, the input and output of water, soil, waste, energy, land and biodiversity as well as emissions for the life cycles of products and services.

11

Every company uses natural resources, regardless of whether it manufactures products or creates services. Which resources are used and to what extent vary greatly depending on the industry. Being conscious of which resources your company uses can offer you an entirely new outlook on your business activities and on the opportunities available to you to contribute to sustainable development. For example, supermarkets occupy considerable space, so some have now begun to grass their roofs in order to boost local biodiversity.

What needs to be borne in mind?

This criterion focuses on the use of natural resources throughout a company’s business operations and also during the life cycles of products and services. How these findings are then applied is covered by criterion 12. Here, you should consider your use of materials, space and energy, your use of water, land and air and the pollution you cause with emissions and waste. Service providers should likewise determine which parts of their business operations are especially resource-intensive because energy consumption in offices is by no means negligible due to extensive technology and air conditioning equipment. The topic of resources also extends to the maintenance of biodiversity and the influence that companies have on biodiversity. This might be in the extraction or cultivation of the raw materials they need or in their use of land – an issue in particular for the real estate and petroleum industries, for instance.

Aspect 1:

Give a qualitative account of which natural resources your company primarily uses in its business activities or are affected by its activities.

Aspect 2:

Using the appropriate units of measurement in each case, state the amount of the natural resources which are material to your business operations that your company uses. You can rank the most important resources here.

The term resources encompasses the materials used in or for corporate processes (e.g. fuels and land) and so-called ecosystem services. These services are rendered by natural systems and are used by companies, e.g. groundwater as part of a cooling system or insects that pollinate fruit plantations.

Reporting in line with the German CSR Directive Implementation Act   
(German legislation implementing the Directive 2014/95/EU)

If you also wish to use your Code declaration to comply with the reporting obligation in accordance with the CSR Directive Implementation Act (CSR-RUG), the checklist below will give you guidance regarding how the Code Office checks it for formal completeness. You can provide the relevant information concerning environmental matters under criteria 11 to 13. Questions set in italics are already covered in your responses to the corresponding Code aspects.

1. Report on the management policy pursued:
a.Goals and planned goal achievement time frames (criterion 12, aspect 1, and criterion 13, aspect 1).
b. How corporate governance is incorporated into the policy.
c. Strategies and concrete measures for achieving the goals (criterion 12, Aspect 2, and criterion 13, aspect 3).
d. Internal processes for monitoring implementation of the measures.

2. Report on the results of the policy:
a. Whether and to what extent previous goals were achieved (criterion 12, Aspect 2, and criterion 13, aspect 4).
b. Whether and how it is determined that the policy needs modifying and what conclusions are then drawn.

3. Report on the risks:
a. How the risks were identified and the material risks were filtered out (due diligence processes).
b. Material risks arising from your business activities that are highly likely to have a negative impact on resources and ecosystems (criterion 12, aspect 4).
c. Material risks arising from your business relations that are highly likely to have a negative impact on resources and ecosystems (criterion 12, aspect 4).
d. Material risks arising from your products and services that are highly likely to have a negative impact on resources and ecosystems (criterion 12, aspect 4).

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