OUR RESPONSIBILITY –OUR COMMITMENT
Sustainability Reportof the tesa Group 2016

Cover: tesa SE has supported the “mint:pink” program operated by
the Hamburg-based “Initiative Naturwissenschaft & Technik” (Science& Technology Initiative) since 2014 as part of its social commitment.
The program encourages girls to explore STEM fields.

About this report
This sustainability report offers our stakeholders and the general public
insight into our worldwide commitment and involvement and the economic, ecological, and social impacts of our corporate activities in 2016.
The report presents an overview of key measures, results, and indicators
across four fields:

The tesa Group follows a sustainable approach geared toward both continuity and ongoing further development and evolution. To live up to thisstandard, we implement a large number of projects at our 51 affiliates
worldwide, year after year. The report is limited to a representative selection of current initiatives.

• Corporate management• Employees• Environmental protection• Social commitment

This document is available in German and English. Like all of the ver­­sions published in previous years, it is available online at www.tesa.de/tesa.com.

This report also meets our obligation under the United Nations Global
Compact to provide information on the advances we have made in thesefields every year. As a member of the Global Compact, tesa is committed
to upholding ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor
standards, environmental protection, and anti-corruption.

For further information on the subjects of products, the environment,
employees, and society, please also visit the “Responsibility” section of
our website at www.tesa.com/about-tesa/responsibility.

tesa Sustainability Report

2

CONTENTS
About this report2
Foreword
4
The tesa business model

1

2
3
4

5

Responsible corporate management
Key action fields
7
Organizational structure
7
The UN Global Compact
8Good Governance8
Code of Conduct
8
Purchasing Charter
9
Compliance
9
Diversity in supervisory and management bodies

10

Multifaceted approach to supporting employees
Culture of feedback and dialogue
11
Personnel planning and management
Development, support, training
12
Health13
Occupational safety
14

12Consistent environmental protection
Development to date
16
Focus on energy efficiency and CO2 reduction
17
Focus on resource efficiency and ecological footprint
Focus on ecofriendly products
19
Milestones, key indicators, and successes
20

18

Social commitment
tesa connects
21
tesa helps: Fostering community ties
22
tesa donates: For uncomplicated help
23
tesa supports: With opportunities for education24
tesa protects: Working to protect the environment
25
tesa Sustainability Report

3

FOREWORD“Taking responsibility
has a longstanding tradition at tesa:
It is seen as an important investment

for the future.”

Dr. Robert Gereke, CEO of tesa SE

Dear Reader,
As one of the world’s leading adhesive technology companies, tesa owes its outstanding brand reputation to ongoinghigh innovative drive and product quality. But to us, thecrucial thing isn’t just what we produce – it’s also how we
produce it. Socially and ecologically responsible actions
along the entire value chain are traditionally among thebasic principles of how tesa does business. Both the brandand the group name are emblematic of this approach.
We have been actively committed to supporting the environment, employees, and society at large for many years.
tesa underscored this voluntary commitment to doing business sustainably in 2006 by joining the United Nations
Global Compact. We align our business strategy toward
the Global Compact as a compass guiding us in our efforts
to uphold the very highest social and environmental standards and strive to achieve continuous improvement along
the way.
At all tesa production sites, for example, we work to
make our processes even more ecofriendly, from using
renewable and recycled raw materials to solvent-free production methods, conserving energy, and generating ourown electricity. tesa has high standards in terms of safety,
too, as shown by our accident figures, which are low for ourindustry.

Capable, happy employees are the key to both our innovative products and our ability to do business sustainably.
With this in mind, tesa continued to cultivate a corporate
culture of feedback and dialogue in 2016, in addition tooffering a number of training and qualification measures.
Our employees are not only excellent specialists, butalso regularly commit to social projects, demonstrating
their passion and enthusiasm beyond their job-related
duties. Under the “tesa connects” motto, numerous
colleagues were involved in activities in four areas – help,
donate, support, protect – worldwide in 2016, as in previous years.
We remain firm in our belief that acting with good business sense and living up to ecological and social responsibility are not a contradiction in terms, but instead form
equally important factors in a sustainable understanding of
quality and benefit to the customer. We will continue toalign tesa’s development with this core conviction into the
future.

Dr. Robert Gereke
CEO of tesa SE

tesa Sustainability Report4THE tesa BUSINESS MODELin over 100 countries
over

2200

employees
in Germany

operating with 51 affiliates

R&D centers in Germany,
the U.S., and Asia
over

4150

employees
worldwide•••

The tesa Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of self-adhesive
products and system solutions for industrial customers and consumers.
The tesa Group is part of the Beiersdorf Group. It employs approximately
4,150 people and operates in more than 100 countries. tesa SE is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Beiersdorf AG and the direct or indirect parent companyof the 51 tesa affiliates.

Regions and major locations

Industrial businesstesa operates worldwide, with the main focus concentrated
on Europe, followed by the business regions of Africa/Asia/
Australia and the Americas. In addition to tesa SE, theaffiliates in China, the United States, Italy, and Singapore
are among the largest single companies in the tesa Group.
Our production facilities are located in Europe (Ger­­
many and Italy), North America (United States), and Asia
(China).

tesa earns about three-quarters of its sales with products
for industrial and commercial customers. In the industrial
segment, tesa offers system solutions for customers in theelectronics, printing and paper, building and construction,
and automotive industries in particular. The company’s strategic focus is especially on developing and expanding profitable lines of business in technologically advanced fields
of application. Products from tesa are used to optimize andtesa Sustainability Report5enhance the efficiency of production processes, as customized protection and packaging systems, and as fastening
solutions in construction-related applications. This includes
special product ranges for roll offset and flexo printing
and for mounting electronic components in smartphones,
tablets, digital cameras, and LCD screens. Forgery-proof
laser-printed labels and systems for bundling and affixing
cables or mounting emblems and decorative elements areamong the products used in the automotive industry. tesa
also offers innovative solutions with flexible uses to protect
products from tampering and counterfeiting. One promising new market that tesa is developing for the future is
being handled by tesa Labtec GmbH. This tesa affiliate
develops and manufactures medicated patches, termed“transdermal therapeutic systems”, and rapidly dissolving
oral films for the pharmaceuticals industry. In the industrial
retail business, tesa supplies technical retailers with stateof-the-art product ranges.

Consumer & craftsmen businesstesa earns about one-fourth of its total sales in the consumer business, which is focused on Europe and Latin America.
In this area, tesa markets innovative product solutions
intended for various applications, including for daily use
in offices and in the home and garden. Under the tesa umbrella brand, DIY stores and superstores as well as paper
goods and stationery shops offer end consumers a broad
assortment of more than 300 products. The product range
includes both handy products for office use, such as theclassic tesafilm® transparent adhesive tape, and tailoredsolutions for specific applications such as energy conservation, renovation, repairs, packaging, and temporary or permanent bonding. Proven products include tesamoll® foam
for sealing windows and doors; the bonding solution tesa
Powerstrips®, which are reliable and yet can be removed
without a trace afterward; mounting tapes for indoor andoutdoor use; the versatile line of fabric tapes; a wide arrayof masking tapes and tesa Easy Cover® for clean, professional painting and finishing work; and, last but not least, fly
screens for various uses. In the craftsmen business segment, tesa concentrates on customized product ranges andmarketing concepts for professional craftsmen, such as
painters and finishers.

tesa brand day after day. Living up to that trust in everything
we do is our responsibility – a responsibility we uphold withdependable quality, excellent service, robust innovative
power, and the use of superior technologies. But to us,
demonstrating responsibility means even more than that.
We are also committed to working within our sphere of influence to ensure that we pass down a livable world to future generations. That’s why one integral element of ourconcept of quality and innovation is offering our customers
products that are not only highly functional, but also sustainable – products that have as little environmental impact
as possible over their entire lifecycle. Developing eco­friendly, solvent-free production methods and using renewable and recycled raw materials where possible are just as
much a part of our strategy as conserving resources andpreventing waste during the production process.
People are at the heart of everything we do. That means
both our customers, for whom tesa develops effective solutions to problems, and our employees, whose passion andexperience ensure tesa’s success each and every day. Our
goal is to earn these people’s loyalty to our company andour brand for as long as possible through healthy, fair, andattractive working conditions and to continue to recruit outstanding employees for all areas of the company now andinto the future. We also strive to ensure that the same working conditions apply to our suppliers. We take a holistic
view of social responsibility and are involved worldwide atvarious levels to support social causes in the form of donations, supporting memberships and sponsorships as wellas through employee volunteering.

Strategy and responsibility
Our success is founded on the high levels of trust and confidence our customers place in tesa as a company and thetesa Sustainability Report61 RESPONSIBLE CORPORATEMANAGEMENT

tesa sees the economic further development of the company and living up to
responsibility for employees, the environment, and society at large as two
sides of the same coin. This means doing business sustainably is an integral
part of the tesa corporate philosophy.

Key action fields

Organizational structure

Supporting and maintaining a livable environment is among
the major guiding principles of our actions. Areas of em­
phasis include conserving ecological resources andsocial commitment. We focus on four action fields:
employees, the environment, products, and society. All ofthem are integral parts of our strategy and managementprac­tices.

The critical basis for our activities is a holistic view of all
business processes that are necessary to fulfill individualtasks and goals of the company. These processes and thestructure of the Group are mapped out in the tesa integrated management system (IMS), which is divided into fourmain fields: Innovation, Marketing, Supply Chain, and Customer Management. The IMS integrates not only the re-tesa Sustainability Report7quirements of a modern system of quality management
geared toward international standards, but also key topics
in social responsibility as well as comprehensive environmental protection and occupational safety and health.

The UN Global Compact
We underscore our commitment to meeting the very highest social and environmental standards through our membership in the UN Global Compact. Companies from about
170 countries, international employees’ associations, civilsociety groups, governments and UN organizations havejoined the Global Compact. With its ten principles in theareas of human rights, labor standards, environmental
protection, and anti-corruption, the pact serves to provide
overarching guidance for tesa’s actions as well as those ofothers.

Principle 1:	Businesses should support andrespect the protection of internationallyproclaimed human rights; andPrinciple 2:	make sure that they are not complicit
in human rights abuses.
Principle 3:	Businesses should uphold the freedomof association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
Principle 4:	the elimination of all forms of forced
and compulsory labor;
Principle 5:	the effective abolition of child labor;
andPrinciple 6:	the elimination of discrimination in
respect of employment and occupation.
Principle 7:	Businesses should support a pre­cautionary approach to environmental
challenges;
Principle 8:	undertake initiatives to promote greater
environmental responsibility; andPrinciple 9:	encourage the development anddiffusion of environmentally friendly
technologies.
Principle 10:	Businesses should work against
corruption in all its forms, including
extortion and bribery.

At tesa, the ten principles of the Global Compact are thestarting point for internal codes of conduct and regulations,most especially the Code of Conduct , Purchasing Charter , and Environmental Guidelines . The sections that
follow describe these documents in further detail.

Good governanceOur activities revolve around people all over the world –and that means our employees as well as our customers
and suppliers. This is why upholding and supporting international human rights is among our guiding principles,
along with impeccable labor standards and sustainable,
legally compliant business models.

Code of Conduct
To secure the high level of trust and confidence that consumers, customers, investors, and employees place in tesa,
we set high standards for responsibility, both for the company as a whole and for each and every one of us as individuals. The tesa Code of Conduct (CoC)
sets out thesestandards – derived from the ten principles of the UN Global Compact – on a binding basis for the entire organizationand is applicable worldwide. With its fundamental rules andcriteria, the tesa CoC offers clear guidance for the entire
staff and helps employees to observe and uphold our company’s key principles and values in their day-to-day work, toshare these principles and values with others, and gear allof their business conduct toward them.
As in previous years, we continued to communicate andreinforce this content within the company in 2016 throughregular communication and training measures and throughextensive advising. At the start of the year, for example, weagain familiarized more than 650 managers with the CoC in
this context.
A CoC Manager has also been available to all em­
ployees for some time now. Employees are encouraged tocontact the CoC Manager anytime in the case of violationsof the rules.
As part of the further development of this internalreporting system, we introduced the international CoC

tesa Sustainability Report8quirements that apply to our suppliers. The Purchasing
Charter is part of our defined global procurement processes, which makes it a key requirement for all tesa suppliers.
Suppliers undertake a signed written obligation to comply
with the requirements set out in the charter. At the sametime, they also affirm that they will apply the same standards when selecting their own suppliers.
tesa performs supplier audits when embarking on new
business relationships and throughout them. The objectiveof these audits is to assess a specific supplier’s performance capacity, including with an eye to compliance withthe basic principles of the Global Compact. Irregularities
are noted in visit or audit reports. Where discrepancies occur, tesa works with the supplier to develop and follow up
on plans of action. If a supplier is unable to meet the requirements set out in the Purchasing Charter despite thesemeasures, tesa will terminate the business relationship andturn to alternative suppliers instead. This scenario did notmaterialize a single time in 2016, however. In all, 31 audits
were performed during this reporting period. Internally, we
monitor and document compliance with the purchasing
standards that apply worldwide through “Purchase to Pay”
audits performed by bodies such as the Group internal audit department.

Compliancenetwork in 2016. The CoC Manager, who works at tesa
headquarters, is now supported within this network by six
CoC Representatives in the regions. These representatives
are also available to employees as additional points ofcontact at the regional level in the event of suspected violations or failure to follow the rules.

Purchasing CharterAt tesa, we firmly believe that responsible corporate governance over the long term requires looking beyond theirboundaries of the company itself. The tesa Purchasing
Charter(from April 2017 „Code of Conduct for Suppliers“), adopted by our strategic purchasing division in 2008,
plays a key role in ensuring that our minimum international
standards in the fields of human rights, labor and employment standards, environmental guidelines, and anti-corruption are upheld. This document sets out the minimum re-tesa has long been committed to values that guarantee freemarkets and fair competition. We reject any and all forms ofcorruption, bribery, and other unlawful conduct. We viewcompliance with applicable laws and internal guidelines asa major basis of our activities and a key factor contributing
to our long-term, sustainable business success. The tesa
Code of Conduct lays out our compliance system, which isgeared toward these principles, on a binding global basis.
The guidelines and processes that build on this system offer more concrete detail and assist with implementing theprinciples that have been described, giving our employees
the best possible guidance for their actions.
Based on a risk analysis of the key compliance fields
that are relevant to tesa, the existing compliance programs
are continuously adapted in response to new challenges. In
addition, regular training activities raise awareness of allcompliance-related topics among employees and managers alike, while a wide range of advising options help toestablish and reinforce compliance within the overall
organization on a lasting basis and reduce the risk of violations.
tesa also offers a compliance theme platform on its intranet. Employees all over the world can use the platform totesa Sustainability Report9learn about legally compliant behavior in their day-to-day
business dealings or find competent points of contact for
further advice. Our staff also receives regular multilingual
intranet news items on relevant compliance-related developments and decisions by courts and other government
agencies.
tesa takes reports of potential compliance violations,evaluates them with an eye to their relevance to the system,and determines what sanctions to impose in strict compliance with the principle of proportionality. Employees havevarious reporting channels available to them for communicating about possible compliance violations: the internal
whistleblower system (CoC Manager and international
compliance network), their line supervisors, internal pointsof contact, and internal and external experts in the relevant
compliance fields.

Diversity in supervisory andmanagement bodies
tesa strives to ensure equal participation among womenand men within the staff and in the company management
wherever possible. As a company with a heavy technological focus, we set stringent requirements for subject-specificexpertise, professional and industry experience, and leadership skills when filling available positions.

Supervisory Board
The Supervisory Board of tesa SE has six members. Two
positions are filled by the works council of tesa SE. In thisbody, as elsewhere, the company strives to ensure thelong-term inclusion of women, with as much continuity
within positions as possible. In 2016 there was no change insupervisory board mandates with regard to genders.

Executive Board
The four-member Executive Board of tesa SE is also subject
to the long-term goal of achieving equality in staffing between men and women. High continuity is a priority here as
well, in light of the company’s business model.
Two new members of the Executive Board were appointed this reporting period. One is a longstanding employee of the company, while the other (who has been withtesa since January 1, 2017) was recruited from a different
company in our industry after a careful search process.
There were no equally qualified female candidates available for either position.

tesa Sustainability Report 1 02 MULTIFACETED APPROACH TOSUPPORTING EMPLOYEESWith the goal of boosting motivation and enhancing employees’ loyalty to
the company, we make ongoing investments in measures to ensure thatworking at tesa remains highly attractive: training and continuing education,
support for employees’ health, a thriving culture of feedback and dialogue,
and occupational safety are all important elements of our personnel
development policies, which are geared toward the future.

Culture of feedback and dialogue
Feedback and the related dialogue between employees
and managers form the basis for the professional as wellas personal development. With this in mind, we continued
to develop our culture of feedback in 2016, as in past
years.
Regular employee surveys are a key part of this policy.
We conducted one such survey again at the tesa headquarters in Norderstedt in 2016. The methodology used for thesurveys is designed to capture information on employee
engagement, measuring not only respondents’ satisfaction, but also their motivation, dedication, and loyalty to thecompany. Compared to other companies in Germany, weachieved excellent results, placing in the top quarter ofcompanies. On this basis, we have developed company-­
wide measures to maintain and expand on this highengagement among employees. Management teams andemployees from all functions met during about 30 workshops to agree on specific further improvements. We willtesa Sustainability Report 1 1

gauge how effective these measures have been when thenext employee survey is conducted.
2016 was the first year that tesa conducted an employee
survey in the tesa Western Europe region. It followed thesame systematic approach as the employee surveys taken
at tesa headquarters and in the Eastern Europe and Latin
America regions. Employees in Western Europe were highly interested in participating, as shown by the fact that the
response rate was over 90 percent. Here as well, the engagement index was in the upper zone. The management
team for this region has also initiated optimization measures in selected areas with an eye to achieving even better
results the next time a survey is taken.

Personnel planning and management
One element of our strategy is to fill key management
positions from within wherever possible in order to retain
valuable experience and market knowledge and be able toleverage these capabilities optimally for our long-term success as a company. With the goal of developing successors
for key positions in good time and systematically at an international level, tesa intensified its strategic personnel development activities in 2016.
The competency-based employee performance appraisal process, which was first introduced in 2015 for the
management segment, was expanded to include othergroups this reporting year. This standardized international
format is modeled on the tesa Key Competencies, which
determine the actions of people at tesa – individually, intheir dealings with one another, and in their communications with customers and/or suppliers. Human resources
employees trained in using this tool worldwide participatedin training and workshops to accompany the introduction of
performance appraisals in the specific units and functions.
To supplement these efforts, tesa developed a broadbased Development Kit encompassing tips for day-to-day
work, training offerings, and recommended readings. This
kit is intended to help supervisors and employees identify
and choose appropriate learning and improvement measures.
In 2016, the company prepared 16 new junior managers
in Germany for their roles as supervisors and for futurechallenges as part of the proven tesa Intensive Leadership
Program. International tesa managers in the Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia/Pacific regions also completed a six-day modular employee management training
program in which they developed skills in communication,
conducting discussions, and motivating employees. The
program is slated to be expanded to the Latin America re-gion in 2017. The tesa plant in Hamburg also continued towork in 2016 on targeted personnel development, with
26 managers participating in HR roundtables on various
topics of focus, including coaching during processes ofchange.

Development, support, training
Ongoing investments in targeted employee qualificationand training activities are also part of the tesa strategy. We
continued the Sales and Marketing Qualification Programin 2016 and trained about 480 participants over 60 training
sessions with a total duration of 1,670 days. Beyond giving
new employees the basic skills they need, the training concept also includes specific formats tailored to the requirements of individual business fields – such as a combinationof technical training and selling skills for sales reps. We also

tesa Sustainability Report 1 2The tesa plant in Hamburg expanded its range of formal
vocational training programs. In addition to the programs
for apprentice machine and system operators, this reporting year saw the advent of industrial mechanic, chemical
technician, and mechatronics technician apprenticeshipprograms. Starting in 2017, the site will also begin offering
an apprenticeship program for trainees to become qualified
as an electronics technician for operating technology.

Healthoffer a separate training program for tesa R&D employeesthat covers topics such as patents and quality management. In 2016, 150 employees participated in this programon 24 training days.
We also responded this year to the growing trend toward digital learning. For example, the tesa Supply Network
devoted great efforts in 2016 to developing tailorede-learning, with a training format comprising several modules as the result. The first part has already been introduced
at tesa’s headquarters in Norderstedt, where 217 employees were invited to participate. The remaining training sessions are scheduled for 2017. These courses deepen employees’ understanding of processes and connections
within the logistics, production, and materials management
segments.
In addition to specialized and function-specific continuing and professional education opportunities, tesa also offers an open course program covering various subjects.
Roughly 20 employees participated in these courses during the past reporting year over 50 days of training on subjects such as presentation techniques and project management. This represented a continuation of the positive trend
from previous years. Language classes in different formats(25 class offerings, 130 participants) and IT training classes(13 classes, 20 participants) have also become firmly established at the new site.
Additional courses were set up as part of the “Treffpunkt Weiterbildung” program in connection with themove from Hamburg to the neighboring town of Norderstedt. This diverse program, which was originally createdmany years ago by our parent company, Beiersdorf, allows
employees to complete training in their spare time. About
30 people participated in eight different training sessions
at the new headquarters in 2016.

To promote health and performance capacity, we offer an
occupational health management program for our em­
ployees. Since the move to the new headquarters, themanagement has initiated a broad range of options for employees who work there. An interdisciplinary occupational
health management team consisting of representatives
from HR, the works council, the health promotion team, thetesa sport club, the social advising service, the body representing disabled employees, the occupational health service, and the occupational safety team is actively working
to integrate as broad a range of measures as possible under the “It’s for you” umbrella brand.
The in-house tesa sport club, for example, offers topquality endurance and strength training equipment and arange of courses like spinning, yoga and “back power”,
along with individual fitness checks. This gives employees
a way to stay in shape at the tesa SE fitness facilities, withlow membership fees and expert assistance and instruction.
tesa employees are also still welcome to make use of
the options offered by the occupational health promotion
service at the parent company, Beiersdorf, which include
autogenic training, progressive muscle relaxation, andworkshops on back health and relaxation techniques. Another key aspect of the company’s efforts to promote healthis its extensive range of preventive health checks.
In 2016, the occupational health management teamalso began working on an important project focusing on
psychological risk assessments, something every company is required to work on under the German Occupational
Safety and Health Act. In this program, employees are
asked on an individual basis what stressful situations or
stress factors they experience on the job and whether they
have positive or negative effects. The basic principle is that
positive aspects should be maintained (but not necessarily
intensified) and negative ones prevented.
We are also concerned for the health of those whose
day-to-day work takes place in the offices, where all workstations have height-adjustable desks to minimize backtesa Sustainability Report 1 3strain. All employees receive information and tips aboutmaintaining good posture, both sitting and standing, fromthe company’s in-house ergonomics team. Members of theoccupational health management team (occupational
health service, works council, occupational safety, and HR)
conduct site inspections of all areas of the new headquarters to identify possible issues and stresses at workstations
and map out improvement measures.
Healthy eating is another key aspect of occupational
health management. The company restaurant at the newheadquarters offers a varied menu of healthy meals madefrom freshly prepared local ingredients. Employees are also
welcome to participate in cooking classes in cooperation
with the company’s health promotion team.
tesa also supports athletic activity on the way to work oron the way home, with the “tesa Bike” program as a particular highlight. Employees can lease a bicycle of theirchoice through the company and have their monthly installment payments paid out of their gross pay through deferredcompensation. tesa also supports this leasing arrangementby contributing a monthly sum.
At the tesa plant in Hamburg, the Health Working Group
adopted the motto “Healthy from Head to Toe” for its activities in 2016. The annual program of events involved arange of courses held in the plant’s own fitness room andteam events such as group participation in organized runs.
A running course for beginners and advanced runners offered motivation and tips for daily physical activity.

Occupational health and safety
Protecting the safety and health of employees is a top priority at tesa. The Occupational Safety Guidelines apply
throughout the company, all over the world. We apply highstandards and use targeted measures to help prevent
occupational accidents, work-related illnesses and occupational diseases. Our results have been positive: The
accident rate at tesa in 2016 was 4.6 per 1,000 employees,
once again significantly below the industry average of
14.7 as tracked by the employers’ liability association. Thisshows that with our high safety standards, investments
in technical safety, occupational health and safety measures and training programs, we are on the right track interms of achieving our long-term goal of zero reportable
accidents.
We hold national and international meetings of safety
specialists every year to discuss key occupational safety
and health risks and map out specific measures and protective processes to put in place. One key factor in helping toensure workplace safety is our risk assessments. They arebased on a combination of systematic identification andevaluation of risks, personal responsibility on the part of
employees, and a continuous improvement process that includes all parties involved. The risk analysis and the process of finding appropriate solutions follow the “STOP”
principle, which outlines four categories: substituting, technical, organizational and personal.
We implement safety measures on an ongoing basis at
all tesa locations. These include providing detailed operating instructions for all production equipment and systems, targeted training in the use of machines, and a rangeof educational and training courses on topics such as
proper conduct for safety and health, explosion and fire
prevention and fire extinguisher usage. We deliberately
raise employees’ awareness through practical training onsite. Local safety officers address the risks in the workplace
directly and talk with the interested parties about safe be-tesa Sustainability Report 1 4havior. As one example, our Hamburg and Offenburg plants
launched an occupational safety campaign in 2016 focusing
on the risks associated with forklifts.
To ensure that our stringent requirements for occupational health and safety measures undergo rigorous further
development and implementation, we factor in occupational health and safety considerations right from the start whenplanning new plant and equipment projects. The focus ofthese activities is on early identification and elimination ofpotential risks. As part of this approach, our safety standards are already incorporated into the drafting of specifications. The entire design, construction and manufacturing
process is accompanied by regular status checks. Even before a new plant or unit is delivered, we check all of the important details right on site with a “Factory AcceptanceTest”. After that, a final “Site Acceptance Test” is performed
before the plant or unit actually enters production operation. This test involves additional checks of all safety-related functions, with optimization measures taken where necessary. We successfully implemented this same process forthe project planning of a new production unit at our plant inSparta, Michigan, in 2016.
At our Group headquarters, we introduced a new online
training tool featuring relevant questions in 2016 to teachemployees about general safety rules. Employees are notallowed to enter areas that are of particular concern in termsof occupational safety until they have completed this training.

tesa Sustainability Report 1 53 CONSISTENT ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION

tesa’s goal is to conserve ecological resources and leave an intact environment for subsequent generations. We have defined our positions in binding
environmental guidelines that apply worldwide. These guidelines set thestandards for the actions of all employees, with the goal of further enhancing
environmental awareness. Ongoing monitoring of key indicators and regular
audits of the individual production sites according to harmonized standards
help us consistently live up to our environmental pledges.

Development to datetesa has been consistently advancing the cause of continuous improvement in its environmental management systemsince 2001. Our advanced technologies and worldwide
production sites have been key factors in ensuring that tesa
has been able to not only meet, but also exceed, its ambitious environmental targets in the past. For example, wehave reduced our emissions of volatile organic compounds(VOCs) by a whopping 90 percent. In addition, significant
reductions have been made in our solvent use, CO2 emissions, and volume of non-recyclable waste. The company
employs its own environmental experts at all production
sites, who are familiar with both tesa’s global environmental
guidelines and the local circumstances, and tesa encourages international dialogue among them. In the course of ourexternal certification and monitoring audits, we also check
all locations that are certified under the international ISO

tesa Sustainability Report 1 614001 environmental standard on a regular basis as part ofa matrix audit structure. This involves group certification
based on spot checks as required by a standardized management system.
tesa takes environmental risks into account in overarching assessments and as primary factors within the scope ofmateriality analyses of the ecological aspects of individual
production sites. We document climate-related risks in particular as part of the CDP supply chain program (CDP = formerly Carbon Disclosure Project).
We harness state-of-the-art technologies to reduce thenegative environmental impacts of our activities; one partof our strategy, for example, is the development of proprietary solvent-free production methods.
In the interests of climate protection and resource conservation, tesa also regularly reviews whether there are
more environmentally friendly alternatives to the raw materials currently employed. To determine this, we consider

various factors, including the environmental footprint of
selected products, and analyze the products’ environmental impact over their entire lifecycle. We advance our ecological commitment at the product level with the tesa
ecoLogo® sub-brand.

Focus on energy efficiency andCO2 reduction
Our goal is to further improve process efficiency and utilize
low-carbon and renewable energy sources to achieve further reductions in our CO2 emissions during the period from2016 to 2020. In keeping with these aims, we are focusing
on a climate-friendly energy supply and efficient energy
management.
tesa’s top priority in this field is systematically reducing
energy consumption, since conservation is always the bestalternative from both an ecological and an economic standpoint. To cover the remaining need for energy, we are stepping up efforts to generate our own energy through cogeneration (CHP, combined heat and power) and obtaining
electricity from renewable sources.
The reduction in energy consumption achieved at our
production sites from 2001 to 2015 brought CO2 emissions
down by 19 percent during this period. Our goal is to reduce
specific CO2 emissions by another ten percent by 2020,
with 2015 as the baseline. tesa has made excellent progress toward this goal in just the first year, comfortablyachieving the interim target of minus 2.0 percent.
The tesa plant in Offenburg commissioned a trigeneration (CCHP, combined cooling, heat and power) system in
2014, enabling environmentally friendly power generation
on-site. A cogeneration (CHP) plant followed at theHamburg site in 2016. These advanced methods make itpossible to generate both electricity and heat simultaneously via a single power plant. While the primary energy
generated, mechanical energy, is converted directly toelectricity, the heat generated during the process can also
be used for heating or production processes. Thanks tothese high-efficiency systems at our two largest production
sites worldwide, we were able to serve about 39 percent of
our worldwide electricity needs on a CO2-optimized basis
in 2016. We also realized substantial savings on energy
costs at the tesa plant in Offenburg.
tesa has increasingly turned to ecofriendly power sources to meet the energy needs not covered by cogeneration.
We use purchased electricity from renewable sources atfive European sites for this. This alone was enough to coverabout 31 percent of the company’s global demand for electricity in 2016.

tesa Sustainability Report 1 7During the year under review, the tesa production sites
in Hamburg and Offenburg additionally focused their efforts on the further development of their respective energy
management systems, and both of them were successfullyrecertified under the international ISO 50001 standard in
2016, the second time they have accomplished this aim.
The new tesa headquarters in Norderstedt also achieved
ISO 50001 certification in 2016. This was associated withthe development of internal systems and processes to improve energy performance. Modern energy monitoring
systems are in place to track energy consumption and optimize energy efficiency. These systems undergo a continuous process of expansion and improvement.
In addition to the ecofriendly methods and other approaches with which tesa gears its efforts toward the latest
technologies, raising employee awareness is also part ofour commitment to the environment. After all, employees
are familiar with ongoing operations, and they use theirknowledge and ideas on a continuous basis to help us conserve energy, thereby not only reducing CO2 emissions, but
lowering costs as well. During our annual “energy hunts”,
for example, staff members pitch in to identify and leveragepotential for savings. This initiative has yielded many small
measures that together add up to a big impact.

Focus on resource efficiency andecological footprint
For the period from 2016 to 2020, tesa has pledged to further optimize its responsible use of resources and its environmental footprint. The company plans to use a continuous improvement process (CIP) to achieve this.

Management of waste and resources
All production of goods involves the generation of waste. In
order to reduce waste on a lasting basis and to protect theenvironment and conserve resources, we provide regulartraining courses for our employees all over the world. This
ensures that everyone involved is aware of the need to
avoid unnecessary waste and to recycle appropriately.
Recycling and reusing raw materials, auxiliary materials, and fuels has been business as usual at our plants foryears. From 2001 to 2015 (when the target period ended),
the recycling rate rose to more than 90 percent as a resultof these efforts.
Our employees at all locations are also involved in waste
reduction, with great success. We now aim to reduce ourgeneration of specific waste by another two percent fromthe 2015 baseline by 2020.

This reporting year, we exceeded the interim target – areduction of 0.4 percent per year – through numerous campaigns (including one at the tesa plant in Offenburg thathighlighted the need for creative solutions) and projects.
Our unique, patented ACX technology also helped noticeably reduce our solvent waste once again.

Lifecycle analysis
A great deal of the harmful environmental impact caused by
the manufacturing of products occurs outside the manufacturing company itself, so we are increasingly scrutinizing
the entire product lifecycle, from production or extractionof raw materials to the materials used, production andtransportation, and all the way through to disposal after the
products are used. We rely on the lifecycle analysis method
to determine key parameters that affect the ecological footprint of selected products over their entire lifecycle. In 2016,tesa Sustainability Report 1 8for example, we brought in professional outside help to determine the product carbon footprint (PCF) for the tesa®
ecoLogo® glue stick. With this climate-friendly product alternative, tesa was able to reduce CO2 emissions for theglue stick product range by 25 to 32 percent.
We are also regularly involved on a voluntary basis in
the supply chain program run by the nonprofit organization
CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project). This program
evaluates various factors, such as how production companies can affect their environmental footprint. tesa’s positive
CDP 2016 Climate Score was well above the average for all
program participants, putting the company in the top onethird within our comparison group, “Automobiles & Components”.
Ongoing modernization of our production sites also
helps to reduce environmental impacts. For example, tesa
began building a new production unit for ecofriendly adhesive tape production in Sparta, Michigan, in 2016.

Focus on ecofriendly products
In addition to its other activities, tesa has been working to
uphold its commitment to the environment at the productlevel for some time now. We offer various environmen­tally friendly solutions for consumers, including the tesa
ecoLogo® product range. Products in this ever-growing
range have received multiple awards in recent years. Their
key advantages are solvent-free adhesives and the factthat the products themselves and the product packaging
are made primarily from biologically based or recycled materials. One good example is the tesa Easy Cut® Desk dispenser SMART, which boasts a compact design and ismade from 100% recycled plastic using material-minimizing
methods. In addition, all glue sticks were shifted to the
ecoLogo® format in 2015, so tesa no longer offers any conventionally produced glue sticks at all. The company’s“green” range of ecoLogo® products, including painter’s,
repair, and packing tapes, has been sold in hardware, DIY
and other stores for several years now. Consumers can also
visit these retailers to find products to help save energy,
such as tesamoll® for sealing gaps around windows anddoors and the tesa® ISO SYSTEM for easy interior roof insulation.

tesa Sustainability Report 1 9Milestones, key indicators, and successes
2002

The tesa plant in Offenburg commissions an
ecofriendly production system for thesolvent-free manufacturing of masking tape.
Today, over 60 percent of the plant’s entire
production takes place without solvents.

2005

tesa receives the B.A.U.M. environmental
prize and the “Responsible Care Prize” forthe consistent and successful developmentof a holistic environmental management
system.

2006

Five years after launching its environmental
program, tesa posts positive results: Targets
for reducing the amount of energy andsolvents consumed have been exceeded.

2007

A second environmental program, this one
to run until 2012, is adopted. Its focus is on
reduced emissions of volatile organic
compounds (VOCs).

2007

An innovative system for heat recovery at
the tesa plant in Offenburg considerably
reduces energy consumption.

2009

tesa reports significant advances in theemission of volatile organic compounds.
VOC emissions are down 50 percent
compared to 2001. One year later, the figure
already stands at minus 58 percent.

2010

The tesa plant in Hamburg installs a new,state-of-the-art ventilation system. During
the same year, the technology center attesa’s headquarters in Hamburg receives
funding from the Hamburg Authority for
Urban Development and Environmental
Affairs to modernize the technology in theventilation system and its control unit. The
first tesa ecoLogo® products also begin
conquering the office supply market.

2011

tesa makes a technological breakthroughat the plant in Hamburg. The company’s
unique, patented ACX technology enables
the ecofriendly production of double-sided
acrylic adhesive tapes for high-strength
permanent adhesive bonds.

2013

tesa introduces an energy management
system at its German production sites tosustainably reduce energy consumption
and CO2 emissions even further. The“Green Car Policy” is also launched thisyear, with the goal of having low-emission
cars reduce the CO2 emissions of the entire
fleet from an average of 161 to 140 grams
per kilometer.

2014

tesa’s Offenburg plant begins operating
a CCHP (combined cooling, heat andpower) system for environmentally friendly
in-house power generation. The German
production sites in Hamburg and Offenburg
are each implementing an ultra-modern
energy monitoring system as part of theirenergy management activities.

2015

The energy management systems in placeat the production sites in Hamburg andOffenburg, Germany, earn certification
under the international ISO 50001 standard.

2016

A CHP (combined heat and power) plant
begins operating at the tesa site in Hamburg for ecofriendly in-house power generation. The tesa headquarters in Norderstedt
earn certification under the international
ISO 50001 energy management standard.

tesa Sustainability Report 2 04 SOCIAL COMMITMENT

Assuming social responsibility is part of tesa’s corporate philosophy.
We firmly believe that all sides win when companies are good citizens,
so we give back at several levels worldwide – in the form of donations,
supporting memberships and sponsorships as well as through employee
volunteering. It is a strategy with regional facets.

tesa connects
Help, donate, support, protect – these are the four pillars of
the “tesa connects” corporate citizenship program. The
goal of this approach is to make it easy for employees
worldwide to get involved for the good of society in a meaningful way. At the same time, the program creates a bridgeto the core tesa competencies and the company’s strengths– its inventiveness and spirit of ingenuity, solution-oriented
approach, focus on practical assistance and team spirit.

In all four areas, tesa’s efforts have had demonstrable
results. Overall, the company participated in about 85 projects in 2016, providing volunteer assistance, services, andboth donations in kind and monetary donations valued at
187,000 euros.

tesa connects
tesa Sustainability Report 2 1tesa helps: Fostering community ties
Neighbors helping neighbors in the immediate vicinity of
our sites – that’s the principle behind “tesa helps”. All over
the world, local tesa teams pitch in to help with projects andsupport their communities.

Involvement in Germany
The tesa headquarters continued its partnership with the“tatkräftig – Hände für Hamburg” nonprofit organizationin 2016. With “1 day, 1 team, 1 goal” as its motto, the organization connects volunteer helpers with over 150 institutionsin the Hamburg area that need support in the form of manpower. In the year under review, more than 65 employees
from the headquarters, working in teams, volunteered tohelp with charitable projects including gardening at refugee homes, renovations at children’s and youth facilities,
assisting with clothing donations, and Christmas arts andcrafts with socially disadvantaged children. This involvement was a valuable experience for employees, boosting
teamwork off the job as well. A “tesa helps” project with“tatkräftig” has now become an integral part of the first yearof apprenticeship at the tesa plant in Hamburg.
The tesa plant in Offenburg (tWO) also participated in a
number of activities in support of good causes in 2016. Employees organized a soccer break for a team at the nearby
refugee camp and provided the players with shoes, balls,
and jerseys. The plant also supported refugee centers by
supplying office trailers equipped with computers with language learning software.

Global involvement
The affiliates also provided active aid in their vicinities in2016. The social commitment of tesa employees is a tradition in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, theUK, Turkey, Mexico, Colombia, Japan, India, China andmany other countries. A few examples:
Employees from the site in Brussels, Belgium, actively
supported “De Ark”, a facility that works with disabled children and youth and those from socially disadvantaged circumstances. The tesa employees made it possible for thechildren to spend a day at a theme park, provided refreshments, and helped the group leaders with the field trip.
Eleven colleagues from the Czech Republic spent a creative afternoon with children suffering from leukemia at theMotol University Hospital Transplant Center in Prague. The
tesa employees came up with what they called a “forensic
scene investigation game” revolving around the “goldentape”. Colleagues from Slovakia organized a similar activity

for the foundation “Deti slovenska” (Children of Slovakia),
doing craft projects with children who have hemophilia.

tesa helps
tesa Sustainability Report 2 2tesa donates: For uncomplicated help
Fast, effective assistance is needed when natural disasters
strike and in many other situations. We make targeted
monetary and product donations to support people in affected areas and the day-to-day work of selected institutions.

Activities in Germany
The Hamburg and Norderstedt tesa locations continued
their “leftover change donation” program in 2016, in linewith the slogan “small gesture, big impact”. The concept is
simple, so participation is easy: Employees donate thecents amount of their net monthly pay (i.e. 0.01 to 0.99 euro)
to nonprofit organizations in their communities. The money
collected, amounting to a maximum of 11.88 euros per employee per year, is credited to a separate tesa donation account. The three tesa locations in northern Germany collected a total of 2,992.92 euros by the end of the year in
2016. The management matched the funds for a total of
5,985.84 euros, which was then donated to the project“Zeit für Zukunft – Mentoren für Kinder e.V.”. This initiative
matches socially disadvantaged children and teens ranging
in age from six to 16 years with an adult mentor who meetswith them two to four times a month for at least one year toboost their self-confidence and support their personal development.
Because not every child is fortunate enough to receive
gifts at Christmas, tesa organized a Christmas gift campaign in 2016. New gifts were collected during the holiday
season from tesa colleagues, who were encouraged toplace them under the tesa Christmas tree. Employees of
ToysCompany, a nonprofit partner organization, then distributed the presents to socially disadvantaged families intime for the holiday.
Instead of giving Christmas gifts to customers, we supported the Hamburg-based nonprofit “Chancen für Kindere.V.” again in 2016, this time with a donation of 20,000 euros. The money goes toward three projects. First, we havebeen sponsoring children from poor families in Yeleswaram,
India, for several years now, giving the children a chance to
go to school instead of toiling in the quarries. Second, we
have also traditionally supported the Escuela Popular deArtes music school in Achupallas, Chile, which gives street
children a musical education, and thus a connection with astructured lifestyle. The third part of the donation for 2016
went to the newly founded initiative “Klinik-Clowns Hamburg e.V.”, which is dedicated to cheering up severely ill
children at hospitals in Hamburg, thereby strengthening
their will to live.

International activities
Collecting and providing donations is also an establishedtradition at our affiliates. The worldwide tesa sites outside
Germany donated about 102,000 euros to various causes
in 2016. Initiated by tesa Colombia, Argentina, and Guatemala, a large individual sum of about 9,000 euros out of thetotal went to the regional Red Cross to aid the victims ofthe disastrous earthquake in Ecuador. The Japanese affiliate donated 3,000 euros to aid the victims of the Kumamoto earthquake.

tesa donates
tesa Sustainability Report 2 3tesa supports: With opportunities foreducation
This area encompasses educational projects with which we
aim to unlock prospective futures for kids and teens. Our
focus here is on science and technology. These areas are
not only important prerequisites in terms of sustaining human life and securing social progress, but are also crucial totesa as a technology firm when it comes to recruiting thenext generation of employees. Specific projects are associated with these efforts in Germany and at many international tesa affiliates.

Getting young people excited about
STEM jobs
tesa SE in Germany has been partnering with Initiative
Naturwissenschaft & Technik (Science & Technology Initiative – abbreviated NAT) since 2014. In Hamburg and thesurrounding metropolitan area, NAT connects schools with
universities, colleges and technology-driven companies.
The objective is to give young people a variety of insights
into various occupational fields. tesa, for example, offers
the “90 Minutes of STEM” program (STEM = science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). In this program,tesa employees take a little less than two teaching hours togive groups of 12 to 15 school students real-life insights into
their working lives. In addition, tesa once again opened its
labs to female 9th graders in November 2016 as part of the“mint:pink” program. During the event, product development employees shared their own enthusiasm for science
with the girls and gave them a wide range of insights into
the basic principles behind adhesive technology. In addition to practical projects and excursions like this, tesa supports the NAT initiative financially as a supporting member.

Adhesive technology outreach in Japantesa’s Japanese affiliate was again active in the “Tsukuba
Science Festival” in 2016. Held in Tsukuba, the famous“City of Science”, the event is aimed at introducing young
people to the world of science through fun experiments
and games. The potential scientists of tomorrow were able
to experience fascinating aspects of bonding technology at
the tesa stand.

Elementary school scholarships in China
The tesa plant in Suzhou, China, initiated its “tesa Sunshine
Education Assistance” program nine years ago to help
children from families of migrant laborers get a better

elementary school education. The program has provided
tesa Sunshine Scholarships to 526 children so far. In lateNovember 2016, the management personally presented
the scholarships to 54 students at a special ceremony. After
that, the colleagues visited a robot museum with the boys
and girls to spark their interest in technology.

Support for educational initiatives
Other tesa affiliates have an established practice of contributing funding to educational initiatives. In Turkey, tesa supports the organization “Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey”, which offers extracurricular educationaland enrichment programs for children; in Mexico, the regional office provides funding to the “Fundación para laProtección de la Niñez” (Foundation for the Protection ofChildren), which awards scholarships for English as a second language; the Guatemalan affiliate finances a partial
scholarship for a student otherwise unable to afford higher
education; and tesa India donates to the “Nanhi Kali” organization, which offers primary school education opportunities to disadvantaged young girls. In September 2015, tesa
tape North America began sponsoring a four-year study
program concentrating on automotive technology. The
EcoCAR program is devoted to the development of an extremely energy-efficient high-performance vehicle.

tesa supports
tesa Sustainability Report 2 4tesa protects: Working to protect theenvironment
Environmental protection and sustainable management of
natural resources are part of the tesa business strategy.
Our engagement on the production and product level iscomplemented by specific projects for preserving natureand improving quality of life in the region.
Since 2011 we have been working to preserve the sensitive ecosystem of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve “Nie­dersächsische Elbtalaue”, not far from Hamburg. These
activities focus on measures that serve to conserve or restore the original landscapes of this area and thus preserve
species and biodiversity. Through the active efforts of employees and financial support alike, a host of trees typical of
the region were planted as part of three reforestation projects up to 2015. They now offer new habitats for native species of birds and insects. In addition, funding was provided
for nearly 20,000 plants for reforestation measures invarious “nature dynamics” areas – protected habitat zones
inside the biosphere reserve where nature is left to takeits own course. In 2016, after the elimination of spruce
monocultures not typical of the landscape, oak trees wereplanted over a one-hectare area, which was then fenced inwith a neighboring area where planting had taken place in2015. In this way, tesa has helped to ensure that 10.3 hectares of coniferous forest has been converted to deciduous
forest.

tesa protects
tesa Sustainability Report 2 5tesa SE
Hugo-Kirchberg-Straße 122848 Norderstedt
Germany
Phone: +49 40 88899-6597
Fax: +49 40 888 99-186597
responsibility@tesa.com
tesa.com/about-tesa/responsibility

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