Our company has a long history of corporate responsibility. This is also reflected in our reporting practices. We have been publishing reports on our efforts to live up to our corporate responsibility since 1993, focusing initially on environmental topics. In 2003, we began reporting on sustainability topics every two years. Since 2016, we have been publishing a report annually.
In this Sustainability Report, we describe the strategic direction of our sustainable entrepreneurship as well as focus areas in which we intend to achieve our sustainability goals. We want to inform our stakeholders transparently and comprehensively about our activities and successes as well as the challenges we face. This also includes classifying actual and potential positive and negative impacts of our business activities.
Effective immediately, we report our progress towards implementing the principles of the United Nations Global Compact via the portal dedicated to this purpose. For this reason, our Sustainability Report no longer includes Communication on Progress.
Reporting framework
This report covers fiscal 2022 and pertains to our entire Group, including its 224 fully consolidated companies with personnel in 66 countries. Any deviations from this reporting framework are indicated on a case-by-case basis.
Determining report content
We align the content of our report with the internationally recognized sustainability reporting standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). In doing so, we observe prescribed reporting principles, such as accuracy, balance, topicality, and verifiability. The report has been prepared in accordance with the current GRI standards 2021.
Moreover, we are integrating our disclosures pursuant to the SASB standards (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) and the requirements of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) into the Sustainability Report. In doing so, we intend to meet the increasing transparency expectations of various investor groups and other stakeholders.
Every year, we carry out a materiality analysis to determine the sustainability topics of relevance to our Group. We have derived the content of this Sustainability Report from the results of the materiality analysis, which can be found together with the materiality matrix under Materiality analysis.
Our Executive Board has reviewed and approved the Sustainability Report for 2022.
Data collection and consolidation systems
The 2022 Sustainability Report generally provides non-financial indicators for the entire Group. The majority of the figures we publish reflect the status as of December 31, 2022. We explicitly state when, in individual cases, the information provided deviates from these parameters.
We use a Group-wide electronic data collection system to collect environmental and occupational health and safety data. The data are recorded at site level and are subject to approval in accordance with the dual-control principle. To improve the quality of these data, we support the sites both in optimizing their collection processes and their corresponding quality assurance measures. Moreover, our Corporate Sustainability, Quality and Trade Compliance function takes measures, such as internal EHS audits, to review both the processes and the data provided.
We collect environmental performance indicators across all our production sites. We also record these indicators for the warehouse, research and office locations that are relevant in terms of their environmental impact. This report’s scope of consolidation therefore covers all Group sites that have relevant impacts on the environment.
All employee master data is continually updated in an SAP database. Some employee data are only disclosed for select sites or countries, which are indicated accordingly in the respective text passages.
We use community data management software to track data pertaining to our community engagement activities.
Non-financial statement pursuant to the German Commercial Code
The combined management report of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and the Group for fiscal 2022 includes a combined non-financial statement in accordance with sections 315b and 315c in conjunction with 289b to 289e of the German Commercial Code (HGB) in the form of a separate chapter. The non-financial statement is aligned with the requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard. It also includes reporting in accordance with the EU Taxonomy Regulation. The content of this non-financial declaration has also been reviewed by the Supervisory Board in accordance with section 111 (2) of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG).
External audit
KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft has audited the consolidated financial statements and combined management report of our company for the fiscal year spanning January 1 to December 31, 2022 and has issued an unqualified opinion. The combined non-financial statement contained in the management report underwent an audit with limited assurance by KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft.
Furthermore, our company also received an independent audit certificate with limited assurance for this Sustainability Report for 2022.
The additional content provided on both the company’s websites as well as external web pages that are linked in this report are not part of the information assured by KPMG. This also applies to the voluntary information in the SASB and TCFD indexes.
Contacts:
We welcome your feedback and would be happy to answer any questions.
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
Corporate Sustainability, Quality and Trade Compliance
Group Corporate Sustainability
Maria Schaad
Frankfurter Str. 250
64293 Darmstadt Germany
Tel.: +49 6151 72-0
E-mail: corporate-sustainability@emdgroup.com
The current report was published on April 13, 2023. We published the previous Sustainability Report in April 2022. Our next Sustainability Report is scheduled for publication in April 2024.
Gender-neutral language:
It is our aim to ensure that our communication is inclusive and so we strive to use language that is both non-discriminatory and easy to read. This report attempts to use gender-neutral language, which may not yet be consistent in all instances.