Global printing equipment manufacturer Heidelberg has been confirmed as a participant in the UN Global Compact, regarded as the world’s largest and most important initiative for sustainable and responsible corporate governance.
Launched in 2000, the UN Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to get businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. Based on 10 universal principles and the 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nations, the UN Global Compact pursues the vision of an inclusive and sustainable economy. More than 21,000 companies and organisations in over 160 countries are already signatories to the UN Global Compact.
Heidelberg has actively identified sustainability as key part of its strategic orientation and a basis for its ‘long-term economic success’. Business activities are claimed as being harmonised with ecological aspects and fair working conditions. To this end, the company has committed itself to climate neutrality (Scope 1 and 2, excluding Scope 3) at its production, development and sales sites by 2030. Priority is being given to increasing energy efficiency, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and ‘substantially’ increasing the share of in-house electricity production through renewable energies – the group’s largest photovoltaic system was commissioned at its Amstetten site in Austria this past September. Any remaining carbon dioxide emissions that cannot be avoided by means of optimisation measures will be neutralised in the future by so-called ‘means of voluntary compensation’. From 2040, Heidelberg aims to manage without offsetting (Scope 1 and 2, without Scope 3).
By joining the UN Global Compact, Heidelberg is underlining its commitment to aligning its corporate strategy with the UN Global Compact’s 10 sustainability principles on hu[1]man rights, labour standards, environmental protection and anti-corruption.
Heidelberg CEO Dr Ludwin Monz said, ‘We see our participation in the UN Global Compact as a logical step in our efforts to have the smallest ecological footprint along the entire value chain in our industry. The company has already actively promoted environmental protection and social responsibility in the past and will further strengthen these efforts by becoming part of the UN Global Compact.’
