Companies do not operate in an isolated vacuum. Since entrepreneurial action needs widespread consent and support, regular and open dialog with all stakeholders is one of our business principles. We believe that dialog offers us a major opportunity to prepare for new challenges promptly, avoid risks and realize our full potential.
WACKER is in constant communication with a wide range of stakeholder groups throughout the world: employees, customers, suppliers, analysts, investors, journalists, scientists, neighbors, politicians, and representatives from various associations, public authorities and non-governmental organizations. We conduct this dialog through many outreach activities – by WACKER’s top executives, managers, sites and departments. The focus is always on face-to-face discussions, i.e. on direct contact. What’s more, we communicate with stakeholders through publications (annual report, press releases, employee newspaper, etc.), special events (open-house days, supplier days, investor roadshows, etc.), tradeshows, committee work and lectures.
In 2008, we asked stakeholders for their opinions about WACKER’s sustainability efforts. Using phone and face-to-face interviews, a consultancy surveyed around 30 representatives of stakeholder groups, asking how they judged our sustainability performance and where they saw room for improvement. The survey evaluation gave WACKER a very high sustainability rating both on the part of our employees and external stakeholders. Furthermore, our reputation is especially strong among customers and the political community.
Our stakeholder groups gave WACKER a “good to excellent” rating for the following areas: job security, climate change, environmental protection during site/facility expansions, careful resource consumption, and renewable raw materials. They pinpointed the following as tomorrow’s challenges: demographic change, environmental standards in the supply chain, and the harmonization of social and ecological standards at all corporate locations. WACKER intends to continue improving stakeholder communications and to gain a more systematic focus through structured surveys.
