Corporate Responsibility - Sustainability and Compliance

We can honestly say that inspecting the effects of products and services on health, safety, and the environment is our core area of expertise. In some of the testing services offered by TÜV Rheinland, we have more than a century of experience. This has allowed us to perfect these services when it comes to adhering to standards to protect health and safety.

As a significant multiplier, we consequently use our services to provide support to our customers throughout the world, helping to make their products and processes more efficient, more sustainable, and thereby ultimately more viable for the future – thus we become their valuable partner.

Sustainability Services

Within the framework of “Green Products” TÜV Rheinland inspects products with regards to energy efficiency and guides companies in a resource conserving and economical direction. Beside the inspection and participation in the development of energy efficient products, TÜV Rheinland also offers a variety of services in the areas of renewable energies, energy efficient and sustainable real estate, sustainability testing, environmental certifications and sustainable traffic.

With our sustainable human resources management, we are securing and reinforcing the most important success factor of all: the motivation and health of our employees. Our work in this context focuses on two fields of activity derived from our sustainability strategy:

• Diversity
• Occupational health and safety

The first of those areas also reflects, in no small measure, two basic goals of our sustainability strategy: increasing the international setup of our management ranks and raising the share of female managers.

Our specific goals for 2020 are:

• An increase of the proportion of international managers to 20 %, and
• A rise in the share of female managers to 15 % Group-wide.

Environmental protection and resource efficiency play a major role in the context of our sustainability strategy – and they actually do so in two respects. With an internal focus, we work intensively to identify ways to minimize the negative impact of our operations and maximize the efficiency of our corresponding management processes.

By organizing our consumption of energy and resources more efficiently, we are not only helping to protect the environment, but also making the Group more efficient, and therefore more profitable. This is particularly clearly expressed in the following concrete objectives:

• By 2020, we aim to reduce our CO2 emissions per employee across the Group by 25 % relative to 2010.
• We also want the energy consumption per employee to be 20 % below the 2010 level by 2020.

Both across the Group and at the local level, we are implementing a large number of measures and projects designed to enable us to improve our energy efficiency and cut our greenhouse gas emissions.

With an external focus – and with disproportionately greater »leverage« – we apply our extensive technological knowledge in a close dialog with partners all over the world from the domains of science, politics, civil society, and industry to help develop solutions that minimize adverse effects on the environment, or offer an approach to make them more manageable.

HSE Management

Our activities in the area of environmental protection as well as occupational health and safety are controlled and managed within our HSE (health, safety and environment) management system. The HSE management system is an essential component for the integration of a Group-wide steering of occupational health and safety and environmental protection. An HSE guideline establishes a common basis of understanding throughout the entire organization and sets uniform worldwide standards for handling occupational health and safety and environmental protection issues. An HSE manager network consisting of regional and German Operations representatives is entrusted with the Group-wide implementation. We expect that the continued harmonization of our quality management systems will facilitate collaboration across national borders, thereby resulting in significantly greater process efficiency.

Measures

To achieve our environmental goals we have identified a set of measures. They focus primarily on

• using more efficient energy technology to serve our buildings,
• reducing the number of business trips through increased use of video conference technology,
• reducing fuel consumption and emissions through the use of more fuel-efficient company cars, and
• using state-of-the-art technologies to operate our data centers, test labs, and facilities.

There are many aspects in which we, as a company, benefit from social services and circumstances: state-sponsored educational institutions provide some extremely well-trained and talented young professionals, in many places our activities can rely on well-developed infrastructure, and policymakers and the judicial system maintain reliable conditions for the sustainable development of our business.

Mindful of this, it is only natural that we give something back to society through our own commitments. When selecting activities to pursue, we follow clear criteria: A project must be a good match – i.e. it must embody the values we represent, be closely linked to our business activities, or be established in our locations’ local environment or markets.

Our strategic focus is on projects and activities which

• advance education and science,
• protect people and the environment, or
• support the principles of the UN Global Compact.

We usually cooperate with charitable organizations and in doing so concentrate the strengths of several partners. Due to the similar field, we have a close relationship with the organization Engineers Without Borders, which we have supported financially for many years. This organization plans its own technical aid projects and carries them out locally, and supports other aid organizations and those in need by providing knowledge to overcome problems of an engineering nature. They also conduct research and explanatory work in the field of sustainable technological development.

Voluntary Commitment

As a corporate citizen, we also feel a responsibility to contribute to our local community. Thus, we help and support our employees volunteer in social and environmental projects.

The Cologne Volunteer Days have been a fixture in the calendar of our headquarters for many years. With this activity, employees donate one day of their work to a social project closely linked with the company's business. There’s a wide range of projects: From shared projects with persons with disabilities to the beautification and care of a park. In other TÜV Rheinland Group locations, volunteer days are also de rigueur for our corporate responsibility.

On top of that, in 2009, we started an interactive online platform on our corporate intranet for employees who want to volunteer time and skills. Here, they can share their project experiences with like-minded people, present new projects, or simply find inspiration for their own volunteer work. Concerts for the community, child sponsorships in a variety of countries, actions against forced prostitution – on the interactive volunteer platform volunteers can exchange experiences and people interested in volunteering can find inspiration and contacts.

Charitable projects worldwide

TÜV Rheinland's commitment to responsible action is also reflected in our social involvement. This commitment is palpable in the many initiatives and projects we run in the company's individual locations. With company-wide fundraisers, we support affected disaster areas and take on long-term sponsorships in emerging markets.