Targets

We strive to keep the impacts of our production on people, nature and the environment as low as possible and to avoid incidents with negative environmental impacts.

Group target: no incidents with relevant environmental impact

By this, we mean that regular operation of plants and breakdowns must not have a harmful impact on the environment. For this reason, we voluntarily set ourselves the target every year of reducing the frequency and severity of incidents to avoid the release of emissions and critical substances and so that any potential danger for people and the environment is kept to an absolute minimum. The relevance of incidents in terms of their environmental impact is classified and assessed centrally by the group coordinator. This assessment is based on the specific impacts on air, water and soil and also takes into account public awareness and the environmental cost related to the incident.

We classify incidents according to environmental severity levels (ESLs) that are defined using criteria standardized across the Group as incidents with low to relevant impacts and are assessed according to legally regulated evaluation benchmarks. We carry out a systematic analysis of incidents and establish suitable actions to avoid similar occurrences going forward. Monitoring is carried out by the Group Coordinator for the Environment using our groupwide reporting tool.

Six incidents assessed as environmentally relevant occurred in the reporting year, though none involved either a hazard or damage.

Group target: no severe plant-safety incidents

WACKER has also voluntarily set itself a target of keeping the impacts of our production on people, nature and the environment as low as possible. Our aim is for the year under review to be another year in which no severe plant-safety incidents were recorded (zero incident target). By this, we mean all incidents that are relevant in terms of safety, health and the environment and which are classified in line with the criteria set out by Cefic (the European Chemical Industry Council; Cefic Guidance for Reporting on The ICCA Globally Harmonized Safety Metric) into categories of WACKER Process Safety Incidents (WPSIs) and assessed as level 1 or 2.

We calculate incident frequency in the form of an indicator we refer to as the WACKER Process Safety Incident Rate (WPSIR), which is defined as the number of relevant safety incidents per 1 million working hours. Here we focus on severe plant-safety incidents, which could lead to the release of emissions and critical substances to soil, air or water.

The relevance of the impacts of plant-safety incidents is classified and assessed centrally by the Group’s Safety function on the basis of specific criteria (including accident severity, substance release), while also taking into account public awareness and the costs associated with the incident.

No incident considered a severe plant-safety incident occurred in the year under review.