Global Compact International Yearbook 2009

Best Practice
Environment
We at Bayer consider climate change to be the most pressing challenge facing the world
today. After all, climate change endangers the natural basis of all our commercial
and social actions. The consequences for company policy are clear – in this time of global
financial and economic crisis in particular, it is crucial that companies set a course that
will steer them towards sustainability. This also involves making a clear commitment
to climate protection. As part of our comprehensive climate program, Bayer is working
to develop solutions across a range of areas that will enable the company to make a
contribution to tackling the challenges posed by climate change.
By Dr. Wolfgang Große Entrup
As a founding member of the UN Global
Compact, we support the objectives and
principles of this initiative wholeheartedly
and are also committed to pursuing
our own initiatives to spread and
implement these goals and principles
worldwide. One central area of activity
is environmental protection. This issue
has long been given high priority at
Bayer. As a company with international
production operations, we believe the
judicious use of natural resources is a
major part of its corporate social responsibility.
This is particularly true when it
comes to climate protection and tackling
climate change.
As an emitter of greenhouse gases, the
company is aware that it is part of the
problem. For that reason, the Group
took steps early on to implement improvements
in its production processes,
introduce new technologies, and opt
for efficient combined heat and power
generation in the field of energy supply.
Between 1990 and 2008, Bayer was
able to reduce its worldwide greenhouse
gas emissions by 38 percent. In 2008,
the company was the only member of
the chemical-pharmaceutical industry
headquartered in Europe to be included
in the Climate Disclosure Leadership
Index four times in a row. The Climate
Disclosure Leadership Index is the first
global climate protection index.
The Bayer
Climate Program
• Clear commitment to climate
protection
• Lighthouse projects in the fields
of buildings, agriculture and
production
• Further measures: company
vehicles, business travel and IT
• Bayer Climate Award and
scholarships
• Expenditure on climate-related
F&E and projects: EUR 1 billion
(2008-2010)
However, Bayer is also part of the solution.
Many of the company’s products
contribute towards cutting energy consumption
and therefore CO2 emissions.
For example, materials from Bayer are
used to provide effective insulation for
houses and refrigerators, and to manufacture
lighter-weight vehicles with lower
levels of consumption. The materials
themselves also display very good energy
credentials – raw materials from
Bayer that are used to manufacture polyurethane
for insulation, for example, save
more than 70 times the energy needed
to produce them in the first place.
The Bayer Climate Program
Bayer is keen on playing an even more
prominent role in addressing the climate
issue and pursuing climate protection
goals. To that end, the company launched
the Bayer Climate Program at the end of
2007. Scheduled to continue for several
years, the program clusters the many and
varied skills of the subgroups and service
companies with the aim of boosting
climate protection. Between 2008 and
2010, Bayer will invest EUR 1 billion in
climate-relevant research and development
and various projects.
The first lighthouse projects implemented
under the auspices of the Bayer Climate
Program are the EcoCommercial Build-
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