Organization
Management Structures
Wacker Chemie AG’s four-member Executive Board oversees the Group’s strategies, resources, infrastructure and organizational structure. Below the Executive Board, which is highest decision-making authority, there are various committees whose membership spans several organizational sectors and legal entities. These committees ensure that corporate strategies are implemented groupwide.
Coordinating Sustainability at WACKER
The Group Leadership Team (GLT) discusses strategically important topics, analyzes possible trends affecting markets and our competitors, and discusses key topics not directly connected with day-to-day business. The GLT comprises the Executive Board, business-division presidents and corporate-department heads.
The Executive Board has convened a Sustainability Council to monitor and coordinate the sustainability strategy. Its members, who are drawn from the business divisions and corporate departments, rate the company’s sustainability performance. The Sustainability Council coordinates measures across different departments and reviews the progress made.
The main forums for environment, health, safety (EHS) and product safety (PS) are the annual Corporate Environment, Health, Safety & Product Safety (EHS & PS) Meetings and EHS & PS Strategy Meetings, led by the Executive Board member responsible for EHS & PS.
Personnel policies are dealt with monthly in the HR Strategy Meeting, while employee health is addressed once a year by the Health Promotion Steering Committee – both are chaired by WACKER’s personnel director.
The Raw Materials Conference and the WOS (Wacker Operating System) Conference focus on the Group’s productivity projects and goals. The Group Innovation Meeting deals with innovation strategies and projects.
At the operational level, dedicated units such as the corporate and divisional Sustainability departments, HR and Procurement & Logistics are responsible for managing sustainability issues. In addition, special functions are in place to manage individual issues such as compliance, EHS & PS, and human rights.
Personnel Responsibility
Our compliance organization focuses on compliance with legal requirements and internal company regulations. The Chief Compliance Officer supervises and supports a network of regional compliance officers.
Responsibility for the environment, health, safety, trade compliance, hazardous materials and product stewardship lies with the Group coordinators, who report directly to the Executive Board and define groupwide standards in the shape of goals and processes. Alongside the Group coordinators, WACKER has legally mandated officers for managing specific areas in the respective regions (for example, in Germany, there are incidents officers as well as liaison officers for disabled staff).
Workplace and plant safety are vitally important for WACKER. That is why WACKER defines safety targets for its executives in Germany (in upper and middle management) during its annual target-setting process. These are personal goals (mandatory mostly for executives in production-related areas) and are incorporated into performance assessments.
The Executive Board appoints a Human Rights Officer, who plays a key role in elaborating and updating the company’s human rights strategy, risk management system, general declaration and reporting system. The Human Rights Officer also advises the units in question and proposes corrective action. In exercising these functions, the Human Rights Officer is independent and not bound by any instructions.
Integrated Management System
We control operational processes via our integrated management system (IMS). This system defines uniform standards for quality, energy, environmental protection, and health and safety across the Group. We have our Group management system certified by an international certification organization to ensure its compliance with ISO 9001 (quality) and ISO 14001 (environment) and, at our German sites, also with ISO 50001 (energy). We align our processes and standards relating to occupational health and safety with the international ISO 45001 standard. Our site in Jincheon, South Korea, has been certified to this standard.
Our Group certification program helps us adhere to statutory and customer-related requirements and to our own corporate standards at all of our sites. Almost every one of our production sites is included in the ISO 9001 (quality) and ISO 14001 (environment) Group certificates. Not included are: Wacker Biotech B.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands; Wacker Biotech US Inc., San Diego, California, USA; Wacker Biotech GmbH, Halle and Jena, Germany; and Wacker Dymatic Silicones (Shunde) Co., Ltd., Foshan City and Zhangjiagang City, China. There are corresponding single certificates for the Tsukuba site of Wacker Asahi Kasei Silicone Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. In the coming years, our production sites in Panagarh, India, and Shandong, China, will be included in the Group standards.
Aside from these traditional management standards, WACKER has many individual products certified to the FSSC 22000 (food) and EFfCI GMP (cosmetics) standards. For example, our silicone-producing facilities in Burghausen and Nünchritz (Germany), Adrian, Michigan (USA), Jandira (Brazil) and Zhangjiagang (China) have been certified to the EFfCI cosmetics standard. As a result, these five sites also meet the requirements of the ISO 22716 standard for the cosmetics industry. The site in Tsukuba, Japan, is already certified to this standard. Certifying our products according to Islamic and Jewish dietary standards (halal and kosher) is becoming increasingly relevant.
Our mass-balance products are certified to the REDcert2 standard for the chemical industry. These products make a key contribution to sustainability since we manufacture them without fossil raw materials. As a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which promotes sustainable palm-oil cultivation methods, we also have our products at the Burghausen and Nünchritz sites audited against the RSPO Supply Chain Certification Standard 2020. In the reporting year, we had our HDK® licensed in accordance with the requirements of the V-Label, the European Vegetarian Union’s standardized seal of approval for vegetarian and vegan products and services. All certificates are available for download at:
Controlling Instruments
At WACKER, 22 groupwide regulations govern topics of overarching significance for the company. They concern management, organization and collaboration, law and compliance, strategy and business processes as well as financing, controlling, accounting and taxes. Numerous other controlled documents regulate processes for environmental and health protection, plant and workplace safety, and product safety, at a Group, regional and site-specific level.
We use our sustainability reporting system (SPIRIT) to record environmentally relevant and safety-related events, to plan internal and external audits and coordinate the implementation of measures as part of our Integrated Management System (IMS).
Productivity Programs
High productivity is a key factor in WACKER’s success. WACKER boosts productivity along the entire supply chain via its Wacker Operating System (WOS) program. Our goal is to continue to reduce specific operating costs and CO2 emissions every year. WOS results are regularly reported to the Executive Board. In recent years, we have worked through well over 1000 projects relating to our operating activities and corporate departments. The focus of WOS was on improving our
- Plant utilization levels
- Specific energy consumption
- Raw-material yields
- Labor productivity
- Specific maintenance costs
- Carbon footprint
Risk and Compliance Management
Risk and compliance management are an integral part of corporate management at WACKER. As a global company, we are exposed to numerous risks directly attributable to our operational activities. Starting from an acceptable level of overall risk, the Executive Board decides which risks we should take to utilize opportunities available to the company.
We refer you to the Risk Management Report for a detailed description of corporate risk management and compliance management.
