Strategy

Global Compact – the Corporate Initiative of the United Nations

Bayer has been among the first signatories of the United Nations Global Compact and their 10 principles in 2000.

UN global compact logo

Through its signature, Bayer has for example committed to

  • support the protection of human rights within its sphere of influence,
  • guarantee international labor standards,
  • improve environmental protection and
  • fight corruption and bribery.
A man with glasses and a beard is smiling.
Bayer will continue to show the way as a LEAD company in the United Nations Global Compact. We believe the UNGC plays an important role in the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals and that multisector engagement is crucial to do so.
Matthias Berninger
Head of Public Affairs & Sustainability

As a signatory Bayer reports each year on the progress they have made in implementing the 10 principles. At Bayer, the Sustainability Report serves as a progress report in which we describe how we embed the 10 principles within our strategies and processes, and what efforts we undertake to support societal priorities. It also meets the requirements of the Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability Leadership Criteria, which have applied at Bayer since we joined the UNGC’s corporate sustainability leadership initiative LEAD in 2011. Here we are active in two platforms.

 

Over the past decade we have steadily expanded our commitment to the Global Compact. For example, we became a signatory to the CEO Water Mandate and the Caring for Climate initiative. And we have signed the Women’s Empowerment Principles, a set of seven principles governing gender equality that sum up how women can be strengthened in the workplace, on the employment market and in the community. In 2019, we joined the Science Based Target Initiative and thus support ambitious goals with respect to the protection of water resources and the climate.

 

To ensure that the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact are anchored in our business operations, we have developed guidelines, policies and company positions that are binding for all employees around the world. This applies equally to our suppliers, whom we obligate to observe the 10 principles worldwide.