Cement Energy Environment

38 Several definitions of sustainability exist. The thyssenkrupp approach is based on the concept of the United Nations (UN) which was first described by the Brundtland report “Our common future” in 1987. In summary, it is based on the three pillars Environment, Society and Business and aims to achieve an intergenerational, mutual reconciliation of interests. Thus, for each generation, the expectation is justified that the previous generation will leave an intact Environment. Accordingly, this implies that each generation also ensures that it treats the Environment with care and maintains at least the same standard of quality. In order to achieve this, however, it must also act in an economically and commercially responsible manner with a sound Business, i.e. not to blame future generations by spending money that is exclusively for its own benefit. All actions to comply with the principle of sustainability must be taken in a socially acceptable manner,i.e. without leaving parts of Society behind or causing tension between them. To this day, one sidedly oriented representatives of both Environment and Business confront each other and thus violate this principle. In recent times, especially in industrialized countries, Society has gained in importance and can exert considerable pressure on decision makers through public opinion. One example of this are fossil fueled power plants, the operation of them will no longer be allowed in the future in Europe. Against that background thyssenkrupp launched already several years ago a sustainability initiative. In the beginning, the reactions of customers were rather reserved but with time the interest grew significantly, in particular with the increasing discussions on climate change. Accordingly, more and more companies are recognizing the importance of sustainability and are also setting corresponding targets. In order to offer an orientation aid to differentiate between sound sustainability targets and empty advertising promises, the “Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)” was founded. The CDP’s scoring system assesses whether companies have formulated a coherent strategy on how to further improve their own performance as well as that of customers and suppliers. thyssenkrupp achieved the highest score possible and was placed on CDP’s global “A List”. The list includes around 130 businesses worldwide and only nine in Germany (Figure 1). Figure 1: The UN’s understanding of sustainability is based on three pillars, Environment, Society and Business. thyssenkrupp efforts on sustainability have been awarded with a ranking on the “Climate A List” as one of the worldwide leading companies with regard to climate disclosure and management of climate change. The sustainability concept – balancing environmental protection, social reconciliation and business interests