Sustainability is an integral part of our entire business and extends to all processes, departments and responsibilities. We strive to continually improve in this area and regularly check whether we are achieving our goals. It is important to us to analyze the progress made and to remain open to external impulses and developments at all times. The past few years have shown that the consistent implementation of our strategy is successful. This success, but also the increasing expectations of our customers and employees, as well as the stricter legal requirements, motivate us to continue on our chosen path.
Reducing and managing our own emissions and those along our supply chain remain central elements of our sustainability strategy. Our climate protection target, which has been validated by the independent Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), forms the basis of this. In order to make an even greater contribution to achieving national and global climate objectives, at the end of 2023 we decided to tighten this target once again and align it with the 1.5°C target laid down in the Paris Climate Agreement. Validation of this renewed target by SBTi is still pending as of the reporting date. In addition, our sustainability management includes other key issues, such as the protection of human rights along the supply chains and the guarantee of comprehensive occupational health and safety for our employees.
Our economic and geopolitical environment remains challenging. After an overall weak economic year in 2023, the global economy continued to grow at a very moderate pace in 2024. Global industrial production and trade in goods lost considerable momentum, particularly in the second half of the year. While private consumption and the related services provided a positive stimulus in the last quarter of 2024, these were held back by the geopolitically uncertain situation. In addition, we are facing increasing customer demands in terms of speed, agility and quality of delivery, while environmental awareness is also increasing in society, as are customer expectations when it comes to climate protection. The shortage of skilled workers also remains an important issue. These and other changes in the framework conditions – as well as any needs that may arise therefrom – are incorporated into our work on sustainability without changing what lies at the core of our projects and objectives. At the same time, the fact that implementation is sometimes delayed together with the lack of binding legislation in the area of sustainability management lead to uncertainties when it comes to implementation and planning for companies.
Our long-term goal remains to combine economic performance, social commitment and environmental responsibility. By looking at these three perspectives equally, we create a holistic understanding of opportunities, challenges and interactions that enables us to act responsibly in all areas. Our sustainability management is accordingly based on the three ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL and ECONOMIC pillars. As part of an update to the 2021 materiality analysis, these pillars have been assigned the current specific fields of action where we are driving sustainable change forwards. This strategic orientation of our sustainability management was comprehensively reviewed once again in the reporting year against the background of the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The results of our double materiality analysis, in accordance with the requirements laid down in the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), are currently being further processed and will provide an essential basis for our future sustainability management concept. Further information on updating our material topics according to CSRD can be found in the Materiality Analysis section.
Our commitment is also guided by external initiatives and frameworks. For example, back in 2022 we signed the United Nations Global Compact and committed ourselves to integrating its ten principles into our corporate strategy, culture and everyday business.
Responsibilities and management accounting
Responsibility for the management, further development and implementation of sustainability management lies with the Sustainability Corporate Department, which also produces this report. The sustainability-related tasks undertaken in the AUTOMOBILE and CONTRACT Divisions are brought together here. In addition to the overall sustainability strategy, the department is also responsible for the management system in line with the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz, LkSG), calculating our energy and carbon inventories and supporting energy management across divisions. The department is assigned to Finance area of responsibility and reports directly to the CFO.
The team brings sustainability topics and initiatives into the company and acts as a central interface. In doing so, particular emphasis is placed on defining, implementing and measuring sustainability goals. In the reporting year, it was established that reports on the sustainability goals defined in 2023 should be submitted quarterly within the company. Within the scope of financial reporting, the Board of Management and senior executives are now informed four times a year about where the company is at when it comes to achieving our quantitative sustainability goals, which allows for targeted control of key performance indicators. The Sustainability Board (SSB) helps with achieving the goals: established in 2021, it brings together representatives from the Sustainability, Legal, Insurance & GRC, Purchasing, Financial Services/Investor Relations, Human Resources, Safety & Environmental Protection and Integrated Management Systems corporate departments. In the reporting year, the reporting system, which was initially established within the German companies, was also implemented in the three consolidated foreign companies. An overview of our goals, including the progress achieved in 2024, can be found in the table here.
Responsibility for social sustainability and, in particular, the interests of our employees lies with the Human Resources Corporate Department, which was represented on the Board of Management by our Labor Relations Director in the reporting year. Sustainable action within the company is only possible if we develop together as an organization – and we rely on continuous feedback and dialog. Under the umbrella of our #ErfolgBrauchtAlle (#SuccessDependsOnEverybody) initiative for cultural change, the Board of Management and senior executives can be given direct feedback as part of recurring formats. The culture and message behind #ErfolgBrauchtAlle were increasingly incorporated into our corporate wording over the reporting year in order to place stronger emphasis on “success”. The message was also channeled into our “Take the Lead” senior executives program. Success stories were also published “wir” (we), our employee magazine, among other initiatives. Furthermore, the change in the BLG brand was given further impetus with a logo refresh – in the spirit of a company which is seen as successful from both inside and out.
Values, guidelines and management systems
Committed, respectful, passionate, responsible and open to change: these are the corporate values that form the basis of our overall shared culture and also serve as fundamental guideposts for our sustainability management. Our set of guidelines unites the legal and ethical standards that we are committed to upholding. It is not only a valuable guide for our staff in their day-to-day work, but it also makes it clear to our partners and suppliers what requirements we place on them. In addition, our compliance system ensures that we observe all relevant laws and basic principles – detailed information on this can be found in the Compliance section.
Our sustainability strategy is supported by established and largely certified management systems in the areas of quality management, environmental management, energy management and occupational health and safety management. We have also implemented management systems for compliance and information security. Detailed information on these systems can be found in the respective sections. We document the central elements of our corporate governance structures in our Corporate Governance Report, which also includes the corporate governance statement in accordance with section 289a of the German Commercial Code. The report focuses on the corresponding statement by the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board, significant corporate governance principles that go beyond the legal requirements, and a detailed description of the working methods and composition of both boards. For more information, see the Governance section.
Rankings and awards
BLG Handelslogistik GmbH & Co. KG is a member of the Advisory Board of the Lean & Green not-for-profit initiative, and we won the Lean & Green Award back in 2015, with the 1st Star following in 2021. Thanks to our consistent CO2 reductions, we will be awarded the Lean & Green 2nd Star in 2025. In order to obtain an objective picture of our sustainability performance, we regularly have it externally evaluated. In 2024, we once again completed the EcoVadis sustainability assessment and received a CSR bronze rating for 2025 – placing us among the top 35 percent of the companies assessed in our industry. In the reporting year, we also submitted our emissions data to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) for the fourth time. We were able to maintain our level and achieved a “B” rating in the climate sector once again.