Sustainable Development Goals ‏(SDGs)

At Henkel, we are committed to leadership in sustainability – and this commitment is anchored in our company values. We are actively supporting the achievement of the SDGs: The 17 goals represent a significant step forward in understanding the challenges and opportunities that need to be addressed in order to drive progress toward sustainable development.

The SDGs cover the full breadth of sustainability-related issues that are relevant for all stakeholders – both developing and developed nations, businesses as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and parties at all stages of the value chain across all industries and sectors. By providing a common understanding and a shared focus, the SDGs will help structure discussions at national and industry levels, and will support diverse organizations in identifying priorities and entering into meaningful collaboration. This type of collective action is centrally important to success: By joining forces and bringing our individual activities together, we will be able to achieve much stronger progress toward sustainability than we could by acting separately.

Of course, putting the SDGs into action also presents some challenges, as is to be expected from any activity that reflects such a variety of parties with such a broad set of interests – and that confronts challenges with such wide-reaching scope.

It will be essential to prioritize goals, balancing interests and defining contributions at national and industry levels, if we are to make meaningful progress. Stakeholders around the world will need to learn together and identify effective ways to contribute to the 17 goals and their respective targets in a consistent and transparent manner. In particular, it will be important to create clarity on how existing measurement approaches can be leveraged and consolidated to provide meaningful data on progress.

As a company, we are convinced that the goals provide a shared focus that can empower collaborative action and will accelerate progress toward sustainability. Sustainable consumption, packaging and plastics, combating climate change, water, human rights, equal opportunities and education are important topics for our work. By continuously reviewing our companyʼs goals and initiatives, we ensure that these are aligned with the SDG priorities that are relevant for us. Our activities support the SDGs because we have a long history of working intensively on various aspects of sustainability, as well as a broad product portfolio and a presence across diverse markets. In the context of our social commitment, for example, we track the percentage of projects we support that contribute to the achievement of the SDGs.