2.1. Sustainability Strategy

The basis for reporting is to raise sustainability activities to the strategic level of the company. They should go hand in hand with the corporate values and the corporate mission statement. A sustainability strategy describes the sustainability goals a company wants to achieve, and which measures are taken to implement them. It helps a company to communicate its sustainability activities more clearly to its investors and other stakeholders. As part of the strategy development process, the main fields of action should be identified, initiatives for implementation should be outlined and the anchoring within the company should be determined. The development process is individual for each company and depends on the decision as to how intensively the topic of sustainability is to be implemented.

The difference to a traditional corporate strategy from an economic point of view is the analysis of the impact of the company on the environment and society (inside-out perspective) and the impact of environmental risks on the company (outside-in perspective), the so-called “double materiality” (see section 2, item 2.2 The concept of double materiality). Just like the responsibility for the strategic orientation of a company, the sustainability strategy also lies with the board of directors or the management.

2 First steps on the path to a green transformation