OUR RESPONSIBILITY –OUR COMMITMENT
Sustainability Reportof the tesa Group 2017

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 2017.
The report presents an overview of key measures, results, and indicators
across five fields:• Responsible corporate management• Multifaceted approach to supporting employees• Consistent environmental protection• Product responsibility• Social commitment and involvement
We implement a large number of projects at our 52 affiliates worldwide,year after year. This report is limited to a representative selection of current initiatives. It focuses both on the topics and areas that are of material
importance to our business and those that have a major impact on ourbusiness activities. To identify these topics, we performed what is known
as a materiality analysis. The subjects identified as being of material importance were climate protection and CO2 emissions, internal succession
and leadership, occupational safety, prevention of anticompetitive practices, human rights in the supply chain, and product safety.

UN Global Compact and German CSR
Directive Implementation Act
This report also meets our obligation under the United Nations Global
Compact to provide information on our advances 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.
The 2017 fiscal year marks the first time that our parent company, Beiersdorf AG, is obligated, under the German CSR Directive Implementation
Act, to supplement the existing financial reporting with information on
key non-financial aspects of business activities. We have integrated thenon-financial information on tesa, which is part of the non-financial groupdeclaration of Beiersdorf, into this sustainability report.

Editorial notes and further information
This report is available in German and English. Like all of the versions
published in previous years, it is available online at www.tesa.de andwww.tesa.com
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/company/responsibility

2tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017

CONTENTS

p

2

p

4

p

5

About this report
Foreword
The tesa business modelp

7

Responsible corporate management

p

8

p

9

p

9

p

9

p

9

p

13

Sustainability along the value chain
Strategic action fields
Risk management
Organizational structure
UN Global Compact
Good governance
Responsibility in the supply chainp

14

Multifaceted approach to supporting employees

p

14

p

17

p 10

p 20

Personnel policy and personnel strategy
Occupational health and safety

Consistent environmental protection

p 23

Energy efficiency and CO2 reduction
Measures for 2017
Efficient use of resources

p 25

Product responsibility

p 26

Social commitment and involvement

p

21

p 22

p 26
p 27

Corporate citizenship strategy
Our “tesa connects” program
2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review

3FOREWORD“Sustainable thinking is an integral
element of our corporate strategy:
It guides our actions and drives us tocontinuously improve.”

Dear Reader,

Dr. Robert Gereke, CEO of tesa SE

As one of the world’s leading adhesive technology companies, we know how sustainable bonds are created. In an extended sense, too, our goal at tesa is to connect things thatbelong together: social and ecological responsibility on the
one hand and economic activity on the other. That is thefoundation on which we offer innovative, high-quality products for our customers.
Sustainable thinking is a longstanding tradition at tesa, afact that is also expressed in our membership in the United
Nations Global Compact. We undertook this voluntary commitment in 2006, and ever since then we have pledged toachieve continuous improvement on key subjects relating tosustainability.
Our corporate responsibility activities focus on four strategic action fields: employees, the environment, products,
and society. Against the background of the German CSR
Directive Implementation Act, we reassessed which topics
are of key importance to us in these fields in 2017 (see p. 9).
On this basis, we can manage and guide our activities evenbetter in the future.
We know that our responsibilities don’t start and end at
the plant door. That’s why as early as during the process ofsourcing our raw materials, we take care to ensure that natural resources are used sparingly and that social standards
are observed. We also aim to make our own processes evenmore ecofriendly. We take various approaches to meet thisgoal, including focusing on energy conservation and efficient in-house power generation to lower our CO2 emissions. We also make targeted investments in sustainableproducts. In 2010, we launched the tesa ecoLogo® brand,which includes products such as adhesive tape dispensers,
transparent adhesive tape, and packing tapes, all made primarily from recycled or natural materials.
To continue to grow and evolve as a company, we needcommitted, dedicated, and highly qualified employees. We
place great emphasis on good management and internal
succession. To this end, we have developed a standardized
global leadership training program for management in recent years. We were able to further expend on these offerings in 2017.
Our goal is to have a positive impact on the world aroundus. Through our “tesa connects” program, we assume responsibility for diverse social matters and the environment
with this aim in mind. Alongside donations, the program focuses in particular on volunteer activities by our committed
and dedicated employees. This year employees worldwide
once again engaged voluntarily in more than 50 initiatives
for a good cause.
We firmly believe that the economy, ecology and social
matters form an inseparable whole. That’s why at tesa, weplan to continue to work toward stable bonds in the future– in our core business and beyond.

4tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017

Dr. Robert Gereke
CEO of tesa SE

THE tesa BUSINESS MODELin over 100 countries
over

2500

employees
in Germany

operating with 52 affiliates
R&D centers in Germany,
the U.S., and Asia

4450

employees
worldwide••

tesa SE, with its 52 affiliates, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of self-adhesive products and system solutions for industrial customers and consumers. The Group is a wholly owned
affiliate of the Beiersdorf Group. It employs approximately 4,450* people and operates in morethan 100 countries.

*31.12.2017

The Group and its affiliates worldwide
The geographic focus of our business activities is Europe,
followed by the regions of Africa, Asia and Australia, and theAmericas. In addition to tesa SE, the affiliates in China, theUnited States, Italy, and Singapore are among the largest
single companies in the tesa Group. We have production
facilities in Germany, Italy, the United States, and China. tesa
has been headquartered in Norderstedt, near Hamburg,
since 2015.

Solutions and products for industry,craftsmen, and consumers
The tesa business is divided into two segments: In the
Direct Industries division, which accounts for somewhat
more than half of sales, tesa supplies specialized systemsolutions directly to industrial customers. The Trade Markets division deals with those markets where customers obtain their market-driven tesa products through retail partners
or similar channels rather than directly. This includes not2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review

5only the product ranges for private consumers and craftsmen, but also adhesive tapes that are intended for industrial
and commercial customers and are marketed primarily via
technical retailers.
Our brand philosophy and strategy center on dependably high quality, high capacity for innovation, and the use ofstate-of-the-art technology. We offer our customers effective solutions and high-quality products, especially for thefollowing areas of application:• tesa supports customers from the automotive, electricaland electronics, print and paper, and construction industries with system solutions first and foremost. For theelectronics industry, for example, we supply adhesive
systems for mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets,
and wearables (including smart watches, fitness trackers,
and smart glasses).
• Our affiliate tesa Labtec GmbH focuses on the development and production of medicated patches, termed“transdermal therapeutic systems,” for the pharmaceuticals industry. Its other areas of emphasis include films
containing an active ingredient that dissolve in the mouth
without needing added liquid.
• tesa carries a broad assortment of products for the technical trade and continually adds new products and adjusts its range to the changing needs of professional customers in fields such as the construction industry.
• Under the tesa umbrella brand, we offer consumers in
Europe and Latin America an extensive range of innovative products for use in the home, office, and garden.
They include classic tesafilm® along with tesamoll® solutions for heat insulation, Easy Cover® products for painting and masking applications, mounting tapes for repairs
and mounting, packing tapes, and household insect control products.
• In the craftsmen business segment, tesa focuses on customized product ranges and target group-specific marketing concepts for professional craftsmen, such as painters and finishers.

Strategic alignment
Our core mission is to enhance the value of the tesa Groupon a sustained basis with the interests of our employees,
customers, and shareholders in mind by offering usefulproducts and selling them at a profit all over the world. Our
highly qualified employees and continuously optimized
business processes allow us to respond quickly and flexibly
to changes in the market and develop demand-driven products. Knowledge of production processes and analyses ofcurrent industry trends combine with our broad spectrumof high-quality, market-driven products to give our company

6tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017

a competitive edge and ensure its lasting success. Our great
willingness to assume corporate responsibility toward society and the environment also contributes to this. Sustainable thinking and actions are integral parts of our corporate
culture and are firmly anchored in all of our business processes. With an eye to ensuring good, sustainable corporate management, we have developed internal standards
such as the tesa Code of Conduct for this, and we emphasize compliance with these rules across the entire Group.
We have also established the tesa Code of Conduct for Suppliers, which obligates our business partners to conform to
our sustainability standards.

Procurement markets and overall external
conditions
The range of goods we need to make our products is adiverse one. Sixty percent of them are what are known as
direct goods, which go directly into our products. This category includes items like rubber, chemicals, and backing materials such as films and fabrics. The other forty percent areindirect goods, which are used indirectly to manufacture our
products. These include machines, buildings, and services.
The tesa value chain is aligned globally, with Europe andAsia as the largest procurement markets and China as themain country of origin.
One factor that is hugely important to the quality of our
products – and thus to our ongoing success – is an efficientvalue chain geared toward not only fulfilling current needs,
but also anticipating future developments. To meet this requirement, we qualify our suppliers on a systematic basis
and work to streamline our supply chains through regional
procurement in the vicinity of our production sites. We ensure this in various ways, including by relying on local purchasing teams. They know and observe the local market indetail and are able to make a realistic assessment of therisks arising from issues like political instability and changes
in local legislation. We also minimize regional risks by developing alternative suppliers.
In addition to regional changes, broader trends also affect procurement. These include rising raw material prices,changes in sales and distribution channels, and shifts in thecompetition situation. To account for these influences, tesa
has created a central function called the tesa Purchasing
Network (tPN), which brings together cross-sector activities
and resources and manages all processes across the Group,
supported by IT systems.

RESPONSIBLE CORPORATEMANAGEMENT

tesa views responsibility as the key to sustainable value creation. Across the entire Group,
we have established the following principles for this, based on our corporate values:
The basis for our lasting success is our customers’ trustin tesa as a company and in the tesa brand. Our goal isto affirm that trust time and again through dependable
quality, superior service, robust innovation performance, state-of-the-art technologies, and sustainableproducts.
In the process, we trust in our employees, who put
their passion and experience to work for tesa. Throughhealthy, fair working conditions that offer a wealth ofopportunities, we aim to earn their long-term loyalty andbe an attractive, responsible employer.
Our responsibility extends along the entire value
chain. We strive to ensure fair working conditions within our suppliers’ organizations, respect the environment,
work on behalf of society as a whole, and create lasting
added value through our products.

2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review

7Sustainability along the value chain
At tesa, we have viewed corporate responsibility as an important feature of our core business and our business processes for many years. From raw materials procurement torecycling, we assume responsibility at every stage of ourvalue chain:

FOUR ACTION FIELDS
Employees

4450
100

in over

Environment

Talentmanagement

employees
worldwide

environmental management
system

ISO 14001

Occupationalsafety and healthcountries

Solvent-free
production
technologies

Generating our own energy
through combined heatand power

CHP

VALUE CHAIN

Raw materials

Products

Society8

Production

Distribution

Resource-efficientindustrial solutions

Commitment to social causes,
education, and the environment

tesa connects

tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017

Use

Ecofriendly tesa®
ecoLogo product range

Disposal

We prioritize regional sources and renewable raw materials
as early as during the procurement stage. At the same time,
we also require our suppliers to do business responsibly bycomplying with our Code of Conduct for Suppliers. At oursites, we work to reduce our environmental impact on a continuous basis. We also ensure consistent occupational safety and health for our employees. We are socially involved
and committed in a variety of ways around our sites, and weoffer our customers an ever-growing range of ecofriendly
products.

Strategic action fields
Our approach to corporate responsibility focuses on four
strategic action fields: employees, products, the environment, and society. We regularly review our areas of focus
within these action fields. With an eye to the German CSR
Directive Implementation Act, we reevaluated our main
topics in 2017 with representatives of the units at tesa, theGroup parent company Beiersdorf, and other relevant stakeholders. During the materiality analysis, the subjects ofclimate protection and CO2 emissions, internal succession
and leadership, occupational safety, prevention of anticompetitive practices, human rights in our supply chain, andproduct safety were identified as being material.

Risk management
We believe success-oriented and responsible activities
include Group-wide, integrated management of risks andopportunities that follows a structured process to identify
and manage risks. In the course of these activities, we assess operational, functional, and strategic risks with an eye
to their possible financial impact and effects on our
reputation as well as their probability of occurrence. Our
compliance management team uses the same criteria in a
separate process (compliance risk assessment) to identify
and assess the relevant risks we may face as a result of
non-compliance with external regulations and internal
standards.
At the end of 2017 and start of 2018, we held an interdepartmental workshop to review how well our existing processes cover the non-financial aspects. The workshop also
identified additional potential risks associated with aspects
not previously covered.
We subsequently assessed all of the risks that were identified as part of this process with regard to their impact on
the non-financial aspects. The only risks identified as having
a high likelihood of occurrence and potentially serious negative effects were those associated with competition law;these are explained in the section on good governance.

These risks will be integrated into our Group-wide risk management policies and procedures in 2018, if this step has
not already been taken.

Organizational structure
Corporate responsibility is a firmly established principle atthe tesa Group, and the Executive Board has articulated an
express commitment to it. At its instigation, responsibility
was established as a task that cuts across all areas within
the Group. All of the relevant units are involved, which ensures that there is a link between these efforts and our business activities and key business processes. The following
units are involved in steering these activities and are responsible for operational implementation:
•
•
•
•
•
•

Legal & Compliance
Purchasing Network
Human Resources
Environmental, Quality, Health & Safety Management
Corporate Citizenship
Corporate Communication

A central corporate responsibility steering group that includes representatives of these units meets quarterly, under
the leadership of the member of the tesa Management
Board responsible for human resources, to discuss issues ofcontent. The group also coordinates the dialogue between
the units and reporting on non-financial topics.
In addition, we engage in regular dialogue with our parent company Beiersdorf and coordinate our activities witheach other. Our cooperation takes place both at a subject-specific level and within the framework of our joint reporting.

UN Global Compact
tesa joined the UN Global Compact in 2006. Our membership underscores our commitment to upholding interna­
tionally recognized social and environmental standards.
Companies from 163 countries, international employees’
associations, civil society groups, governments, and UN
organizations have now joined the Global Compact. Its ten
principles in the areas of human rights, labor standards,
environmental protection, and anti-corruption form the overarching guidelines for the company’s actions at tesa, as
elsewhere.

2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review

9Principle 1:	Businesses should support andrespect the protection of internationallyproclaimed human rights; andGovernance & compliance

Principle 3:	Businesses should uphold the freedomof association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

Legal violations not only lead to penalties and fines, but also
damage our reputation and run counter to our understanding of good governance. To secure the longstanding trustand confidence that consumers, customers, investors, andemployees place in the tesa Group, we set high standards
with regard to good governance and corporate responsibility, both for the company as a whole and for each and every
one of us as individuals.

Principle 4:	the elimination of all forms of forced andcompulsory labor;

Code of ConductPrinciple 2:	make sure that they are not complicit
in human rights abuses.

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 and diffusionof environmentally friendly technologies.
Principle 10:	Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortionand bribery.

At tesa, the ten principles of the Global Compact are thestarting point for the internal Code of Conduct and guidelines. Chief among them are the Code of Conduct for Suppliers and the environmental guidelines, which are describedin further detail in this report. Each year, we present the advances we have made in these areas to the UN Global Compact in the form of this report.

Good governancetesa assumes responsibility for economic actions that arelegally compliant and aligned with ethical principles, bothwithin its own organization and in its supply chain. Employees and suppliers of the Group are required to abide byclear specifications that have been set down in writing.
Compliance with these specifications is monitored and verified regularly through internal and external audits and supported through activities such as advising, training sessions,and action programs.

10 tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017

The tesa Code of Conduct (CoC) sets out our high standards
regarding good governance on a binding basis for the entire
organization. With its fundamental rules and criteria derived
from the ten principles of the UN Global Compact, the tesa
CoC offers clear guidance for the entire staff and is applicable worldwide. It helps employees and managers to observeand uphold our company’s key principles and values in their
day-to-day work, to share these with others, and to gear allof their business conduct toward them.

Compliance management system
Based on the same key principles and values enshrined in
the tesa CoC, tesa has long been committed to free markets
and fair competition. We reject any and all forms of corruption, bribery, and other unlawful conduct. Our internal guidelines are aligned with the applicable laws and the tesa CoC.
They are an essential basis of our activities and a key factor
contributing to our long-term, sustainable business success.
A new conceptual and organizational approach was chosen
for the tesa Compliance Management System (CMS) in 2017,
representing a logical next step for the existing system. The
Executive Board’s goal in doing this was to align tesa toward
the growing challenges in new and highly competitive markets in the medium to long term while also taking the context of rapidly changing overall legal and economic conditions into account.
Our goal in adjusting and strengthening our CMS is toensure that all relevant applicable legal provisions are observed. At the same time, we believe it is especially important to make sure that compliance is viewed as being associated with good governance and thus as an integral part ofour business activities, and it should be embraced as a matter of course. To achieve this, we follow a specified processwith four steps: prevent, identify, respond, improve.
Our compliance program currently focuses on conductthat is compliant with antitrust law, preventing corruption,and data protection and privacy. Other risk areas have also

been identified as compliance fields, and organizational
measures and processes have been established to accommodate these areas. Clear assignment of duties ensuresthat all compliance officers are aware when organizing theirtasks and conscious of their responsibilities and work on
and further develop the respective thematic areas on an ongoing basis.

Systematic approach
Our parent company, Beiersdorf AG, performs regular auditsof its own and, on behalf of the Executive Board of tesa SE,
also conducts further audits in specific risk fields. We also
perform spot checks in the individual compliance fields
that are not prompted by specific events or occasions. The
results of the various audits and spot checks allow us to
identify possible undesirable developments and needed
improvements in the overall system early on and take appropriate corrective measures.

Compliance initiatives and measures
Based on standardized risk analyses, we have identified
and defined relevant compliance fields for the tesa Group.
Our designated experts review these fields regularly, ensuring that they are up to date and adding new areas and making adjustments as necessary.
We continued to spread and solidify the principles of the
CoC through regular communication and training activities
and intensive advising within the company.
To provide our employees with information, we also operate a compliance theme platform on our intranet. Employees all over the world can use the platform to learn about
legally compliant behavior in their day-to-day business dealings and to find guidelines and processes and capable
points of contact to obtain further advice. Our staff also receives regular multilingual intranet news items on relevant
developments and decisions by courts and other government agencies and tips on how to behave in the context ofgovernance and compliance.

Reporting system
One important element of the compliance management system is our internal reporting structure, which we use to takereports of potential compliance violations, evaluate theirimportance, and then determine what sanctions to impose
in strict compliance with the principle of proportionality.
tesa has expanded this reporting system over several stages. In recent years, for example, tesa has given its central
CoC Manager from the field of HR further backing and sup-port by creating a new network of regional CoC managers in
HR. In addition, tesa adopted a Group-wide whistleblowing
policy in 2017 and appointed an external ombudsman aspart of a pilot project in the Greater China and Asia Pacificregions.

Prevention of anticompetitive practices
Attention and sensitivity to the subject of antitrust law haveincreased worldwide, a fact that has also been affirmed byan internal risk assessment performed with an eye to gauging materiality with regard to the topics covered by the CSR
Directive Implementation Act. Prevention of anticompetitive
practices (antitrust) lies at the heart of our CMS and has
been identified as a key subject for the purposes of the CSR
Directive Implementation Act. This development has been
driven by the increasingly complex overall legal conditions
that apply, changes in the prosecution practices of antitrust
authorities, and the various business models in place within
the tesa Group.

2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review 11

Alongside our own sales activities and sales and distribution through wholesalers, retailers, and online retailers, tesa
is also active in research and development. Elevated risks
apply in all of these areas. These days, prosecutors arecracking down on – and imposing hefty fines for – not justtraditional cartel agreements, like price fixing between competitors, but increasingly also anticompetitive restraints between suppliers and their customers and sharing of sensitive information. The vast potential for sanctions is further
exacerbated by the fact that following the antitrust proceedings pursued by the competition authorities, legal actions
are generally to be expected from customers seeking damages as a result of financial harm sustained through the antitrust breach. Independently of this development, we successfully introduced the tesa Antitrust Compliance Program
across the board several years ago and have been further
developing it since then. The program’s primary objective is
to raise awareness of topics in antitrust law throughout theGroup. It provides information on relevant content in antitrust law and clarifies potential risks. Internal communication
structures and a global network of expert attorneys werealso put in place.
The key elements of our antitrust compliance program
include various guidelines, a training concept that is geared
toward real-world practice, encompassing Web-based training modules and on-site training sessions as well as workshops, and extensive advising options. Our guidelines set
out clear specifications on topics relevant to competition.
This includes proper interaction with competitors, participation in meetings of industry associations, and information onretail prices. The guidelines also provide information on
general and simple requirements and prohibitions. They areaccessible to all employees 24 hours a day on the compliance intranet platform, and we also provide versions in thelocal language to employees of our international affiliates
after review and adaptation to accommodate local laws.
Training options also offer support.
All employees and managers worldwide who come into
contact with topics related to antitrust law receive training at
regular intervals. Our training concept encompasses online
training that communicates key concepts in antitrust law insix languages. We also hold on-site training sessions in thelocal language in regions where there is particular risk, paying special attention to country-specific regulations and circumstances. Selected business units also receive intensive
in-house training on specific topics that are particularly relevant to our business.
Individualized advice on issues of antitrust law during ongoing business operations is provided by the legal and compliance department of tesa SE as another key element of theantitrust compliance program. At the international level,

12 tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017

these activities are supplemented by specialized attorneys
at many of our affiliates’ sites, so there is a wealth of advice
available from highly qualified sources worldwide.

Anti-corruption
The tesa anti-corruption guidelines offer guidance on what
to do in case of conflicts of interest, invitations, and personal
gifts or perquisites. Through supplementary advice andtraining, we explain in detail how these rules are to be applied in order to give employees guidance and a sense ofcertainty.

Data protection
Based on the heightened requirements set down in the EU
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we identified
data protection as a key compliance field this reporting year,
following a revision of our former risk analysis. We havebeen working with an external advisor and service provider
since then to implement the organizational and technical requirements of the GDPR on time by May 25, 2018.

Key figures
Participation in all training activities worldwide is tracked,
analyzed, and reported on centrally through our Learning
Management Platform. In 2017, we invited 1621 employees in
41 countries and at 48 affiliates to an online training in the
key compliance field of antitrust. Training in this field isscheduled to take place at least every two years, so we will
be using 2018 for follow-up training and to revise all of the
training materials for online and on-site training activities.
The goal in doing this is to provide information on governance and compliance with as much of a focus on real-worldpractice as possible. At the same time, we need to ensurethat the entire staff takes these topics very seriously andunderstands that they are an integral element of businessactivities.

Antitrust
Rate of successful participation (global1*)

96.42 %

1* - The participation rate refers to the target and risk group that was
defined in advance for this key compliance field. This group includes all
employees and managers throughout the tesa Group who may comeinto contact with antitrust-related topics and requirements.

Responsibility in the supply chain
Our production activities require raw materials and chemicals that we purchase from numerous suppliers all over theworld and transport to our sites. Our cooperation with these
suppliers also calls our attention to ecological and social
challenges within the supply chain. On the process side, allmatters concerning the supply chain fall within the area of
responsibility of the member of the executive management
responsible for the Supply Network.

Procurement strategy
Our employees, customers, and suppliers are at the heart ofwhat we do. But we are also responsible for people whohave an indirect connection with our processes. Complying
with human rights worldwide is among our principles.
Because of the international nature of our value chain, weare exposed to a certain level of risk with regard to humanrights violations. We aim to make the origin of the raw andintermediate products we purchase traceable. With this inmind, our procurement strategy focuses on physical proximity: We are ramping up our efforts to procure the raw materials needed at the plants – including in Asia, for example – inclose geographic proximity to the sites.

Code of Conduct for Suppliers
The Code of Conduct for Suppliers (CoCfS) forms the basis
for the responsible design of our global procurement processes. It describes fundamental rules and obligations for all
key suppliers that supply tesa directly in the areas of humanrights, labor standards, environmental protection, and prevention of corruption, all based on the ten principles outlined in the UN Global Compact. We only embark on business relationships with these relevant suppliers if theyexpressly agree to follow the CoCfS.
The CoCfS replaced the tesa Purchasing Charter, which
had the same content, on March 31, 2017. The renaming
took place at the same time as the international launch of anew purchasing standard. Worldwide, we began training allprocess owners in the application of the standard during
this reporting period. The online training developed specifically for this purpose also highlights and goes into further
detail on the key role played by the CoCfS as an element of
all procurement processes at tesa.

Supplier audits
In addition to supplier visits, tesa performs regular supplieraudits. In new business relationships and existing relation-

ships alike, tesa conducts these kinds of audits of key suppliers. The suppliers who are subject to audits are selectedaccording to various criteria, which can include the supplier’s strategic importance, a search for new suppliers, or
quality issues. The objective of these audits is to assess a
specific supplier’s performance capacity. Irregularities arenoted in visit or audit reports. In the course of these activities, we regularly check and document whether environmental standards and occupational health and safety measures are being complied with; these are also elements of the
CoCfS. Within the tesa Group, the Group internal audit department monitors the purchasing standards that apply
worldwide and the associated processes at the affiliates byconducting regular “Purchase to Pay” audits, which review
all processes from procurement through to invoicing. To
help make the subject of human rights a generally observed
standard through regular supplier visits and supplier audits,
plans call for including the aspects of the CoCfS in the standard list of questions for supplier audits as well starting in
2018.

2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review 13

MULTIFACETED APPROACH TOSUPPORTING EMPLOYEESOur goal is to boost our employees’ engagement and motivation and enhance their loyalty to
the company. That’s why we make ongoing investments in measures to ensure that working at
tesa remains highly attractive. Important components of our personnel policy include primarily
internal staffing of management positions and leadership, training and continuing education,a thriving culture of feedback and dialogue, and occupational safety and health.

Personnel policy and personnel strategy
As a leading technology company in our industry, weneed to recruit highly qualified, committed and dedicatedemployees, further develop them on an individualizedbasis and earn their loyalty. With an eye to our managers,
our goal is to safeguard and expand valuable experience

14 tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017and market expertise and harness these factors to ensure
our long-term success as a company. One crucial factor isfor tesa to be perceived as an attractive employer by
employees and applicants alike. Employee health and safety is the basis for a motivated, satisfied, high-performing
workforce, which is why these aspects are top priorities at
tesa.

Two factors are especially crucial when it comes to ourappeal as an employer: recruiting talented next-generation
workers and securing their lasting loyalty to the company,
and promoting and cultivating outstanding leadership qualities among our managerial staff. We have developed extensive measures in both areas to help strengthen our staff intheir individual development. We are also committed to adiverse corporate culture where all employees can live up to
their full potential.

Internal succession
One core element of our personnel strategy is to fill key
management positions from within wherever possible in order to retain their valuable experience and market knowledge and be able to optimally leverage these capabilities
for our long-term success as a company. Several times a
year, the Executive Board holds meetings where the members discuss succession planning and talent management.
The Human Resources (HR) unit is instrumental in making iteasier for future managers to rise within the organizationand earning their lasting loyalty. Among other things, theunit conducts development meetings and advisory sessions
with employees, organizes talent management workshops,
and ensures that employees receive regular feedback fromtheir supervisors. HR’s tasks also include ensuring that information is shared between the regions and the corporate
headquarters and making suggestions for filling open positions across different units and regions. In the period underreview, we filled most top management positions with internal candidates in this way. The following specific measurescontributed to this in 2017:

Measures:• In the Europe and Asia regions, talented workers were
given the opportunity to undergo a “Competencies Review.” The review provided feedback on participants’
strengths and development areas with regard to the tesa
Key Competencies. Intensive discussions with experienced managers and HR employees gave these up-andcoming employees further impetus for their future careers
at tesa.
• During the several-week tesa Management Development Program, international managers took an in-depth
look at the subject of strategy development. Professors
from several business schools assisted participants bysupplying recent academic and scientific insights andcompetitive analyses on the specific topics covered.
• In 2017, as in years past, talent workshops were held at
the management level both within the regions and at

headquarters. During these events, managers come together worldwide to discuss ways to support junior talent
on an individualized basis.
• We held a major HR marketplace event at our headquarters in Norderstedt in 2017, which focused on employee
development, along with other topics. During the event,
we met with managers and employees and talked about
who bears which responsibilities when it comes to ensuring that our staff’s personal and professional development is a success. Many participants attended, affirmingthat there is great demand for information and opportunities for dialogue on these subjects.

Training and measures aimed at goodmanagement
Good leadership is crucial to employees’ engagement andto the focus on performance and achieving goals that applies throughout the company. We firmly believe that leadership is absolutely essential in earning employees’ long-termloyalty to tesa. With this in mind, we regularly invest in further developing our managers, and have developed astandardized worldwide leadership training program in recent years. This includes the new Essential Leadership
Training program. We introduced this program in the Latin
America region in 2017, following the launches in Asia andEurope. We plan to shift the regions of North America andGermany to the new concept in 2018 as well. The goal is tohave a standardized concept of leadership throughout theentire group of companies in the future. This same concept
is also reflected in the tesa Key Competencies – four of thenine key competencies relate to the topics of management
and leadership.

Measures:• tesa managers in the Europe, Asia, and Latin America regions underwent a six-day modular training program on
managing employees as part of the standardized worldwide leadership training program. The Essential Leadership Program will be offered in Germany as well startingin 2018. The “Intensive Leadership at tesa” training session was held for the last time in Germany in 2017.
• We aim to give experienced managers the opportunity totackle tough leadership situations with professional guidance. Toward that end, we developed a program called
Advanced Leadership Training and tested it in a pilot
project in Germany in 2017. The program is slated tolaunch internationally in the spring of 2018.
• In addition to their subject-specific duties, managers also
have to be able to answer questions from their employ-2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review 15

ees on a wide range of topics and about rules at the company and to provide explanations on these subjects.
These include issues like recruiting new employees, supervision of interns and student employees, compensation management, matters of labor and employment law,and talks regarding parental leave. On top of that, laws
and collective agreements impose an ever-increasing
number of requirements, which managers are required toknow and apply. To assist them in this, the HR unit hascreated a shared digital information room on the intranet where managers can find all of the information theyneed quickly and in a clearly structured, easy-to-use format.
• How do employees view their supervisors, and what are
their perceptions of the supervisors’ leadership? To answer these questions, we developed a digital feedback
tool based on the tesa Key Competencies in 2017. Employees are surveyed on various aspects relating to leadership, and afterward, supervisors receive an anonymized
analysis they can use as a basis to discuss the next steps
with their employees.

Development, support, training
To be successful in the long term, we need to offer our employees attractive development opportunities – at all levels,in all areas. We noticed years ago that development opportunities are increasingly crucial in determining how close
employees feel to their company. We firmly believe that all
people enjoy growing and developing and are willing to

16 tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017

learn new things. With that in mind, we give our employees
opportunities to participate in continuing education programs and gain new experience in other units or regions.
We are also constantly enlarging the range of formal vocational training programs offered at the tesa plants in Germany. This reporting year, for example, the first apprentices
joined the company in the electronics technician for operating technology program. Prior years had already seen thecreation of new programs for apprentice machine and system operators, industrial mechanics, chemical technicians,
and mechatronics technicians.

Measures and programs:• Formal vocational training programs: machine and system operator, industrial mechanic, chemical technician,electronics technician and mechatronics technician apprenticeship tracks. There were 81 apprentices and trainees in 2017. Two of them decided to complete a cooperative university education and vocational training program.
• Qualification programs: basic training for new employees and special formats tailored to the requirements ofindividual business units. The Sales and Marketing Qualification Program, for example, encompasses a combination of technical training and sales skills for sales employees. This reporting year, it was adjusted to account for thelatest developments on the market and the changing
needs of the sales team. The training and qualification
program for tesa R&D employees includes topics such as
patents and quality management. During the year underreview, 664 employees participated in a total of 220 daysof training as part of our training and qualification programs.
• tesa Supply Network e-learning program: This initiative
helps employees develop an understanding of processes
and contexts within the areas of logistics, production, andmaterials management.
• Open course program: These classes are open to all employees by arrangement with their managers and include
subjects such as language classes and IT training sessions. These sessions comprised 51 days of training, with
two hundred employees participating.
• “Treffpunkt Weiterbildung” (Training Venue): All tesa
employees have the option to participate in the continuing education program run by parent company Beiersdorf.

Feedback and dialogue

Occupational health and safety

Formats geared toward feedback and dialogue also play a
key role in our employees’ personal development. Sharing
with colleagues and supervisors gives employees a chance
to learn more about their personal strengths and areas
where they have potential for development and to give eachother valuable feedback.
We have continued to cultivate and improve our corporate culture of feedback in recent years, using tools such as
employee surveys, which we conduct on a rotating basis inseveral regions or the Hamburg headquarters every year.
The first step is to measure our employees’ engagement,
motivation, and loyalty to the company. To foster dialogue
between employees and supervisors, joint workshops areheld following the anonymized surveys, with participants
discussing the results and mapping out specific actions totake. We then conduct subsequent employee surveys to review how effective and how widely accepted these measures have been. In general, the results of these surveys
have affirmed that our employees are highly motivated andcommitted and have strong ties to tesa.
After conducting employee surveys at the Norderstedt
headquarters and other locations in Europe in 2016, Latin
America was the focus for 2017. Employees of five affiliates
in all were surveyed, with a response rate of 98 percent. The
individual companies will begin implementing the measuresderived from the survey results in 2018.
We also conducted competency-based employee performance appraisals in the tesa regions in 2017. This standardized international format is modeled on the tesa Key
Competencies, which determine the actions of people attesa. This is another way we ensure dialogue between employees and managers.

The safety and health of employees are the prerequisites fora motivated, satisfied, high-performing staff. We take various
measures to help prevent or minimize accidents and illnesses.

Foundations for safe, healthy work
Protecting the health and safety of our employees is one of
our responsibilities as a company. We take a proactive approach in order to prevent workplace accidents and eliminate work-related health risks and the occupational illnesses they cause before they can arise. Our approach includes
measures in the areas of safety and occupational medicine
along with actions geared toward protecting employees’
health.
With regard to occupational safety, we follow the tesa
Occupational Safety Guidelines, which apply throughout
the group of companies. They form the basis of our internalmanagement system in this area. As part of an annual management review, the company management works together
with the occupational safety unit to evaluate the accidents
that have occurred that year and takes new steps to further
improve our employees’ safety and reduce work-related
health risks.
We employ internal safety specialists who are familiar
with tesa’s global health and occupational safety guidelines
and with the local circumstances at all our production sites.
We also take deliberate steps to promote international dialogue among these experts. The safety specialists meet annually to discuss key occupational health and safety risks.
They also initiate joint projects, define standards, and share
information on successes and experiences as part of these
events.

2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review 17

Changes in machinery, systems, or working premises,
new purchases, and process adjustments can all affect ouremployees’ safety and health. When we identify a risk in thisarea, we perform a risk assessment, focusing on two key
aspects: systematic identification and assessment of risks,and personal responsibility on the part of employees. We
also strive to implement a continuous improvement processthat integrates all of the parties involved. The person responsible for the risk assessments is the supervisor in
charge of the specific area in question.
We aim to ensure that our stringent requirements for occupational health and safety are implemented consistently.
With that in mind, we are careful to factor in this aspect rightfrom the start when planning new plant and equipment projects. This allows us to identify and eliminate risks to employee safety early on. Before equipment and systems arecommissioned, they are required to undergo multistage
safety tests.

To proactively promote employees’ health, tesa also has abroad-based occupational health management program at
headquarters. Under the “It’s for you” umbrella brand, aninterdisciplinary team consisting of representatives from HR,
the works council, the health promotion team, the tesa sport

Occupational Safety*

unitWork Accidents ≥ 1 dayclub, the social advising service, the body representing disabled employees, the occupational health service, and theoccupational safety team works to develop a wide range ofmeasures (see measures and areas of focus in occupational
health management).

Reducing absences, preventing accidents
Our strategic goal “Zero Accidents” is derived from the prevention strategy adopted by Berufsgenossenschaft Rohstoffe und Chemische Industrie (BG RCI), the statutory accident
insurance and prevention institution for the raw materials
and chemicals industries. In this way, we put the safety andhealth of our employees front and center in everything we
do. At all of our sites, we are constantly on the lookout forrisks and possible ways to improve and take appropriate action to ensure greater safety in the workplace.
Our occupational safety management activities focus on
production sites, where the risks of accidents and adverse
health effects are greater than at our office headquarters.
Group-wide, all of our sites with attached coating and/or adhesive production operations are certified under ISO 14001,
a standard that covers both environmental aspects and occupational safety.
Our goal is to continuously reduce the number of accidents with ≥ 1 day of absence and, in particular, the numberof reportable accidents with > 3 days of absence. tesa also
monitors the lost day rate for specific locations.
The frequency of reportable accidents (> 3 days) at tesa
stood at 1.3 per million hours worked in 2017 (2016: 3.1), significantly below the German industry average (BG RCI), of
11.7. We view this as proof of the quality of our management
system in the area of occupational safety.

Full Year 2015

Full Year 2016

Full Year 2017

number16

22

14

Accidents Frequency Rate

number / million hours worked

3.6

4.9

2.9

Lost Days ≥ 1 day

number

148

539

191

Lost Day Rate

number / million hours worked

33.2

118.9

39.9

(Reportable) Work Accidents > 3 days

number6

14

6(Reportabel) Accidents Frequency Rate

number / million hours worked

1.3

3.1

1.3

*Scope: tesa SE and affiliates which are ISO 14001 certified

18 tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017

We are currently reviewing whether further key sales offices
will be included in the Group reporting alongside tesa SE in
the future.

Occupational safety measures and areas offocus in 2017:• At the tesa SE site, we developed training videos in2017 covering a wide range of topics in occupationalsafety and emergency prevention and made them accessible to all employees. Each film shows in compact form,in just a few minutes, how employees at the company
headquarters or the research or technology center behave in order to best prevent risks to their own safety.
These videos are especially well suited to training new
employees.
• As in years past, employee awareness campaigns were
held in 2017. Major areas of focus included preventing
accidents in traffic within the plant and training on how
to use respiratory protection equipment. The tesa plantin Hamburg put a device to test the seal on respirators
into use for the first time as part of these activities. In this“fit test,” the respirator’s fit and seal are tested on thewearer under realistic conditions. After all, optimum protection can only be achieved if the mask and user truly fit
each other. As part of our fire prevention concept for
2020, we implemented measures in the area of technicalfire prevention and protection at the tesa plant in Offenburg this reporting year. The focus was on prevention.
We held a daylong event for all employees that high­lighted the subject of fire prevention, for example. At thetesa plant in Suzhou, China, this reporting year marked
the sixth time that a “Safety Week” event was held. It encompassed a range of educational and training courses
on topics such as proper conduct for safety and health,explosion and fire prevention, and fire extinguisher
usage.
• At tesa Plant Concagno, in Italy – one of tesa’s major production sites – a new monitoring audit in 2017 confirmed
the validity of the existing OHSAS 18001 certification.
This is one of the best-known and most important standards for management systems in the area of occupationalsafety. Alongside improved training concepts for employees and external companies, risk assessment for machines was also optimized in this reporting year.
• As part of the project planning for a new production line
for water-based adhesive tapes for the tesa plant in Sparta, Michigan (USA), two extensive safety tests were conducted in 2017, one on site at the manufacturer’s locationand one at tesa before commissioning. The defined safety concept was reviewed in the process.

Measures and areas of focus in occupational
health management:• The tesa sport club offers tesa employees in Norderstedt
a wide range of fitness and relaxation options, including
endurance and strength training equipment and a varietyof courses like spinning, yoga and back strength building,along with individual fitness checks. This reporting year,
we extended the club’s hours in order to meet the highdemand for its services. We also began offering our employees physical therapy in 2017.
• Employees of the sites in Hamburg can use the options
offered by our in-house occupational health management service and those offered by our parent company,
Beiersdorf, which include autogenic training, progressive
muscle relaxation, and workshops on back health and relaxation techniques.
• Another key aspect of the company’s efforts to promotehealth is its extensive array of preventive health checks.
These include vein screenings, skin cancer prevention,and smoking cessation programs.
• We conducted psychological risk assessments in six other areas in 2017, prompted by the German Occupational
Safety and Health Act. One aspect of this program is that
employees are asked individually what stressful situations or stress factors they personally experience on the
job and what the effects are. On this basis, we strive to
reduce stressful aspects wherever possible.
• Further measures include equipping all office workstations with height-adjustable desks to minimize backstrain, in-house advising on ergonomics, and promotionof healthy eating by offering healthy choices at the company’s restaurant and in cooking classes.

2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review 19

CONSISTENT ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION

Careful use of natural resources and raw materials is our stated goal as a company. Our aim in
making these efforts is to leave an intact environment for subsequent generations while at thesame time safeguarding the basis of our business success.
Focus on major environmental impacts
Environmental impacts predominantly arise at our production sites. We consider our energy use, and the associatedCO2 emissions, to represent major impacts. The subject ofresource efficiency is also relevant, but it is not a major topic. We have already significantly reduced our environmental
impact in this area.
Our binding environmental guidelines offer guidance inthis area. They state that we produce, use, and dispose of
products in such a way as to minimize harmful impact on theenvironment. In addition to our consistent compliance withlegal requirements, we also proactively assume responsibility in this area. We further develop our environmental management systems on an ongoing basis, and to this end, en-

20 tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017gage in dialogue with external experts as well. We also
provide our stakeholders with candid, transparent information on our goals and successes in this area. The fullguidelines are available on our website at www.tesa.com/
about-tesa/responsibility/environment.

A proven concept in environmental
protection
Environmental protection has been a key element of ourcorporate responsibility activities for years, and our environmental guidelines firmly establish it throughout the Group.
Environmental management systems are the key point of
departure. We use these systems at all sites that have significant impacts on the environment. Seven production sites

and the Group headquarters now have environmental management systems certified under ISO 14001.
The tesa environmental program was put in place in
2001. It sets Group-wide targets for us to continuously reduce our environmental impact. The previous environmental program ran through the end of 2015. We succeeded in
reducing many of our environmental impacts during this period: energy use (-24 percent), CO2 emissions (-19 percent),
solvent use (-41 percent), waste (-77 percent), and emissionsof volatile organic compounds (-91 percent).
The goals we set for ourselves as part of the environmental program are regularly reviewed and adjusted. The
current program applies to the period from 2016 until 2020.
It defines targets and control parameters for reducing CO2
and waste. Further information appears in the specific sections.
To achieve continuous improvement in our environmental performance, we take into account the results generated
by our environmental management systems and environmental audits. The tesa executive management is involvedin this process each year, through management audits. In
the process, the results of the environmental audits, which
are conducted on a regular basis, are considered in order to
identify possible ways to conserve, further optimize energy-intensive processes, and reduce both costs and CO2
emissions.
In addition, we conduct annual processes to identify andassess major environmental risks both at the individual production site level and across the board. The goal here is toprevent possible environmental incidents and the costs theygenerate.
As a company driven by innovation, we also develop energy-saving, resource-conserving technologies that we use
in our production operations. Environmental experts who
are familiar with tesa’s global environmental guidelines andwith local conditions and who network across locations
work at all sites. They establish comparison values, initiate
projects, and work to improve our environmental performance on an ongoing basis.
Environmental impacts also arise in our supply chain andwithin our business partners’ operations. The tesa Code of
Conduct for Suppliers obligates our suppliers to uphold theprinciples of the UN Global Compact, and thus also fundamental standards in environmental protection.

Energy efficiency and CO2 reduction
Climate change brings both challenges and opportunities interms of our business development. In tesa’s role as an industrial supplier, it is especially important in this context forthe company to prepare for future developments in overall
regulatory conditions: policy measures enacted to protect
the climate, efficiency targets, and the further expansion ofrenewable energies may affect tesa’s business activities.
Threshold limits, technical standards, and approval processes for energy generation and production facilities are also influx, which calls for a forward-looking approach. Besides that,climate protection is garnering growing public attention.

Our concept: boost efficiency –reduce emissions
Climate protection is an element of environmental management and energy management at tesa. The Group headquarters and the sites with the highest CO2 emissions (Hamburg and Offenburg) have not only an environmental
management system, but also a certified energy management system pursuant to ISO 50001. These sites together
are responsible for approximately 60 percent of the CO2
emissions generated by all tesa sites with environmental
management systems. Introducing the energy management
systems paved the way for further increases in the energy
efficiency of the systems and equipment in use there. We
strive to offset possible increases in CO2 emissions as a result of production activities with these kinds of efficiency
gains. Further strategic approaches include efficient generation of our own energy through cogeneration (combined
heat and power, CHP) and obtaining electricity from renewable sources.
Through our internal planning and reporting activities,
we identify, assess, and monitor risks and measures associated with reducing CO2 emissions at the level of the headquarters and the individual sites certified according to ISO
14001.

A clear CO2 target – measurable advances
As part of the tesa environmental program, we have already managed to reduce our energy use by 24 percent
from 2001 to 2015. During the same period, the specific CO2
emissions (Scope 1 and 2) per ton of final products decreased by 19 percent. By 2020, we aim to reduce specific
CO2 emissions (location based) by another ten percentage
points compared to the reference year, 2015.

Development of energy and CO2 emissions
Our environmental protection management activities focus
on sites with production operations, as they have greater
environmental impact than office locations. With this in mind,
all of our sites with attached coating and/or adhesive pro-2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review 21

duction operations are certified under ISO 14001, a globally
recognized standard that sets out requirements for environmental management systems.
In the reporting period we once again significantly reduced
the specific CO2 emissions per tonne of end product according to the location-based method. In comparison with thereference year of 2015, we are down by 9.5% overall in 2017;
according to the market-based method, taking into accountthe electricity from renewable sources, actually by 32.6%.
Energy use

2001 20152 2016

2017

GWh

225

205

233

262

GWh

0

0

16

24

GWh

72

61

38

26

GWh

297

266

286

311

Greenhouse gas emissions,location-based3

20011 20152, 6 20162017

CO2 direct (Scope 1)1000 t

44

41

47

53

CO2 indirect (Scope 2)1000 t

34

29

25

23

CO2 total

1000 t

78

70

72

76

%

-

-

-

-9.5

Natural gas
Electricity from renewablesourcesConventionally generated
electricity
Total energy use

Change, 2017 vs. 20155

Greenhouse gas emissions,market-based4

20011 20152 20162017

CO2 direct (Scope 1)1000 t

44

41

47

53

CO2 indirect (Scope 2)1000 t

34

42

23

14

CO2 total

1000 t

78

83

70

67

%

-

-

-

-32.6

Change, 2017 vs. 20155

Target,
2020

-10.0

CO2 conversion factors before 2015: 0.47 t CO2/MWh electricity and0.18 t CO2/MWh gas
2
Reference year						3Definitions according to GHG Protocol Scope 2 Standard; source, CO2
factors: GHG Protocol / IEA
4
Definitions according to GHG Protocol Scope 2 Standard; source, CO2
factors: electricity providers and/or residual mix: RE-DISS (07/2017);
emission factor for electricity from renewable sources is set as equal tozero.
5With reference to production volume
6
Recalculation starting in the base year due to change of methods (shift
in CO2 factors: see footnotes 1 and 3)			
1

We are currently reviewing whether it will also be possible toidentify and report on Scope 3 emissions, such as thosegenerated from the production of raw materials or transportation logistics, in the future.

22 tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017

Measures for 2017
Energy management systems pursuant toISO 50001
The two largest emitters of CO2 across the Group, the Hamburg and Offenburg production sites, further developed
their energy management systems during this reporting
year and received certification under the international ISO
50001 standard for the third time in 2017. The new tesa
headquarters in Norderstedt successfully underwent ISO
50001 certification for the second time in 2017. Advanced
monitoring processes are an element of the energy management systems. These processes are expanded and improved on an ongoing basis. Employees and external associates who have an influence over the company’s energy
performance have been sensitized to this topic and havereceived training on keeping energy management in mind intheir actions.

Generating our own energy throughcogeneration
We began operating a CCHP (combined cooling, heat andpower) system for climate-friendly in-house power generation at the Offenburg plant in 2014, and the Hamburg plantfollowed suit with a CHP (combined heat and power) plant in2016. In these systems, we use not only the electricity generated, but also the heat that is produced, which is used for
purposes such as heating and in production processes.
These two plants together supplied enough electricity tomeet about 47 percent of our worldwide demand in 2017.

Electricity from renewable sources
In 2017, we purchased outside electricity from renewablesources at five European sites, covering about 25 percent ofour global demand for the ISO 14001 certified sites.

Supporting industry in terms of climate
protection
Climate protection is also important to many of tesa’s industrial customers. Our products can help to reduce CO2. For
example, we offer the automotive industry solutions to affix
and insulate the lithium-ion battery elements used in climate-friendly hybrid and electric vehicles. We also make itpossible for manufacturers to reduce the weight of their vehicles, which also improves their fuel economy, by replacing
items such as rivets and screws with lightweight, durable
adhesive bonding solutions from tesa.

We also offer a wide range of solutions for operators ofwind and solar energy facilities, covering everything fromfast, secure assembly and installation to protecting sensitive
surfaces and marking hazardous areas. Some of these adhesive tapes are used temporarily, to preserve value, whileothers are installed permanently.

Transparent reporting
We review the effectiveness of our measures by determining the amounts of electricity and gas used by the specificsites each year. We ascertain the Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions associated with this based on the specifications of theGreenhouse Gas Protocol.
We voluntarily provide the public with information regarding the measures we take to protect the climate and ourCO2 emissions. To this end, we regularly participate in the
supply chain program run by the nonprofit organization CDP(formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project). This program evaluates various factors, including the environmental footprintof production companies. The result for this reporting period
was positive: tesa’s CDP 2017 Climate Score was well above
the average for all program participants.

Efficient use of resources
We aim to offer our customers products that have as little
environmental impact as possible over their entire lifecycle.
To accomplish this, we develop ecofriendly, solvent-free production methods, use renewable and recycled raw materials
where possible, conserve resources, and prevent production waste. We take care to ensure resource efficiency fromthe early stages of developing our products and the methods
used to produce them. Measures to this end are an integral
part of our environmental protection activities as a company.
We also regularly raise awareness among our employees
regarding the subjects of reducing and sorting waste.

Comprehensive management of waste andraw materials
Our waste and raw materials management activities are
geared toward using materials efficiently and recycling
wherever possible. There is no way to eliminate all waste
when producing goods, but we are constantly at work on
minimizing production-related losses of the raw materials
we use when producing adhesives, coating tapes, and cutting rolls.
We have already made significant improvements in many
areas. Within the scope of the tesa environmental program,2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review 23

for example, we were able to reduce emissions of volatileorganic compounds (VOCs) by 91 percent between 2001
and 2015, and solvent use was down 41 percent in the same
period. The volume of non-recyclable waste has also decreased by 77 percent, and the recycling rate was over 90
percent in 2017.

New waste target
Our goal is to reduce the specific volume of waste per ton ofend products by a further two percentage points by 2020
compared with the reference year, 2015.
As a result of one-off effects and period adjustments in thereporting year, the amount of waste generated overall was
not reduced in comparison with the reference year.
Waste

2001

2015*

2016

2017

Non-hazardous waste
for disposal

1000 t

2.7

0.3

0.8

1.1

Non-hazardous waste
for recycling

1000 t

3.9

9.6

9.2

10.4

Hazardous waste
for disposal

1000 t

1.0

0.6

0.6

0.6

Hazardous waste
for recycling

1000 t

4.7

4.5

4.5

5.8

Total waste

1000 t

12.3

14.9

15.2

17.9

%

-

-

-

+0.1

Change, 2017 vs. 2015

Target,2020-2.0*Reference year

The waste generated at tesa is determined on a site-specificbasis according to various waste fractions and is then separated for reporting purposes into categories based onwhether it is non-hazardous or hazardous and whether it isfor disposal or recycling. tesa recycles almost all non-hazardous waste and hazardous waste containing solvents.
Ongoing improvements in machinery and production
processes – including some at our employees’ instigation –have allowed us to reduce our waste volumes on a continuous basis. In 2017, for example, we improved the drives andcontrols on existing converting systems for greater accuracyof control. The result is even, straight feeding, generating
less production-related waste. To harness our employees’
expertise for waste-reducing measures like these, we continued a successful campaign at the tesa plant in Offenburgthat highlighted the need for creative solutions.
We have used our unique, patented ACX® technology to
produce double-sided acrylic adhesive tapes for highly durable adhesive bonds for years now. In 2017, as in years
past, this technology helped to further reduce solvent use,

24 te s a S u s t a i n a b i l i t y Rev i ew – 20 1 7

among other things. The ACX® method removes the solvents used from the adhesive, eliminating the need for energy-intensive drying. The use of this technology was expanded in 2017. The same is true of NRE technology, which isused to manufacture and coat natural rubber adhesives.
This method substitutes solvent-free extruded rubber systems for solvent-based adhesives.
We also commissioned a whole new production unit forecofriendly manufacturing of adhesive tapes in Sparta,
Michigan, in 2017. The new unit allows us to replace solvent-based adhesives with water-based ones, thereby improving our overall use of solvents.

Resource-efficient solutions
for consumers
Resource efficiency is important not just to tesa itself, butalso to our customers. As a result, we are continuously expanding our range of paper, office, and stationery products
aimed at environmentally conscious consumers. Under thetesa ecoLogo® sub-brand, we offer various products, including adhesive tapes and dispensers, packing tapes, glue
sticks, and corrective tape dispensers, all made primarily
from recycled or natural materials. We added a new product,the ecoLogo® glue stamp, to the range in 2017 as a fast way
to glue photos, notes, or decorations. The housing is madeof 100 percent recycled plastic, and like in all ecoLogo®
products, the adhesive used is free of solvents. The tesa
Easy Cut® Smart desktop dispenser was revamped with a
new housing made from recycled plastic in a material-saving
design. The glue stick range was streamlined and shifted
over entirely to ecoLogo® in 2017.
tesamoll® products for sealing gaps around windows
and doors and the tesa® ISO SYSTEM for easy interior roof
insulation help users to save energy.

Resource-efficient solutions
for industry
These days, our industrial customers use adhesive tapes as
key components in electronic devices. Tapes help to makethe devices more durable and prevent the need for resource-intensive new purchases. At the customer’s request,
recyclability can also be taken into account when designing
the adhesive bonds.

PRODUCT RESPONSIBILITY

Offering safe, long-lasting products to our customers is part of our approach to corporate responsibility. With this in mind, we strive to protect people and the environment across the entire
product lifecycle, from manufacturing and use through to disposal.
Our goal? Products that meet the very highest standards of quality and safety. Our work in thisarea is supported by product safety officers and founded on our product safety guidelines,
which provide a framework for appropriate actions and approaches. They supplement the already stringent legal regulations that apply.
Product safety
When it comes to ensuring that our customers are satisfied,
and thus that we are successful in economic terms, it is crucial for our products to be safe. Any safety issues could havenegative effects on both the people who use our products
and the natural world. Harm to our image is also possible.
With all this in mind, we strive to ensure that there are no
risks associated with our products, and we provide reliable
protection for the safety and health of customers and employees. Standards and processes are used to minimize relevant risks for tesa. We train selected employees on thelaws that apply to chemicals, product liability legislation, andproduct issues management. These activities were also partof our efforts during this reporting year. Product safety management is a key element of our quality management system and is and within the organizational structure is steeredby the Management Board.

Measures for safe products
Our goal is to design products and processes in a way that
ensures they meet the various expectations of our stakeholders and no one is harmed by them. Alongside our own
standards, we also have to meet the requirements set bylaw and by our customers. We look to applicable laws andregulations for guidance.
The Product Safety and Product Development de­partments are responsible for assessing materials andsubstances. In the process, they evaluate the latest researchfindings and consider information on safety-related substance properties and safe handling of substances and mixtures.
The Product Development department and the production team use various tools to prevent product defects.
These tools include failure mode and effects analysis(FMEA), which is used to identify and eliminate faults in thesystem, the design of products, or how production and assembly processes are arranged at an early stage of productcreation.

Responsibility for the entire product lifecycle
Once products are already on the market, our business units
continue to monitor them. If the units determine that a newrisk analysis and assessment and relevant measures arenecessary, they initiate the necessary steps to ensure thehealth and safety of our customers and employees. In 2017
there have been no product recalls of safety relevance forcustomers.

2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review 25

SOCIAL COMMITMENT
AND INVOLVEMENT

Beyond our core activities, we as a company aim to make a positive contribution to society.
Voluntarily assuming social responsibility is part of tesa’s corporate philosophy. This aspect isalso an integral element of our company values and corporate citizenship strategy.

Corporate citizenship strategy
We have a clear vision for our corporate citizenship (CC) activities as a company: We want to effect positive change inthe world around us and, beyond our core business, shoul-

26 tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017der responsibility for matters affecting society at large andfor ensuring sustainable development. This self-image has along history at tesa. The Beiersdorf group of companies, towhich we belong, has been actively involved in promoting
the welfare of its own employees and the wider societythroughout its 130-year history. We are still carrying on thistradition as an independent affiliate. Our social commitment
and involvement creates a bridge to the core tesa competencies and the company’s strengths – its inventiveness andspirit of ingenuity, solution-oriented approach, focus onpractical assistance and team spirit.

Global strategy, local implementation
We firmly believe that all sides win through our commitment
and involvement: the organizations and projects that receive support, and tesa itself. We give back at several levels
worldwide – in the form of donations, supporting memberships and sponsorships as well as through employee volunteering. This helps us form lasting bonds – just like our products do.
The Executive Board explicitly supports and welcomes
civic involvement. It sets guidelines for our affiliates to donate part of their local sales for social projects. The board
also urges employees to get involved with social causes
through volunteering and team building activities.
Overarching responsibility for the subject of social responsibility rests with the Corporate Citizenship unit, whichis part of Corporate Communications. This unit decides onand coordinates all support activities by tesa headquarters
and coordinates them. Based on our donation guidelines
and the CC strategy, the unit also makes recommendations
regarding suitable topics of support in the regions. In keeping with the “global strategy, local implementation” approach, the regional companies perform the planned activities independently. They are the ones who are most familiar
with local circumstances, so they can help ensure that activities represent effective solutions to social challenges. The
CC unit provides personal advice as needed. Once a year,
the regional companies report to CC on the advances they
have made in their local projects.

Our “tesa connects” program

Our activities in support of social causes follow an integral
approach, bringing things and people together. With this inmind, the guiding principle behind our CC strategy is “tesaconnects.” Across a wide range of projects, colleagues
apply their knowledge and expertise in specific areas, act
as mentors, or roll up their sleeves and pitch in where help

is needed. This forges ties between employees and thecommunity and enhances team cohesion. We also support
charitable causes by providing funding and donations inkind.
Our corporate citizenship strategy emphasizes specificareas where involvement is most urgently needed andwhere we can have the biggest impact. All of the projects
we support fall thematically into at least one of our threecore fields: social commitment and involvement, support
for education, and environmental protection. At the project level, these fields are reflected in the four pillars of ouractivities to give back: “tesa helps” and “tesa donates”(social), “tesa supports” (education), and “tesa protects”(environment). All projects also fit the identity of the brandand the company as a whole and our regions. Taking theseprinciples into account, all tesa affiliates are free to determine their own areas of emphasis.
Fundamental information on social commitment andinvolvement is set out in our strategy, the tesa Corporate
Giving Policy, a set of guidelines on brand and productsponsoring activities along with internal informational materials regarding the various ways to get involved. These documents can be downloaded from the company intranet.
We work together with selected partners in cooperative
initiatives and projects for these activities. This represents awin–win–win situation, benefiting all concerned in different
ways:• Benefit to nonprofit organizations (NPOs): Our contributions support the activities of selected organizations,
helping them to achieve their short-term and long-termgoals.
• Benefit to society: By supporting the work of selected
NPOs, we have a positive impact on their topics of focus.
• Benefit to tesa: Our involvement enhances the perception of tesa and tesa’s credibility with regard to social responsibility while also boosting employees’ motivationand helping them to grow and cultivate their skills.
We keep several strategic criteria in mind in our work withpartners:• Relevance: We make certain the topics selected focus onareas and organizations where contributions are used ina way that generates maximum benefit to all concerned.
• Long-term commitments: We strive to establish lasting
cooperative initiatives. This also includes helping those
responsible for projects and their target groups achieve
independence and autonomy beyond the aid they receive from us. We focus on helping others to help themselves.
• Equal partnerships: To strengthen local responsibility,
tesa works with partners in the local community in a spiritof equal partnership.

2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review 27

Once a year, employees can take a day off from work towork together with colleagues for a social cause. The CC
unit and cooperation partners such as tatkräftig e.V., a nonprofit initiative for volunteer activities, help employees toselect the projects. Our individual affiliates handle these activities differently depending on their size. Several affiliates
have longstanding ties with particular initiatives, organize
annual activities such as summer festivals, renovation days,
or afternoon craft projects during the Christmas season. In
many countries, the social commitment and involvement oftesa employees is a longstanding tradition.
As part of our employee communications, we report on
our social commitment and involvement in various tesa
Group media. We post information on all of the volunteering
projects we have implemented and on donations and eventson the intranet, for example. We also emphasize personal
feedback toward the employees involved and appreciative
communications in publications such as the employee magazine and the annual overview of all CC measures.
As touched on above, all of the projects within the “tesaconnects” program fall within four areas: help, donate, support, and protect. While our focus in the first two of theseareas is on social projects, “support” encompasses the subject of education and “protect” covers the environment. The
sections that follow describe our approaches and activities
in each of these areas.

Being there for others as a good neighbor
Neighbors helping neighbors in the immediate vicinity of
our sites – that’s the principle behind “tesa helps.” Many of
our employees live near our sites and want to give back tosocial causes in their local areas. All over the world, local
tesa teams pitch in to help with projects and support theircommunities.
At the tesa headquarters (Norderstedt), for example, employees can choose from a pool of projects compiled by the
Corporate Citizenship unit. Alternatively, they can also arrange to support self-chosen initiatives in the local area.
During this reporting period, our employees continued various existing activities and started new ones.

Commitment and involvement in Germany• The tesa headquarters continued its partnership with thenonprofit organization “tatkräftig – Hände für Hamburg”
in 2017. With “1 day, 1 team, 1 goal” as its motto, the organ-

28 tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017

ization connects volunteer helpers with over 150 institutions in the Hamburg area. In the year under review, 83
employees supported eight projects in all, including playand craft activities or gardening, handicraft, and renovation work at social and charitable institutions, such as children’s and youth facilities, day care centers, and refugee
centers. A “tesa helps” project with “tatkräftig” has now
become an integral part of the first year of apprenticeshipat the tesa plant in Hamburg.
tesa affiliates also provided active assistance in their local
areas in 2017:

Worldwide commitment and involvement• tesa UK has supported the Walnuts School, a school for
autistic children in Milton Keynes, since 2009. tesa contributed funding to the project in 2017, as in past years,
making it possible for young people with autism to gain
initial experience in the working world.
• tesa employees in the Czech Republic spent an afternoon
of games and contests with children suffering from leukemia at the Motol University Hospital Transplant Centerin Prague this year, as in the past. Colleagues from Slovakia teamed up with the foundation Deti slovenska (Children of Slovakia) in 2017 to organize a similar activity forchildren who have hemophilia.
• In the Netherlands, tesa supports Stichting het Raakt U, afoundation that helps and advocates for children withphysical limitations. tesa organized a field trip with thechildren and made monetary donations and donations in
kind in 2017.
• In Switzerland, tesa has been committed to helping Theodora, an initiative that brings clowns to hospitals to entertain and distract pediatric patients, through donations
at Christmastime for the past six years. tesa also ran afundraising campaign for Theodora in 2016 and 2017.
• The Austrian tesa team supports Stiftung Kindertraum, afoundation that grants wishes for children and teens withdisabilities or serious illnesses. tesa helped to make big
dreams come true once again in 2017.
• In Hungary, tesa has been supporting a children’s facility
in Budapest for two years. Among other things, employees designed a special room for infants and toddlers andorganized a Christmas gift donation campaign.
• An orphanage for disadvantaged children in India has received financial support from tesa since 2008. tesa employees also help with IT matters to meet the site’s needs.
• tesa maintains a longstanding partnership in Italy with thenonprofit organization Fondazioni Piatti. The initiative
provides care for children with neuropsychiatric condi-

tions at one of its sites in northern Italy. tesa provided
necessary accessories for the swimming pool there during this reporting period.
• The colleagues in Russia supported the Mercy aid centerfor children and families, near Moscow, with a donationand hands-on help with renovations in 2017. tesa also participated in a Christmas bazaar for children at a Germanschool in Russia this year.

cially disadvantaged families in time for the holiday. In all,131 packages were handed out in 2017.
• Instead of giving Christmas gifts to customers, we supported the Hamburg-based nonprofit Chancen für Kinder
e.V. with a donation of 20,000 euros again in 2017. Someof the money was used to make it possible for children
who are forced to work in quarries in Yeleswaram, India,
to attend school. The other part supported Klinik-Clowns
Hamburg e.V., an initiative that brings clowns to hospitals
to entertain severely ill children with the aim of strengthening their will to live.

Uncomplicated help for social projects
As part of “tesa donates,” we make targeted monetary andproduct donations to support people and the day-to-day
work of selected institutions. We provide tesa products forvarious purposes and groups, from schools and childcare
centers to campaigns to provide aid to victims of natural disasters and other emergencies, when items like fly screensand packing tape can be useful. The company also provides
financial support, runs “leftover change donation” programs,
and gives away old computers. In 2017, as in the past, wewere able to support various initiatives through numerous
donation activities. Examples:

Donation campaigns• The tesa companies in Norderstedt, Hamburg, and Langenfeld continued their “leftover change donation” programs in 2017, in line with the slogan “small gesture, big
impact.” The concept is simple: Employees donate thecents amount of their net monthly pay (0.01 to 0.99 euros)
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. Donations totaling 3251.04 euros werecollected in 2017. The amount was matched by the
executive management, for a total of 6502.08 euros,
which was then donated to the project Knack den
Krebs, a cancer-fighting initiative run by nonprofit organization Fördergemeinschaft Kinderkrebs-Zentrum Hamburg e.V.
• Because not every child is fortunate enough to receive
gifts at Christmas, tesa organized a Christmas gift campaign again in 2017. New gifts were collected during theholiday season from tesa colleagues, who were encouraged to place them under the Christmas tree at tesa
headquarters. Employees of ToysCompany, a nonprofit
partner organization, then distributed the presents to so-

Recruiting the next generation of employees
Education in STEM (science, technology, engineering, andmathematics) fields is important when it comes to sustaining
human life and securing social progress. From digitization toclimate change and energy issues, STEM skills help to solve
present-day challenges. For tesa as a technology company,
strengthening this knowledge is essential in order to recruit
the next generation of employees. That’s why we work withvarious initiatives to support educational projects that unlock prospective futures for kids and teens in these areas.
Specific projects and cooperative activities are associatedwith these efforts in Germany and at many international tesa
affiliates.

Partner to Initiative Naturwissenschaft &Technik (NAT)
tesa SE in Germany has been partnering with Initiative
Naturwissenschaft & Technik (Science & Technology Initiative – abbreviated NAT) since 2014. In Hamburg and the surrounding 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 is a supporting member,providing donations and encouraging volunteer efforts byemployees. We provide particular support for two NAT initiatives: “mint:pink,” a support program to promote girls’ participation in STEM, and “90 Minutes of STEM,” a course thatoffers a view into scientists’ working lives. tesa provided
conceptual and financial support to both programs again in2017.
• In the “90 Minutes of STEM” program, tesa employees
spend two hours in a classroom, giving groups of about2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review 29

•

•

•

•

20 school students real-life insights into their working
lives. In 2017, a class from a specialized higher grade level at an academic secondary school in Hamburg visited
various labs where basic research is performed.
In February 2017, tesa organized this year’s kickoff eventfor the mint:pink program, which encourages girls to explore STEM fields, in Norderstedt. About 170 ninth graders from 13 schools attended, along with teachers, parents, and representatives of the political sphere. Over thecourse of the year, the students visited five companies inall, where they were given insight into exciting technologies and working worlds.
tesa also participated in mint:pink with various practicalunits in 2017. During these activities, R&D 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 2017, students
visited the production facility at tesa’s plant in the Hausbruch district of Hamburg and the tesa physics lab, forexample.
NAT is further expanding its activities starting in 2018,
thanks in part to encouragement from tesa. Future planscall for opening up the mint:pink program to 50 female
students from the city of Norderstedt, Schleswig-Holstein,
as well.
NAT celebrated its tenth anniversary with a major event
at Hamburg’s arguably most spectacularbuilding, theElbphilharmonie orchestra hall. Over 1300 students andsupporters of the initiative were there for the celebra­tion. tesa made a donation that allowed two classes toattend.

International support
for education• 2017 marked the fifth time the tesa affiliate in Japan participated in the Tsukuba Science Festival. Held in Tsukuba, the famous “City of Science,” the event is aimed at
introducing children and teens to the world of sciencethrough fun experiments and games. The potential scientists of tomorrow learned about interesting aspects of adhesive technology at the tesa stand.
• The tesa plant in Suzhou, China, initiated its tesa Sunshine Education Assistance program ten years ago tohelp children from families of migrant laborers get a better elementary school education. The program has provided tesa Sunshine Scholarships to about 630 children
so far.
• Other tesa affiliates have an established practice of contributing funding to educational initiatives:• In Turkey, tesa supports the organization Educational Vol-

30 tesa Sustainabilit y Review – 2017

•

•

•

•

unteers Foundation of Turkey, which offers extracurricular
educational and enrichment programs for children.
In Mexico, the regional office provides funding to the Fundación para la Protección de la Niñez (Foundation for theProtection of Children), which awards scholarships forlearning English as a second language.
The Guatemalan tesa affiliate finances a partial scholarship for a student otherwise unable to afford higher education.
tesa India donates to the Nanhi Kali organization, which
offers primary school education opportunities to disadvantaged young girls.
In 2015, tesa tape North America began sponsoring afour-year study program concentrating on automotive
technology. The EcoCAR program is devoted to the development of an extremely energy-efficient high-performance vehicle.

Working to protect the environment
We view environmental protection as part of our social responsibilities. After all, an unspoiled natural environment ispart of good quality of life. This is why environmental protection and nature conservation are a part of tesa’s corporate
strategy. Our engagement on the production and productlevel is complemented by specific projects for preserving
nature and improving quality of life in the regions where we
operate.
From 2011 to 2017, we worked to preserve the sensitive
ecosystem of the “Niedersächsische Elbtalaue” UNESCO
Biosphere Reserve near Hamburg.

Environmental protection
projects• These activities focused on measures that serve to conserve or restore the original landscapes of this area andthus preserve species and biodiversity. We supported activities on site through the active efforts of employees
and financial support alike. Our one-time donation of
100,000 euros in 2011 made possible various activities
between then and 2017, including planting trees typical of
the region, which now offer new habitats for native species of birds and insects.
• tesa is planning a new cooperative relationship with anenvironmental initiative in the area of the Norderstedt
headquarters starting in 2018.

• Colleagues from tesa China have been working to protect the environment since 2015 as part of the “Million
Tree Project.” In 2017, tesa Greater China donated funding for 2500 trees to the program, and five volunteers
participated in a tree planting campaign in Inner Mongolia.

tesa’s efforts make significant contributions to all three ofthe company’s core areas: social commitment and involvement, support for education, and environmental protection.

2017 – tesa Sustainabilit y Review 31

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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