Sustainability Management
We see sustainable action as an integral part of our business activities – across all processes,
departments and areas of responsibility. Crucial to this is our understanding of sustainability as a
continuous process that requires us to consistently pursue and regularly review our defined goals.
In addition to evaluating what we have achieved, this is also based on being receptive to external
impulses and developments. Over the past few years we have seen how effective we can be when we
pursue our strategy with conviction. This incentivizes us as much as the increased expectations
placed in us – be it by our own employees, our customers or the regulatory authorities.
Reducing and managing our own emissions as well as those along the supply chain remains of crucial
importance for our sustainability agenda. Our climate protection target, validated by the
independent Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), sets the direction and is part of our
contribution to achieving national and global targets in the fight against climate change. At the
same time, our sustainability management also focuses on other important issues, such as respecting
human rights along the entire supply chain and ensuring comprehensive occupational safety for our
employees.
All of this is to be seen against the background of a challenging economic and geopolitical
environment. The closely intertwined global logistics sector has just recently emerged from the
massive stress test that was the coronavirus pandemic, combined with numerous old and new challenges
such as the war in Ukraine, a sharp rise in energy costs, record inflation, the growing shortage of
skilled labor and an ongoing tense situation, for example with regard to the supply of parts for
automotive production. Within the scope of our sustainability action, we take these and other
developments and events into account, for example in our time scheduling. One thing, however,
remains unchanged, and that is our long-term ambition to strike a balance between economic
performance, social commitment and responsibility for the environment. By giving consideration to
all three of these aspects in equal measure, we gain a holistic understanding of the opportunities,
challenges and interdependencies – and on this basis can act responsibly in all matters relating to
sustainability.
Our commitment builds on the three pillars ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL and ECONOMIC. We explain on pages
14 and 15 which specific fields of action we have assigned to each of these pillars and where and to
what extent we are influencing sustainable change. In doing so, we are also guided by external
objectives and frameworks. For example, on August 30, 2022, we signed the UN Global Compact,
committing ourselves to integrating its ten principles into our corporate strategy, culture and
day-to-day operations. This also includes preparing an annual progress report, which we will submit
for the first time in 2023. More detailed information about our material topics is provided in the
Materiality Analysis section.
Responsibilities and management accounting
Responsibility for monitoring, improving and implementing our sustainability management lies with
our central Sustainability department, which also prepares this report. This is also where the
sustainability-related activities from the AUTOMOBILE and CONTRACT Divisions are clustered, and the
department is also responsible for calculating our energy and CO2 footprint as well as supporting
cross-divisional energy management. The team acts as an interface and generates important
initiatives and ideas, driving sustainability throughout the company. Of particular importance in
this connection is the development and implementation of sustainability targets and the selection of
appropriate standards. This also involves the Sustainability Board (SSB) set up in 2021 to drive the
cross-divisional expansion of our sustainability strategy. Representatives from the Sustainability,
Legal/Compliance, Purchasing, Financial Services/Investor Relations, Risk Management, Human
Resources, Safety & Environmental Protection as well as Quality and Environmental Management central
departments meet in this framework to discuss goals, developments and new requirements relating to
sustainability issues and to transport these topics into the organization as a whole. To accommodate
the wider range of topics, we have increased the frequency of these meetings from initially once
every three months to every two months. The SSB makes an important contribution to anchoring
sustainability across the whole of the company.
In recognition of the growing importance of sustainability for BLG, as well as the increased legal
requirements, we decided in the reporting year to define the area as an independent central
department and assign it to the Finance department. This step also followed in the wake of the drive
above all by the EU to set financial and sustainability reporting on an equal footing, as reflected
in the recently adopted Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Since October 2022, the
central Sustainability department has therefore reported directly to our CFO Christine Hein.
Aspects of social sustainability, and specifically the interests of our employees, are the
responsibility of the central Human Resources department, represented on the Board of Management in
the reporting year by our Labor Relations Director. We can only act sustainably across the board if
our employees share our goals and get on board. To achieve this, we rely on feedback and dialog. Our
staff are given regular opportunities for feedback to the Board of Management and management staff,
for example under the umbrella of our culture change initiative #SuccessDependsOnEverybody – with
the sites submitting around 700 questions from employees during the current roadshow, some of which
were answered directly. The remainder were subsequently made available to all employees by email and
app. All told, the roadshow visited 42 sites throughout Germany, as well as branch offices in
Poland, Slovenia and the US. Our employee app WIR ALLE@BLG, which is also available to international
colleagues as ALL OF US@BLG, allows a continuous exchange in digital form. For more information
about people at BLG and our role as an employer, please refer to the SOCIAL section.
Values, guidelines and management systems
Our corporate values committed, respectful, passionate, responsible and open to change not only form
the basis of our shared culture; they also serve as guideposts for our sustainability management. A
recently revised set of guidelines maps the legal and ethical standards to which we have committed.
This not only provides guidance for our employees in their day-to-day work, but also clearly
communicates our expectations to partners and suppliers. Our overarching compliance system ensures
adherence to laws and principles (more information in the respective section).
Our sustainability strategy is also flanked by tried-and-tested and in many cases certified
management systems. These relate to quality management, environmental management, energy management,
and occupational health and safety management. A management system is also in place for compliance.
More details are provided in the relevant sections. We detail the main elements of our corporate
governance structures in our Corporate Governance Report, which simultaneously constitutes the
corporate governance statement pursuant to Section 289a of the German Commercial Code (HGB). This
focuses on the corresponding statement by the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board and
significant corporate governance practices that go beyond the statutory requirements. It also explains the procedures of the Board of Management and Supervisory Board, including their composition. For more information, see the
Governance section, as well as the Financial Report.
Rankings and recognitions
Our retail logistics business area is a member of the Advisory Board of the Lean & Green non-profit
initiative. Having received the Lean & Green Award in 2015, we in the meantime rank among the Lean &
Green 1st Star winners in recognition of our significant reduction in CO2 emissions in recent years.
We again received honors in the reporting year, including FOCUS news magazine’s TOP CLIMATE
COMMITMENT 2023 seal and as one of eight German companies recognized by the FOR OUR PLANET
initiative in the “Traffic, transportation and logistics” category.
We also consider it important to regularly engage independent external agencies to evaluate our
sustainability performance, and again in 2022 achieved another silver CSR rating from EcoVadis. We
are among the top 25 percent of the companies evaluated by EcoVadis and within our industry even
belong to the top 13 percent. For the second time, we disclosed our emission data to the Carbon
Disclosure Project (CDP) in the reporting year. While in the first round a condensed format was
sufficient, in the reporting year we responded to the entire catalog of questions relating to
climate change and were given a level “C” ranking, which corresponds to the industry average.
