Sustainability Report 2019/2020

Creating tomorrow’s solutions

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Vision & Goals

Management

As head of Corporate Development, Dr. Martina Schulze-Adams is responsible for sustainability management at the WACKER Group. We don’t consider sustainability to be a fad. The opposite is true, as sustainability has been firmly anchored in our business processes for years. As experts in integrated production, we are striving for circular solutions that apply not only within our sites, but also beyond our factory gates.

Vision & Goals

Pandemic Management

Pandemic Management

The coronavirus pandemic has had a substantial impact on all our lives. Dr. Jürgen Commeßmann, head of WACKER’s Health Services, has taken numerous precautions and adopted measures to safeguard employees’ health, limit the risk of infection, flatten infection curves and thus keep the business running.

Feature

Key Figures

Key Figures

Research & Development

156.6 million

spent on R&D in 2020

Research & Development

4,200 active patents

and 1,400 patent applications currently pending

Sustainable Products

Environment

70 percent

of steam needed at the Nünchritz site is obtained through heat recovery

Production & Safety

>95 percent

of hydrogen chloride is recycled in our closed production loops

Integrated Production

Products

90 percent

of our products are assessed for sustainability based on the criteria of the WACKER Sustainable Solutions program

Product Assessment

Up to 100 percent

of the fossil raw materials needed to manufacture selected product lines have been replaced by sustainable, certified biomass

Sustainable Products

Energy

Production & Safety

We have optimized the integrated energy production system at our Nünchritz site and achieved a substantial increase in the heat recovery ratio. Construction site manager Jürgen Peterle, project manager René Münch and plant manager Lutz Gruschinski (from left to right) at the 1,500-meter long steam main that closes the energy loop at the Nünchritz site.

Energy

Vocational Training

Employees

Our Burghausen Vocational Training Center (BBiW) is getting the virtual working world into the training workshops. With their HoloLens (3D goggles) and tablets, apprentices can monitor processes in production facilities. Using virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), they learn to use digital processes and test their skills with the virtual welding simulator.

Vocational Training

Sustainable Products

Production & Safety

It is more sustainable to produce vaccines using bacterial systems than, for example, using chicken eggs. We have added new classes of actives to our portfolio. For instance, the team at Wacker Biotech US Inc., based in San Diego, CA, is developing nucleic acid-based gene therapies and vaccines.

Sustainable Products

Water

Production & Safety

Bernhard Fenzl from the Water Protection unit of the Environmental Protection Department in Burghausen takes regular samples of the water in the Alz canal. Under our water stewardship program, our business divisions and sites commit to using water resources responsibly throughout the entire supply chain.

Water

Environmental Compatibility

Products

At the WACKER Technical Center in Shanghai, Jonas Yin is working on silicone-based thermal interface materials for electric cars, consumer electronics and the telecommunications industry. Our innovative technologies help cut energy consumption and conserve resources. Our goal is that, by 2030, 90 percent of our products should make a neutral or positive contribution to sustainability in accordance with the criteria of the WACKER Sustainable Solutions program.

Product Assessment

Employees

Employees

If it is to remain innovative and competitive, WACKER needs committed and skilled workers – like the plant fire department team at Burghausen, our largest site. We need every employee’s skills and dedication. Their diversity and qualifications enhance our company’s performance.

Employees