A holistic stance on sustainability

Our guidelines and principles

“People, planet, profit” – our sustainability formula

For several years now, the “People, Planet, Profit” (PPP) principle has been applied at Covestro. This means that we want to foster increased value on the economic, environmental, and social levels, at the same time. Our decisions and activities must take account of the “three Ps” with impact on at least two of them needing to be positive and at the same time not harming any one of them.

For example, Covestro is constantly working on increasing the share of alternative resources in the production of its plastics – but only if this really does help the environment. Should the process require additional energy, or the production or transport of the alternative resources release more CO₂ than the application saves, our company will decide against it.

We keep an eye on the entire product life cycle

This includes the raw materials, production and processing, as well as the application, disposal or recycling of our products. Sustainability governs everything we do, and we want to improve in each area: from research and development – including joint projects with our customers and other partners – to sourcing, production and distribution.

Our contribution to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals

We value our cooperation with external partners

This is to help us realize our purpose, reach our company goals and align them with the expectations of society. Beyond our core business, we also give donations and commit to public partnerships. Our donations are monitored and steered at the corporate level in accordance with clear policies.

High standards on a global scale

We have devoted ourselves to the goals and regulations of the United Nations’ “Global Compact”. The principles of the Charter that we have signed are binding for all our employees. We expect the same high sustainability standards from our partners that we apply to ourselves.

Consequently, we have developed our Supplier Code of Conduct, which all of our suppliers must adhere to no matter where they are based or where they operate their business. We regard these principles as drivers of innovation that help us implement our strategy.