SDGS OF RELEVANCE FOR EVONIK

In fall 2015, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which it aims to achieve by 2030 through a collaborative partnership between governments, industry, and society.

For a number of yeas Evonik is systematically dealing with the SDGs. In 2017, we therefore started to systematically examine and present the contribution made by our products to achieving the SDGs. This showed that many products that have above-average sustainability benefits are also key growth drivers.

We stepped up our focus on the SDGs in 2018. This resulted in the development our own method to help us identify the SDGs that are most relevant for the Group. Based on qualitative and quantitative criteria it has led to the following ranking:

Read more about the Evonik method:

What do we mean by relevant for Evonik?

A SDG is considered relevant for Evonik if there is a significant positive or negative effect on or by Evonik. That influence may be either absolute or relative (i.e., compared with the influence of an established alternative product).

Evaluation of business relevant criteria

We have developed a multi-step weighting process to determine Evonik's influence. Our entire portfolio has been divided into product-application-region combinations (PARCs; for further details see the framework developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development) (https://www.wbcsd.org/Projects/Chemicals/Resources/Framework-for-portfolio-sustainability-assessments). We have analyzed the value chains for these PARCs (upstream, gate-to-gate, downstream) in relation to the SDGs and their sub-targets to see whether there is any positive, neutral or negative influence on or by Evonik.
PARCs that influence the SDGs along the value chain and are part of one of Evonik's growth engines or innovation growth fields were also taken into account for each of the SDGs.

Evaluation of criteria of paricular relevance for stakeholders

COther criteria used in this process were the significance of the SDGs for key Evonik stakeholders and the results of our materiality analysis.

Consolidation and reporting

From this analysis, we have derived the four most important SDGs for Evonik:

SDG 12 Responsible consumption and production

SDG 13 Climate action

SDG 3 Good health and well-being

SDG 6 Clean water and sanitation

More than 80 percent of our sales already make a positive contribution to achieving the SDGs and around 60 percent have a positive effect on the four SDGs identified as being particularly relevant for Evonik.