Reporting of tracked indicators
2021 is the first year of our second 5-year reporting cycle and it is the baseline for the period 2021-2025. In the new reporting cycle, Bühler intends to expand the transparency of its operations by disclosing a greater amount of key performance indicators (KPI’s) in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. In total, 56 KPI’s have been disclosed this year, with the intention to increase it over the course of the reporting cycle. Following the inclusion of the former Haas company, we have now expanded the scope of environmental tracked indicators to include all 30 manufacturing sites and the accompanying offices.
Additional focus has been placed on two key improvement areas during 2021. The first is building and implementing a more rigorous tracking and action plan to reduce the CO₂ footprint of our 30 manufacturing locations. The second has been to quantify the impact of our technologies and services and the CO₂e (CO₂ equivalent) footprint of our customers.
The following reporting is based on full calendar year data, providing a basis for more reliable absolute figures. Throughout the year, we have overcome the constraints of the Covid-19 pandemic to achieve several notable improvements apparent in the tracked indicators.
Bühler’s focus on employee health and safety
Bühler’s dedicated Health & Safety team followed a two-pronged focus in 2021. The first focus was to inform and protect all employees from the Covid-19 pandemic. The second was to maintain the high health and safety standards established at sites and all areas of the business.
To maintain and increase the high safety culture, training, and awareness modules have been released to complement the existing content available to all Bühler sites. This includes the establishment and roll-out of the Bühler’s 10 Lifesaving Rules and our TAKE FIVE campaigns, which emphasize that taking five minutes to assess how safety can save lives.
Bühler’s accidents occurrence rate has remained below one over the past year through actions aimed at increasing safety awareness of employees. More details about Bühler’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and the support provided to employees, can be found in the Our people section.
Measuring and managing the CO₂ equivalent footprint of Bühler locations
Bühler has expanded the reporting of its emission inventory in 2021 to include several Scope 3 subcategories. With this, Bühler takes greater ownership of its emissions and management of them to be in line with the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.
Bühler has continued to carry over material topics from the previous reporting cycle. For example, the focus to decarbonize the energy mix procured has remained a top priority with 15 of the 30 sites procuring certified renewable electricity, while the number of sites using self-generated renewable electricity has increased to five.
More information on the subject can be found in the management approach of Emissions as well as the Energy, Water, and Waste management approach.
Bühler’s commitment to compliance
Bühler’s commitment to remain compliant and address issues which could compromise its business practices and those of its stakeholders has always been a top priority. Moving into the new reporting period, it continues to remain so with further steps taken to build strong governance and awareness of the conduct of actions. This is reflected in the tracked indicators.
The drive for stronger social responsibility is reflected in the high percentage (> 92% in all regions) of our global employees who have completed the required compliance training. This was achieved through a coordinated program across all functions and businesses.
Not reflected in the tracked indicators is the success of a new cybersecurity training module which has been released and widely adopted to curb the risk of corporate espionage and risks of ransomware or malware attacks. With compulsory training about the risks of phishing, the click rate potential phishing emails has fallen to a self-determined manageable level. However, Bühler intends to further improve in this area as it is seen as a high risk.
More information about Bühler’s commitment to compliance can be found in the Governance section.
Innovation aligned to our goals
In 2019, Bühler made the announcement that it will have viable solutions ready to reduce energy, water, and waste by 50% in its customers’ value chains by 2025. Major steps have been made to quantify the impact of solutions, technologies, and services in our customers’ value chains. Additional KPIs have been included to provide transparency on the progress.
From the partnerships we engage in, to the percentage of solutions which are being quantified for reductions in energy, waste, water and CO₂e, our stakeholders can see the progress being made internally, and the assessment of the impact resulting from our actions beyond the boundaries of our company at our partners and customers.
In 2019 we mandated that Research & Development (R&D) projects must contribute to our targets of 50% reduction in waste, water and energy consumption at our customers sites or improved access to nutrition. In 2022 we will complete the upgrade of our R&D project management system and implement new tracking of our project portfolio to track our progress. These will be reported in Annual Report 2022.
More about Bühler’s commitments to collaborate and innovate for a better world can be found in Quantification of our CO₂ impact and examples can be found in Our impact on CO₂e.
Partnering to accelerate impact
In the new reporting period, Bühler benefited from existing partnerships and created new partnerships to gain access to the skills and capabilities to deliver our targets for business growth and sustainability impact hand in hand. Partnerships are counted that have contracts in place, require resource allocation, both financial and human from both parties and result in an acceleration of impact. Partnerships are reported in more detail in the section Partnerships with purpose.
Engaged, informed employees and an inclusive culture of continuous learning
In the new reporting period, Bühler has expanded its reporting of social KPI’s to reflect the integration of our core values of Trust, Ownership, and Passion (TOP) into the business. This includes the focus on fostering a fair and equal workplace for all through the Bühler Diversity & Inclusion program. With programs such as the Beyond Bias workshop series or the Women in STEM initiative, we aim to nurture an inclusive diverse work culture for all employees, partners, and customers. Learning & development remains a key pillar and receives increased focus at Bühler. The apprenticeship programs and network of training schools are complemented by learning and development modules on our global B-Learning portal. Training is available for employees, customers, and partners.
The Bühler D25 strategy includes the defined targets for HR, and these are reflected in the tracked KPIs.
This year, Bühler reported a defined set of HR KPIs as “where we stand” and will further elaborate on refining these KPIs as “where we want to be”, with the setting of annual targets, actions to reach them and support to the business with data which helps to drive profitability. The focus this year was to improve data quality and establish the foundation for the integration of S4/Hana into the reporting system, while continuing to promote transparency of these KPI’s among all employees.
More information on how Bühler fosters a TOP culture and actions towards it can be found in the Our people section.
Commitment to transparency
Recognizing the importance of best industry practices and the need to undergo Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) rating exercises, Bühler has continued to undergo certification by recognized industry bodies such as EcoVadis, CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) and the Drive Sustainability Program. As well as undergoing several on-site assessment programs, such as ISO 9001; ISO 14001; ISO 45001; SEDEX (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange) / SMETA (SEDEX Members Ethical Trade Audit) 4-pillar.
More detail on the work done to be drive transparency can be found under Certificates.
This material references as declared are Disclosure 201- 1 from GRI 201: ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE 2016; Disclosures 205-1 and 205-2 from GRI 205: ANTI-CORRUPTION 2016; Disclosure 303-1 from GRI 302: ENERGY 2016; Disclosure 303-1 from GRI 303: WATER AND EFFLUENTS 2018; Disclosures 305-1, 305-2, 305-3 and 305-4 from GRI 305: EMISSIONS 2016; Disclosures 306-3, 303-4 and 303-5 from GRI 306: WASTE 2020; Disclosure 307-1 from GRI 307: ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE 2016; Disclosure 308-1 from GRI 308: SUPPLIER ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT 2016; Disclosure 401-1 from GRI 401: EMPLOYMENT 2016; Disclosure 403-4 from GRI 403: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY 2018; Disclosure 404-1 from GRI 404: TRAINING AND EDUCATION 2016; Disclosure 405-1 from GRI 405: DIVERSITY AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY 2016; Disclosure 419-1 from GRI 419: SOCIOECONOMIC COMPLIANCE 2016.
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