Sustainability
report 2021

Connecting, changing, charging ahead

Contents

Introduction

Foreword by the Executive Board.......................................04

Customers

About this report......................................................................06

Our approach to greater product sustainability............... 34
Safety first..................................................................................40

The tesa business model.......................................................08

Society
Responsibility

Responsibility along the supply chain................................44

Sustainability at tesa................................................................. 14

Healthy and safe working......................................................46

Interview with Dr. Röber..........................................................18

Focusing on employees.........................................................49
Compliance without compromise........................................54
Encouraging the next generation........................................56

Environment

Working to protect the climate.............................................22
Using resources sparingly......................................................28
Conserving water and protecting water bodies..............30

SDG Index......................................................................................................60

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

Dear readers,Another year comes to an end – a year of significant chal­lenges for us as people and us as the tesa company. And
certainly for you as well. Much of what we once took for
granted is now uncertain in the days of the coronavirus pan­demic. Like our understanding of the significance of global
teamwork, our view of the future has changed, which has
ultimately inspired us to take another, much closer look attesa’s sustainability goals. We’ve developed a new level ofambition and ideas about how to further promote sustainabil­
ity at our company – for the benefit of our society, the environ­ment and our customers. By defining “Sustainable Growth”
as a core component of our corporate strategy, we’ve clearly
demonstrated the fact that we closely link our economic goals
with our environmental and social responsibility.
In 2021, we worked tirelessly on our sustainability agenda,
analyzed and evaluated it, and ultimately further increased
our ambition significantly. The result is a long-term strategy
with clear, ambitious goals. This strategy once again under­scores our commitment to the goals of the United Nations
Global Compact as well as the Sustainable Development
Goals.
The focus is on further reducing emissions at a rapid pace,drastically improving the sustainability of our production,
products and packaging, and establishing responsible pro­curement. I’m confident that together we can overcome
these big challenges: tesa has represented innovations for
125 years, and our pioneering spirit motivates us to research
new technologies and materials and develop innovative,
powerful applications for our customers.

4

Our more than 500 engineers and scientists will develop
new, more sustainable products, packaging and production
processes with an approach bolstered by science-based
research findings and a holistic perspective. We employ longterm thinking and have set ourselves goals that go far
beyond 2030.
It goes without saying that we increased our sustainability
activities in operations in 2021 and were thus able to further
reduce the ecological impact of some products and produc­tion processes.
In particular, we introduced new products that contributesignificantly to sustainability: In 2021, we launched our first
FSC®-certified products in the form of paper packaging
adhesive tapes. The new tesapack® Bio & Strong adhesive
tape contains polylactic acid (PLA) and is a particularly strong
adhesive. The adhesive itself is based on biological raw
materials such as natural rubber and tree resin. The highorganic content of tesapack® Bio & Strong was awarded thehighest rating by DIN CERTCO and TÜV Austria.
In addition to purchasing green energy for all of our sites
worldwide, we also used biogas for our CHP system at thetesa SE site in 2021 for the first time. We’re looking to increase
our use of biogas as a renewable, climate-friendly energy
source, so that we can continue to benefit from the high effi­
ciency of the CHP systems in the near future. Last year, we
cut our CO2 emissions as a whole by 16.5 percent in absoluteterms (according to the market-oriented method) compared
to 2018.

We were able to increase the percentage of suppliers that
undergo an assessment on the EcoVadis sustainability rating
platform once again, which is now 43 percent. tesa itself
received a silver medal from EcoVadis for its sustainability
performance again in the year under review and is thus anabove-average performer in the industry.
And our social commitment also continued in 2021: In 2020
and 2021, we donated nearly € 3.7 million to selectedcharitable relief organizations and projects committed tomitigating the effects of the pandemic. I’m especially thrilled
to announce that we’ll be continuing our partnership with theSave the Children organization in 2022 and provide financial
assistance for further projects.

2021 proved to be a challenging, but successful, year for ourcompany. Special thanks go to our employees, who accom­
plished a great deal. We’ll work together to continue growing
sustainably over the long term, which is something I’m proud of.
I wish you an inspiring and informative reading experience!

Dr. Norman Goldberg
Chief Executive Officer of tesa SE

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

About this report
A commitment to sustainability has been one of the coreelements of tesa’s corporate activities for many years. This
report presents facts and figures to illustrate the environmental and social impact of our corporate operations, andprovides an overview of the progress we made in terms ofsustainability in 2021.
tesa has been a participant in the UN Global Compact since2006 and is dedicated to the ten universal principles of theworld’s largest sustainability initiative in the areas of humanrights, labor standards, environmental protection and corru­p­tion prevention. Our annual sustainability report provides
information on the progress we’ve made (communication
on progress, COP).

We report on all of the relevant measures and results of oursustainability activities in these areas and on the basis of the
fields of work we identified through our materiality analysis
in 2020: climate & energy, water, resource efficiency, prod­
uct sustainability, product safety, human rights, occupational
health and safety, personnel development, diversity & equal
opportunity, and avoiding anti-competitive behavior. We alsopresent key aspects of our social commitment during thereporting period.
This report is available in German and English. The German
version is authoritative. Like all of the versions published inprevious years, this report is available on the tesa website .

Since last year, we’ve complied with our reporting obliga­
tion through our parent company, Beiersdorf, by publish­ing
a joint Non-financial statement (NFS) in Beiersdorf’s annual
report.
Our sustainability agenda constitutes the core of this reportand covers three overarching issues:• Environment• Customers• Society67Contents

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

The tesa business model:
125 years of innovations
tesa is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of adhesive
tapes and self-adhesive system solutions. For 125 years,
the multinational company has been developing innovative adhesive tapes and self-adhesive system solutions
for industry, commercial customers and end consumers.
tesa works with its international customers to develop tailoredinnovations at the product and process levels. More than
7,000 applications and solutions now help to improve thework procedures, products and daily lives of our customers ina whole host of industries. For example, more than 130 tesa®
adhesive tapes can be installed in an electric car and over
70 in a smartphone. And tesa® adhesive tapes can provide
fire protection in elevators and facilitate fast and seamless
paper roll changes in newspaper printing. That’s because,with its special applications, tesa is also continuously entering
new segments and countries. Around 300 products for end
consumers and professional craftsmen such as the legendary
tesafilm® make life easier – or make it simpler, safer and more
pleasant, as is the case with the practical screens that offer
protection from insects.

7,000 products

tesa has a global workforce of 4,827 employees.
About 2,400 of them work in Germany.

61 affiliates

Active in over 100 countries worldwide
With approximately 4,800 employees and 61 affiliates, tesa
operates in more than 100 countries. Group sales totaled€ 1,499 million in 2021. tesa SE is a wholly owned and inde­
pendent affiliate of Beiersdorf Aktiengesellschaft.
tesa operates worldwide with the main focus on Europe, fol­
lowed by the business regions of Africa/Asia/Australia andthe Americas. In addition to its German sites, the affiliates in
China, the United States, Italy and Singapore are among thelargest and strategically most important single companies inthe tesa Group.

4,827employees

tesa offers more than 7,000 solutions forindustry, craftsmen and end consumers.

We have production facilities in Europe (Germany and
Italy), the United States and Asia (China). The company
head­quar­ters, which include an integrated researchand technology center, are located in Norderstedt,
near Hamburg, Germany.

tesa operates with 61 affiliates
in more than 100 countries.

1 Company headquarters
5 Regional headquarters
14 Production sites (production centers and converting centers)
61 Affiliates (incl. regional headquarters and production sites)

8

Source: tesa Annual report 2021

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Strategic focus: achieving thehighest standards together
Innovations and pioneering product developments on thebasis of state-of-the-art technologies, a high level of quality,
reliability and excellent service are key elements of the phi­losophy behind the tesa brand and tesa’s success. For us,that increasingly includes developing effective solutions
together with the company’s customers for the respective
markets and customer needs.
The various customer groups in industry, trade and retail, end
consumers and their expectations have always taken center
stage at tesa. We cater to their increasing requirements withmodern structures, processes, and mindsets. At the sametime, we are using the opportunities of digitalization in orderto further boost the level of service and reduce costs overthe long term.
tesa has assumed corporate responsibility in its businessprocesses for many years, which is why, throughout theGroup, we embrace our internal standards such as the tesa
Code of Conduct (see p. 54) and our environmental andoccupational health and safety guidelines. With our Code of
Conduct for Suppliers (see p. 44), we also obligate our key
business partners and suppliers to comply with our sustain­
ability standards.
Having incorporated the aspect of “Sustainable Growth”
into our business strategy and adopted a comprehensive
sustainability agenda in 2020, we further developed oursustainability strategy and again increased our ambitions in
the 2021 fiscal year.

Two business units and always
the right solution
Our business consists of two business units: The Direct Indus­
tries division, which generates roughly three quarters of oursales, supplies specialized system solutions to our indus­
trial customers – particularly in the automotive, electronics,
printing and paper, building and construction industries. Our
products are also used in the renewable energy and in thehousehold appliances sector.

10

Trade Markets, the second business segment, encompasses
those markets in which tesa supplies end customers with
innovative, market-specific products via retail partners
or trade-related channels online or directly. In addition to
product ranges for private consumers and craftsmen, thisincludes adhesive tapes that are intended for commer­
cial customers. These are marketed primarily via technicalretailers, but increasingly also online.

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

These are theSDGs we support
in terms of“Responsibility”:

Our
responsibility
Global challenges such as climate change and growing
resource scarcity quite clearly demonstrate the need for us
as a society to strike a balance between social, ecologicaland economic concerns. We at tesa are responding to thischallenge and aligning our business processes with a sus­
tainable economy. And we also demand that our suppliers
fulfill stringent requirements.
For us, international standards such as the UN Global
Compact and the Sustainable Development Goals (see pp. 14
and 60–61) serve as guiding principles for shaping our sus­
tainability activities.

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Sustainability at tesa
Sustainability is an elementary component of our corporate
self-image and, since 2020, has been firmly rooted in our
corporate strategy and organization.
We view sustainability as our responsibility, as an attitude –and opportunity. Sustainable behavior requires us to think
one step further and to continuously improve. This is partic­
ularly true of our products and our production processes. But
even along our supply chain, our aim is to ensure fair work­
ing conditions and to respect and promote labor standards
and human rights. After all, we believe that an innovative
product combines maximum quality and performance withthe lowest-possible environmental footprint and preventionof negative social impacts. We’re extremely ambitious andhighly motivated to achieve these goals, for which we use
the ideas and expertise of our employees. We are therefore
doing everything possible to offer them a safe, healthy andattractive working environment that maintains and promotes
their performance and provides space for innovations.

Global Compact Principles andSustainable Development Goals
We have been a member of the United Nations Global Com­
pact since 2006. Our membership underscores our com­mitment to upholding internationally recognized social andenvironmental standards in our business activities. The ten
Global Compact principles in the areas of human rights, labor
standards, environmental protection and anti-corruption form
the overarching benchmarks for our actions.
We also contribute to achieving the United Nations’ 17 Sus­
tainable Development Goals (SDGs), which constitute thecore of the 2030 UN Agenda, a global action plan for sus­
tainable development. These goals represent an importantorientation framework for our work on sustainability because,
as a multinational company and a member of the business
community and society, we see it as our responsibility to help
achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
In order to define as precisely as possible to which interna­
tional sustainability goals we can contribute with our pro­
cesses and products, we have carried out a comparison withthe 169 SDG targets. The result can be found in the index on
the pages 60–61. At the beginning of each chapter in thisreport, we also list the Sustainable Development Goals thatare supported by the measures described in the chapter.

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Our sustainability agenda
In our view, business success and sustainability are com­
patible with one another. It is for this reason that we havealso made “Sustainable Growth” a central element of ourcorporate strategy, the core of which forms our sustainability
agenda. Since 2020, our sustainability agenda has applied
throughout our company and it provides us with a set of
guiding principles for all of our business decisions.
Our sustainability agenda reveals that we have a holistic
understanding of sustainability, which is why it encompasses
three areas – environment, customers and society – which
are further broken down into seven areas of focus.
Environment – The global community has set itself the goalof limiting the rise in average global temperature to no morethan 1.5 degrees Celsius. We’d like to do our part to achieve
this goal and mitigate the effects of climate change. In addi­tion, we focus on the circular economy and take responsibility
for the sustainable procurement of raw materials.
Customers – We’d like to enable our customers to improvetheir sustainability, by offering them high-quality products witha better environmental and/or social footprint.
Society – We’d like to continue being an attractive employer
for our employees well into the future. At the same time, we’re
working on structuring our business relationships throughout
our supply chain in line with environmental, social and ethicalstandards. With projects dedicated to promoting education,
we’re also doing something for the next generation.
We worked tirelessly on further developing our sustainability
strategy in the year under review and, in the process, werealso able to fine-tune our agenda and significantly increase
our ambitions in individual areas. Our new sustainability strat­
egy will be rolled out in 2022.

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Sustainability is anchored within
our organizational structure
The newly created Corporate Sustainability department took
over planning, coordinating, evaluating and further develop­
ing our sustainability activities in January 2021 and reports
directly to the Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), who assumed
his position on April 1, 2021. The CSO is a member of the
Executive Board as well as Head of Product and Technology
Development. We thus underline the significance of innova­
tion and technology for our sustainable growth.
The specialist functions, regions and affiliates are responsiblefor implementing measures.

Ratings and awards
Ratings and rankings regularly confirm our clear commitment
to sustainability. We see the results of these assessments as
a form of motivation for us to continue improving.
CDP has awarded tesa a B- score for its performance in thearea of climate protection. tesa received a score of C for its
efforts in the area of water. The scale ranges from A to D, with
A the best possible result. CDP is an international charitableorganization that carries out an extensive, annual question­
naire-based assessment of companies’ sustainability perfor­
mance.
In 2021, tesa also once again participated in EcoVadis’ sus­
tainability ratings and was awarded a silver medal for its
sustainability efforts, placing the Group in the top 15 percent
of its sector. EcoVadis is a well-known rating platform forcompanies with global procurement chains.

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

Interview with Dr. Röber
Dr. Stefan Röber has been tesa’s Chief Sustainability Officer since April 1, 2021.
He holds a Doctorate of Physics, has managed product and technology development
for 14 years, and has been with the company for 27.

In his new position, he’s now also responsible for thedevelopment of sustainable products and eco-friendly
production processes, certifications and positioning of
the company along the global obligations that tesa has
set for itself.

You have been tesa’s first Chief Sustainability Officer fora year now – in charge of a new department. Looking
back, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned?
tesa has been paving the way for a sustainable future fora long time. But by establishing a department dedicatedto sustainability, we’re also acknowledging the signif­
icance of this responsibility structurally and can now
promote these issues more consistently and effectively.
Positioning the company with a focus on sustainability isa major challenge for our entire organization. Sustainabil­
ity affects every division, and we face changes big andsmall across the board. But more importantly, focusing
on increasing sustainability also offers a major economic
opportunity to identify even better solutions for our cus­
tomers. And as complex as the entire topic is, responding
to this challenge is a lot of fun.
Which responsibilities have you prioritized over the past
several months?
We put a lot of effort into revising and assessing ouragenda in 2021 and, as a consequence, will once again
significantly increase our level of ambition. We’ve devel­
oped an expanded strategy with long-term prospects aswell as a plan on how to approach our clearly defined,
ambitious goals.

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Our efforts to increase sustainability have been wellreceived throughout tesa. Many employees are whole­
heartedly committed to the issue and interested in contri­
buting their expertise, ultimately providing our work witha boost of motivation, which we’re exploiting.
We are, of course, paying special attention to our products
and production processes, with a particular focus on fur­ther reducing the amount of waste we generate, making
procurement processes more sustainable and transpar­ent, and developing more products with more sustainableproperties. Take, for example, the two recently launchedtapes for sustainable packaging: one is the particularly
strong adhesive, bio-based PLA base, while the other isa paper-based tape that’s FSC®-certified and especiallyrecycling-friendly.
The significant reduction in emissions at the tesa sites isalso worth mentioning. In 2021, we commissioned a large
photovoltaic system in Suzhou, China, that has nearly
2,000 solar panels, allowing us to reduce CO2 there byaround 900 metric tons annually. We use combined heatand power at four other sites and clean green energy at
all sites worldwide.
In addition to your sustainability responsibilities, you’ve
also been managing product and technology development for many years. How do you bring these two tasks
together?
These two fields of work complement each other won­
derfully. tesa’s strength has always been our innovative
power – both in product design and the developmentof pioneering technologies. We have a great deal ofexpertise when it comes to developing new things – andwill continue to focus on that in the future. Sustainability
should always be at the heart of future innovations.

Based on existing expertise and with the support of ourmore than 500 researchers and developers, we’ve alreadyinitiated many important steps in developing sustainableproducts and optimizing production processes. We plan
to give it our all in these areas in the future and develop
many additional innovations to increase our product sus­
tainability on a continuous basis.
Our experts will get it done, which is something I say witha great deal of confidence and pride.
What would you say are the biggest challenges when it
comes to developing sustainable products?
We approach this issue from different directions, as prod­
uct sustainability requires a variety of approaches. We
ensure product sustainability in a variety of ways, suchas modifying adhesive compositions and base materials
to make our products more eco-friendly. We’re also using
more bio-based or recycled raw materials, reducing ouruse of solvents, and making production processes moreenergy-efficient. We work closely with our suppliers todevelop the most intelligent solutions. After all, they too
can make a key contribution to the sustainability of our
products – for example, with newly developed, more ecofriendly raw materials.

But we also plan to help our customers make their own
products and processes more sustainable with tesa®
solutions. And that applies to large swathes of theindustrial landscape. I’m thinking of e-mobility, where
we as an enabler can help reduce weight and increase
heat resistance, for example, with our applications forsecuring batteries. And then there’s our tesa® Bond &Detach development, which has made it possible foryears to replace the rechargeable battery in hundreds ofmillions of cell phones – because they’re secured withtesa® tape that can be removed again. We work closelywith our global customers and exchange information ona continuous basis to develop more and more intelligent
solutions for increasing requirements in terms of productcharacteristics.
… and where are the limits?
To be honest, this is a huge undertaking. It will be many
years before we can be satisfied. The highly sophisticatedadhesives we use for our different applications cannot
simply be replaced with natural materials. We’re at the
beginning of a long journey, but tesa has represented
innovations for 125 years. So I’m confident that we’ll beable to deliver pioneering work with a focus on sustain­
ability in the future.

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

Environment

These are theSDGs we support
in terms of“Environment”:

We’re making a contribution to environmental protection by
reducing emissions and conserving resources. We have set
ourselves clear goals: By 2025, we aim to reduce our energyrelated CO2 emissions by around 30 percent in absoluteterms (in comparison with 2018). We are aiming to achieve acompletely climate-neutral business model by 2050 at thelatest. tesa is thus firmly supporting the United Nations’ goalof limiting the increase in the average global temperature to
1.5 degrees Celsius.
Our aim is to use natural resources responsibly, which is why
we support the circular economy and pursue the goal of
reducing the amount of waste generated through our pro­duction and at plants. We also plan to conserve water as aresource.

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

Working to protect the climate
We view climate change as one of the central social challenges of our time and, as a company, want to help reduce
emissions. We’re dedicated to limiting the increase in the
average global temperature to no more than 1.5 degrees
Celsius. At tesa, we are helping directly to protect the climate by consuming less energy, using it more efficiently
and utilizing renewable energy. As part of our environmental program, our plants define the measures every year thatthey intend to implement to contribute more to climate
protection.
With our parent company, Beiersdorf, we’re one of morethan 1,100 companies that have signed the United Nations’“Business Ambition for 1.5⁰ C” global commitment letter. tesa
set an ambitious climate goal for itself in the process: We
aim to reduce our absolute CO2 emissions by 30 percent
compared to 2018 (Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions according
to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol) by 2025.* The “Science
Based Targets initiative” (SBTi) group, an alliance consistingof CDP, UN Global Compact, World Resources Institute andWWF, confirmed our climate goal – meaning it conforms withthe latest scientific findings that recommend limiting global
warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. In addition,
we have set ourselves the goal of achieving a zero-emission
business model by 2050.
In the period from 2018 to 2021, we already reduced our
Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 16.5 percent in absoluteterms. We lowered our specific emissions per metric ton ofend product by 15.5 percent in the same period (see p. 26,
Fig. 4).

900 t

reducedCO2

Thanks to our photovoltaic system in Suzhou,
our annual CO2 emissions are 900 metrictons less than they would be with fossil fuels.

Environment and energy management:
systematic progress
We are making continuous progress when it comes to protect­
ing the environment and climate. Environmental management
systems play a key role for us here. We already use systems
that are certified in accordance with an ISO 14001 matrix at allseven** production facilities with a related coating unit and/or adhesive production.
Compared with other sites, these certified sites have highlevels of energy consumption, for example, due to drying or
waste air purification processes. This means that they also
have higher CO2 emission levels: They cause much of our
Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.

* Scope 1 comprises emissions resulting from a company’s own
activities – for instance, during production.
Scope 2 comprises emissions arising through purchased energy –such as electricity.
** tesa Scribos was sold in September 2021.

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We identify, assess and monitor the progress made by ourISO 14001-certified sites in reducing their CO2 emissions. We
review the effectiveness of our activities by keeping trackof monthly site-specific energy consumption. We determine
energy-related CO2 emissions based on the guidelines of
the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. We continuously identify
energy-saving opportunities and optimize energy-intensive
processes.

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

Our headquarters in Norderstedt and the Hamburg andOffenburg production facilities also have ISO 50001-certified
energy management systems. They’re our largest production
facilities and have a high level of energy consumption in com­
parison with our other sites. They account for more than 70
percent of the CO2 emissions of all ISO 14001-certified sites.
Most of our employees are located at our headquarters, whichis also home to our largest research and development unit
with its laboratories and testing and small-batch production.
Our energy management systems form the basis for further
increasing energy efficiency at the two sites.
tesa corporate management is involved in this process every
year through a management review. The environment experts
at our respective sites are responsible for the implementationof specific environmental measures.

Conserving resources andgenerating energy internally
We’re banking on energy and resource-saving technologies
and efficient internal energy generation to increase energy
efficiency at our sites. At several of our production facilities,
we operate combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) or
combined heat and power (CHP) plants to generate electricity.
In these systems, we use not only the electricity generated,but also the heat that is produced, for production processes
or for heating. CHP systems are usually operated with naturalgas. In the future, we plan to increase our use of renewable,
climate-friendly energy sources at our CHP plants in orderto reduce our Scope 1 emissions over the long term. In fact,
we purchased biogas for the first time for the plant at theheadquarters in the year under review. The biogas is pro­
duced in England and fed into the European gas grid, withbiogas certificates confirming that the energy source is green.
This allows us to continue benefiting from the high efficiencyof the CHP and, with the use of biogas, from renewable,
climate-friendly energy sources. With this approach, we cut
our CO2 emissions by around 2,800 tons in the year underreview.* We ultimately produced more than 50 percent of
our own energy ourselves using energy-efficient CHP plants
in 2021.  

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Using electricity fromrenewable sources
We are purchasing renewable energy in order to achieve ourclimate goals. Since the end of 2020, we have sourced 100
percent of our purchased electricity from renewable energy
sources such as solar energy, wind energy and hydropower.
Some of our sites purchase energy directly from renewablesources, while for others we acquire green electricity with aguarantee of origin.**We’re also increasingly generating electricity with photo­voltaic systems. In 2021, we commissioned a photovoltaic
system at our production facility in Suzhou, with around
1,980 solar panels installed on a rooftop surface measuring
7,000 square meters. Compared to conventionally generated
elec­tric­ity, we reduce CO2 by around 900 metric tons a year.
And things are progressing in Europe as well: We conductedfeasibility studies on the installation of photovoltaic sys­tems
in Italy and Germany, with more sites to follow.

*	We assign a CO2 factor of 0 t/MWh for biogas.
**	For the electricity it purchases, tesa acquires
what are known as “International Renewable En­
ergy Certificates” (I-RECs), European guarantees
of origin or country-specific certificates.

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Consistent monitoring of emissions

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Fig. 3: CO2 emissions scope 1 and scope 23 (in t CO2e)80,000

By 2025, we intend to cut our absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2
emissions by 30 percent by comparison with 2018. In the
period under review, we lowered our CO2 emissions – calcu­
lated according to the market-based method and taking into
consideration electricity from renewable energy sources (seeFig.2) – in absolute terms by 16.5 percent to 58,373 tons CO2e
compared to 2018 (see Fig. 1 and 3). The negative develop­
ment compared to the previous year (2020: -23 percent) is
the result of an increase in production volume (+10 percent)and the associated rise in gas consumption (see Fig. 1).

344
327

301

30,00055,63920,00054,12858,373

10,00002018

2019
Scope 1

2020

2021

Scope 2

0.95

0.91

0.82

0.8

0.75
0.70

280

2018

270
20181

2019

2020

50

40
30

52

34

20
10
0
2018

2019

2020

2020

2021

2021

Fig. 2: Electricity from renewable sources2 (in %)
60

2019

Thermal exhaust gas purification systems (regenerative ther­mal oxidation systems) burn exhaust gas in the air, resulting
in purified exhaust gas, which is then discharged into theenvironment. For example, two thermal oxidation systems arein operation at our Suzhou plant and minimize airborne emis­
sions. We intend to commission a new regenerative thermaloxidation system at our production facility in Hamburg withthe aim of further reducing emissions of volatile organic com­pounds (VOC) there as well. Our total global VOC emissions
was 123 metric tons in 2021.

Award-winning environmental
management at the tesa plantin Suzhou, China

0.94

0.80

290

30

50,3210

40,000

0.85

310

300

40

12

0.90

320
310

50,00013,121

1.00

350
330

14,251

Fig. 4: Specific CO2 emissions per metric tonof end product (in t CO2e)Fig. 1: Total energy consumption (in GWh)
340

70,00060,000

Thermal exhaust gas purification
reduces emissions

Any emissions throughout the value chain that are not cat­egorized as Scope 1 or Scope 2 are classified as Scope 3
emissions.* Raw materials and goods account for around
two-thirds of our total emissions (as of 2020), which is why
we view the increased use of recycled and bio-based raw
materials as a key lever for reducing our indirect emissions(see p. 34). We report our Scope 3 emissions to our stake­holders through CDP (see p. 17). We’re working on further
developing our emissions balance and communicating it
both internally and externally in the future.

Whether it’s commissioning an in-house photovoltaic sys­tem, purchasing 100 percent green electricity or installing
thermal exhaust gas purification equipment, the tesa plantin Suzhou, China, is working on a variety of levels to reduce
its environmental footprint throughout the entire value chain.
In 2021, the Suzhou Industrial Park management presented
the tesa plant with an award for its outstanding environmental
management.

New charging station forelectric cars and bikes
In September 2021, we expanded the charging capacities forelectric cars and bikes at the headquarters. There are now
twelve charging stations for cars and twelve secured charging
compartments for bicycle batteries.

2021

Reference year	This includes the purchase of guarantees of origin for green electricity andinternal production through sources such as photovoltaic systems and CHP
plants operated with biogas.
3	Definitions according to the GHG Protocol Scope 2 standard;market-based method; electricity from renewable sources is assigned
an emissions factor of zero.
1

2

26

* 	Scope 3 comprises emissions caused by upstream and downstream
activities along the value chain – for example, through suppliers.

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

Using resources sparingly“Avoid, reuse, recycle” is the order of the day and an integral
part of the company’s environmental protection efforts,
ensuring as little waste as possible is generated when manufacturing tesa® products.
tesa would like to promote a circular economy to use
resources as sparingly and carefully as possible. We’re always
working on our reduction measures and developing our envi­
ronmental management systems. It’s important to us to raiseawareness of how to prevent unnecessary waste and how torecycle correctly. We also consult external experts.

Avoid, reuse, recycle
Waste prevention is one of the core elements of our waste
and raw materials management. Where that is not possible,
we reduce it. Where waste is unavoidable, we seek to reuse
it by various means. Only where it is not possible either toavoid, reduce or reuse waste will we dispose of it. We regu­
larly inform our employees on how to prevent waste wherever
possible and separate it correctly.

28

We are continuously improving our machinery and production
processes with a key focus on using materials efficiently. For
example, we minimize production-related losses of the raw
materials we use to produce adhesives and apply coatings.
Our employees provide valuable suggestions here.
The waste generated during the production process is col­lected separately and recycled to the greatest extent possible
at our sites. We categorize waste as follows: “non-ha­z­ardous”,“hazardous”, “to be disposed of”, and “to be recycled”. tesa
recycles almost all non-hazardous waste and hazardous
waste containing solvents.

“Big Ideas Instead of Waste”:
efficient employee campaign reduces
waste – and costs
How can we harness our employees’ expertise in order todevelop waste prevention measures? One answer is our suc­cessful “Big Ideas Instead of Waste” campaign at our tesa
plant in Offenburg, in which production, process development
and technology employees have played an active role since2009. Behind this campaign is a long-term project throughwhich we intend to gradually reduce our use of energy andresources. In 2021, we implemented 28 departmental andinterdepartmental projects with the goal of using resources
more efficiently. A positive secondary effect: Thanks to themeasures associated with these projects, we saved € 276,821
alone in the year under review. In relation to the base year
2018, a total of 432 tons less waste was generated.

Reducing landfill disposal

Waste volumes by type and disposal method (in 1,000 t)

We have set ourselves the ambitious goal of eliminating all
landfill disposal (“zero waste to landfill”) by 2025. More than70 percent of our plants have already achieved this status.
Categorized by waste disposal method, our waste volumes
in 2021 were as illustrated to the right.

1.0

1.1

Disposalof hazardous
waste

In sum, the waste volume per metric ton of end product was
reduced by 6.6 percent compared to 2018. The figure indi­cated here has been adjusted for mixing effects that result
from the weighting of the various sites. Removing the mixing
effects provides for greater transparency in our presentationof our sites’ performance and our level of progress.

Disposal of
non-hazardous
waste

2021

11.5
Recycling of
non-hazardous
waste

6.4
Recyclingof hazardous
waste

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

Conserving water and protecting
water bodies
Water is a vital resource for people and ecosystems andmust therefore be protected at all costs. As a result of climate change and the growing global population, cleanwater is becoming scarcer worldwide. Responsible use ofwater is therefore extremely important to us.
At tesa we primarily use water for production processes at oursites and strive to use water carefully and sparingly. Further­more, as a chemical company that operates worldwide, we

consider it to be our responsibility to protect water sourcesfrom contamination caused by our production activities. This
self-image is reflected in our Group-wide environmental
guidelines.
Among other things, we use water for the production of adhe­sives – for example, for the dilution and granulation of rubber
or to manufacture intermediate products. In recent years, theshare of water-based products has increased significantly

since we are using water more frequently as an auxiliary
resource. We also make use of water in cutting and coolingprocesses and for the moistening of release papers.
We aim to use this scarce resource thoughtfully and efficiently.
This includes keeping track at our production facilities every
year of water data such as water consumption and effluent
quantities.

We primarily obtain water from the local drinking water supply
and from the groundwater. The water is reused several times
in our cooling systems. We are implementing appropriate
measures at our sites in order to return industrial water tothe water cycle.
We disclose information on our water management through
CDP (see p. 17). Based on the “Water Security” questionnaire,
we received a “C” rating. We aim to improve our rating in the
future. The current rating serves as motivation to introduce
measures that further improve our water management. In
2021, our volume of water withdrawal amounted to approxi­
mately 494,000 cubic meters, of which 254,000 cubic meters
was well water and 240,000 cubic meters was derived frommunicipal sources. Our water consumption in the last fiscal
year was approximately 271,000 cubic meters.

Taking action against scarcity
and stress: preventing risks
We conduct a risk assessment every year to identify produc­tion facilities with increased risk of water scarcity or stress.*
We use the World Resources Institute’s “Aqueduct Water Risk
Atlas” as a source of data.
We would like to reduce risks for water sources that result
from our production as much as possible. Therefore, we takepreventive measures against any conceivable accidents. For
example, liquids that pose a threat to water are emptied andrefilled or stored only in areas that are equipped with appro­
priate retention tanks. Equipment to measure turbidity andsolvent concentration ensures that no contaminated surface
water is channeled into sewage systems. If a relevant quantityof water-endangering substances leaks, emergency plans
come into effect that precisely regulate the further course ofaction. All of these measures are regularly reviewed in our
external ISO 14001 audits and are essential for a successful
audit result.
* 	Water stress measures the relationship between total water withdrawal(without return) and the available supplies of renewable surface waterand groundwater.

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

Customers
Achieving a higher level of sustainability is an important goalfor many of our customers – just as it is for us. We embark
on this journey together and support customers with inno­
vative and environmentally friendly adhesive solutions. We
are increasingly developing products made from sustainable
raw materials, for example with bio-based or recycled mate­rials that have an ecological benefit. Furthermore, we areworking to ensure that our customers have environmental
benefits from using our products, for example by using fewer
resources. This understanding is anchored in our sustainabil­
ity agenda (see pp. 16–17).

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These are theSDGs we support
in terms of“Customers”:

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

Our approach to greater
product sustainability
We place high demands on safety, quality and performance when developing our products. At the same time,
we increasingly emphasize combining these properties with
reducing the environmental footprint of our applications.
We aim to increase the sustainability of the products in our
portfolio. For us, this primarily means that we want to makegreater use of bio-based and recycled raw materials in the
future and also give greater consideration to how the materi­als used can be recycled at the end of a product’s life. As partof this process, we launched around 50 projects in parallel inproduct and technology development in 2021 that are directly
related to our sustainability agenda. These projects range
from bio-based PET adhesive tapes for new smartphones
and sustainable hole covers for the automotive industry totapes that the user can compost after use. In communicatingwith our customers, we constantly look for further sustainable
solutions.
In many areas, tesa® products already create ecological
added value. For example, when they are used for repairs
our adhesive solutions ensure that things can be used for
longer. In addition, unlike hardening liquid adhesives, manyof our solutions make it possible to separate certain compo­
nents at the end of a product’s useful life so that they can berecycled. That conserves resources, protects the environment
and avoids emissions.

Project sustainability assessment
as an important control lever
Since last year, we have been using our “Project Sustainability
Assessment” – an instrument with which we incorporate sus­
tainability issues at an early stage of all product developments
and major investments. This ensures that product develop­
ment employees consider the extent to which their projectcontributes to our sustainability agenda and the sustainable
development goals of the United Nations right from the start.
This also applies to major investment decisions. This is an
important control lever for our development toward greater
sustainability, which was also consistently applied in 2021.

~50 projects

In 2021, we initiated around 50 projects that are
directly related to the sustainability agenda.

Tracking the carbon footprintof our products
When developing a product, our focus is on reducing its
carbon footprint while maintaining high performance. That’s
why we start by determining what carbon footprint our prod­
ucts leave behind. We allocated emission factors during thereporting period to many of our most commonly used raw
materials. In the future, we intend to determine the product34

Special adhesive tapes for electric cars
tesa has been active in the area of e-mobility since 2016.
By supporting the electric vehicle industry with our grow­ing range of products for safe solutions, we are making
an important contribution to the transition to sustainablemobility.
In close cooperation with the world’s leading OEMs andsuppliers, we are continuously developing our adhesive
tapes specifically for electric and hybrid vehicles. This field
will become increasingly important in the future, because
according to relevant forecasts, more electric cars will besold than cars with internal combustion engines for the
first time by 2030.
Our special adhesive tapes are used especially in thebattery systems of e-cars, whether for cable sheathing andelectrical insulation of battery cells, modules and packs, inthe systems for thermal management and to ensure pas­
senger protection. For example, we are developing further
adhesive tapes for the fire-resistant lining of battery packs,
using special designs to prevent fire from spreading into
the passenger compartment through thermal insulation.

carbon footprint (PCF) for as many products as possible, as
well as for the underlying production processes. We also com­municate with our suppliers on this issue since determining
the carbon footprint helps us derive measures for reducing
CO2 emissions throughout the value chain. This complex pro­
cess requires reliable data sets and a deep understanding oftechnical relationships. We are still at the beginning, but see
great potential here to promote sustainability at tesa.

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Organic photovoltaics
Sustainable energy generation is the order of the day and is driv­
ing technological development. For many years, tesa has been
established among industrial customers with tapes for bonding
solar modules. Compared to crystalline and inorganic solar mod­ules, the production of organic solar cells is more cost and energy
efficient. In addition, they are light and flexible, which means
they can be used in a variety of applications. Manufacturers are
currently working to increase efficiency to over 10 percent andto improve long-term stability. Organic photovoltaics are opening
up a new, promising market for innovative adhesive solutions.
In close cooperation with customers, tesa therefore develops
new product variants modified for the organic photovoltaics
sector, including electrically conductive adhesive tapes, highly
transparent mounting tapes, and special masking adhesive tapes.

Alternatives for raw materials
and solvents

Possible improvementswith packaging

We want our products to become more sustainable and also
to help our customers be more sustainable. We intend toachieve this by increasingly evaluating the trade-offs be­tween
raw material alternatives and giving preference to raw mate­rials that are environmentally and climate-friendly.

We are also minimizing the negative environmental impact
associated with our packaging materials. Our goal is to reduce
the amount of packaging materials as much as possible and to
avoid all packaging that is not absolutely necessary – withoutharming the quality, performance or protection of our prod­
ucts in the process.

We have therefore begun to closely look at alternative raw
materials and are increasingly using recycled and bio-basedmaterials. tesafilm® Eco & Clear and tesapack® Eco & Strong
already contain a recyclate content in the film backing thathas been certified via DIN CERTCO. We are further expanding
the product range with recycled carriers.
In addition, we intend to further reduce the use of solvents in
production and, where possible, do without them altogether.
In many cases, it is already possible to use water instead ofsolvents. Between 2001 and 2021, we were able to reduce theuse of solvents per metric ton of end product by 23 percent. In
the future, we will rely even more on solvent-free and energyefficient technologies, using innovative processes based, forexample, on the extrusion of solid systems.

36

In 2021, we worked on new sustainable packaging targets
as part of our sustainability agenda. A project team was set
up in 2021 to evaluate the status quo of our packaging anddevelop opportunities for improvement based on this. Specif­
ically, in the future we intend to use fewer raw materials for
packaging and to make use of alternative and/or recycled raw
materials and avoid plastic packaging, among other things.
Here we are also considering new types of packaging, suchas replacing shrink wrap with a paper sleeve or a folding
carton. The development of specific indicators will help us
to ensure transparency regarding our progress in this area.

tesa – Sustainability report 2021

Three questions for Dr. Thomas Schubert,
Head of Sustainability
The development of innovative products that havethe lowest possible environmental impact is a science in itself. But in the age of high technology, there
can’t be any lack of know-how for technologicalquantum leaps, right?
The more than 500 members of the tesa R&D teamhave a long history of working toward the future withgreat success. We come up with innovative ideas andsolutions every day. But the challenge of increasing
our products’ sustainability first and foremost demands
a new way of thinking. It’s not just a matter of substitut­ing fossil-fuel based plastics with recycled or organic
materials to have a “green” adhesive tape – the raw
materials, products and processes must be entirely
adapted to the requirements of a sustainable circular
economy. The challenge of this transition is in retaining
the high quality of our adhesive solutions, which are
in large part used in highly sensitive industrial appli­
cations. The associated developments require many
months, if not years, of lab testing. So, we want tomeet contemporary demands with our developments,
but we first want to take a sound scientific, holistic
approach to finding the right ingredients for new sus­
tainable recipes for success.
What fields of work can tesa have an impact on, andhow can it use its strengths most effectively?
We’re right in the middle of a transformational pro­cess. tesa has a great deal of experience and successin increasing process efficiency, reducing waste andrecycling solvents. And we’re not starting from scratchwith our products, since we already have solutions on
the market that are based on biological raw materials
and recycled plastics. Some of our adhesive tapes
are already improving repair and recycling processes
around the world or increasing our customers’ effi­
ciency. We’re convinced that a stronger strategic focus
on innovation can take us a long way. In fact, that’s

been the foundation of our success for the last few
years. We are now planning to focus these strengths
even more on a holistic, sustainable way of thinking
and take the entire life cycle of products into accounteven more than before. Sustainability and innovation
go hand in hand, and that suits us.
If you try to describe the value and benefit of products in a holistic context, you quickly come to somesensitive topics. Starting when, how and why is atesa® adhesive tape actually sustainable?
Let’s talk about adhesive solutions that contributeto sustainability. The term sustainability describes aholistic concept, and product sustainability can havea lot of highly varied facets: the source of the raw
materials, the production process, production emis­
sions and also how it’s used by the end consumer.
The entire life cycle must be assessed. At the start ofa journey to complete sustainability, you can’t address
every challenge immediately or independently. But
first steps are possible and they do make a large initial
contribution to more sustainability. Products can be
developed that have films based on recycled plas­
tics and bio-based adhesives. Production processes
can handle energy, resources and waste even more
efficiently. Energy can increasingly be obtained fromrenewable sources. And, even today, we can takemore responsibility for the circumstances in which
our raw materials are obtained, processed and trans­
ported. These are all contributions that our adhesive
tapes make to sustainability.

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Examples of tesa® products withsustainable characteristics

New products with award and test seal:
tesapack® Bio & Strong and tesapack® Paper Standard

We continue to broaden our portfolio to increasingly add
products with sustainable characteristics, including packaging
tapes with paper from sustainable forestry and our tesa® Bond &Detach products for the industrial sector.

Our two new products from 2021 – tesapack® Paper Standard
and tesapack® Bio & Strong – also carry the ecoLOGO® label.

First tesa® adhesive tapes with FSC® certification
We use large quantities of paper for our products and theirpackaging. As a responsible company, we intend to in­creas­
ingly source paper from sustainable forestry. FSC® (FSC®
C148769) is an internationally recognized seal. It is used tocertify forests and plantations that are managed accord­
ing to strict ecological and social principles, among otherthings. With the new products tesapack® Paper Standard andtesapack® Bio & Strong (see also “New products” in this chapter), we launched our first FSC® certified products in 2021.
We aim to have more product certifi­cations according to
FSC® in the future. Our Group headquarters and the produc­tion plants in Offenburg, Suzhou, Concagno and Hamburg
are already FSC® certified.
tesa ecoLOGO®:
a contribution to sustainability for over ten years
The products of our “green” tesa ecoLOGO® sub-brand havebeen featured in our range for over ten years now. They
include adhesive rollers, adhesive films, packaging tapes,
glue sticks, and correction rollers. The tesa ecoLOGO® range
uses mostly recycled and bio-based raw materials for the
products and their packaging. The manufacturing process
is entirely solvent-free. Our product range now comprises
a total of 132 products – and more are currently in the plan­ning stage. The high demand for individual tesa ecoLOGO®
products clearly shows that customers are calling for productswith sustainable characteristics. We will therefore make evenfurther improvements to our range in terms of its sustainability
profile.

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The new tesapack® Bio & Strong adhesive tape is suitable for
cardboard packaging weighing up to 30 kilograms. It contains
polylactic acid (PLA) and is a particularly strong adhesive.
Extracted from vegetable corn starch, the bioplastics can beused as a film backing, while the adhesive is based on biolog­
ical raw materials such as natural rubber and tree resin. The
coating process is solvent-free and the core of the adhesiveroll is made of recycled paper. The high organic content oftesapack® Bio & Strong was awarded the highest rating by
DIN CERTCO and TÜV Austria.
The tesapack® Paper Standard is our new ecological alter­
native for shipping packages weighing up to ten kilograms.
The paper base comes from FSC® certified forests and othercontrolled sources. The adhesive for this adhesive tape ismade from natural rubber and the core of the roll is madefrom 100 percent recycled paper. The coating is solvent-free.
tesapack® Paper Standard can be disposed of with the card­

tesa – Sustainability report 2021

board without any problems because, unlike many conven­tional adhesive tapes, neither the paper backing nor theadhesive interfere with the recycling process. This has
been tested and proven according to the industry standard
INGEDE-12.

98%

organic
content

International networking fortechnological progress
Bundling and increasing internal expertise is essential. We are
well aware that thinking outside of the box is just as importantbecause innovation thrives on collaboration and exchange,
especially in the area of sustainability. That is why we at tesa
want to work more closely with international cooperation
partners and also benefit specifically from external expert
knowledge, for example when it comes to detailed and criticalassessments of raw materials.

98 percent of the new adhesive tape tesapack®
Bio & Strong is organic.

Proven innovations:tesa® Bond & Detach and Sugru®
tesa® Bond & Detach products and Sugru® have successfully
performed on the market for several years. With tesa® Bond &Detach, components of smartphones become recyclable inthat components such as batteries and many other parts canbe attached so that they hold permanently, but can also be
removed easily without leaving any residue. This makes it
easier to reuse electronic components.
Sugru® is a kneadable silicone-based specialty adhesive
which the end user can use to make repairs. From sheathing
brittle cables to broken zippers, defective everyday items canbe repaired in a customized way. Sugru® is also skin-friendly
and is considered toy-safe according to the European toy
safety standard EN71.

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Safety first
We place high value on the quality and safety of our products. Our customers’ trust and satisfaction is crucial to our
economic success. By means of internal guidelines andregular checks, we ensure that each of our products meets
our stringent standards.
Comprehensive quality management helps us maintain our
product safety at a high level and thus reinforces our market
position. We design products and manufacturing processes
so that they can be used safely and properly and any negative
effects on people and the environment are minimized. Our
goal is to keep the number of product liability cases at zero.
All of tesa’s production facilities have certified management
systems in line with quality requirements, standards and reg­ulations recognized worldwide.
Product safety management at tesa is an essential componentof quality management and is shared by management.

Training and guidelines
guarantee quality
All over the world, each of our key plants has its own productsafety officer who is responsible for ensuring product safety
and reports to the product safety officer at the headquar­ters.
In the year under review, selected product safety officers
received training on how to perform production-accompany­
ing line checks in accordance with product integrity require­ments. This allowed them to further develop their required
expertise.

40

We comply with applicable laws and guidelines on a Groupwide level and go even further with our internal product safety
guideline (tesa Product Safety Guideline). The internal guide­lines describe mandatory measures enabling us to further
increase the safety of our products. It also specifies the roles
and responsibilities of our product safety officers. The tesa
Product Safety Guideline applies worldwide.

Control and feedback
via audits
Our products, systems and processes are regularly reviewed
within the scope of internal and external audits including in
the year under review. Our Quality Management department
and product safety officers are responsible for these audits.
We carry out both event-driven and scheduled annual audits.

They cover product development and production and, if nec­
essary, other departments such as marketing. Additionally,
the production facilities of the tesa Group were successfully
audited in the reporting year in line with globally recognized
quality requirements and standards, including ISO 9001 andIATF 16949. In particular, IATF certification focuses on theconformity of all products, processes, parts and services, aswell as product safety.

We continuously scrutinize
our products
Our Corporate Regulatory Affairs department is responsible
for assessing the materials and substances used in our prod­
ucts. For this purpose, they rely on various chemical industry
databases and the responsible authorities, evaluate researchfindings and consider information on safety-related substanceproperties and the safe handling of substances and mixtures.
A safety data sheet is available for each product and includes
safety-related information, e.g., in relation to materials andsubstances, correct storage and appropriate use. It also pro­vides recommendations on the product’s disposal.
For each new product, the Product Development and Pro­
duction departments perform risk assessments to identify
potential defects in the design, manufacture or instructions
for use during the development process of our applications.
Products that are already on the market continue to bemonitored by our business units. If they identify the need for a
new risk analysis and assessment and appropriate measures,
they will initiate the necessary steps. They thus ensure thehealth and safety of our customers and employees.

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Society
At tesa, we embody a corporate culture characterized byappreciation and respect. As an international company withover 4,800 employees, we have a great responsibility for ourown employees as well as for those who are active on ourbehalf along our value chain. We invest in initial and advanced
training and support diversity and equal opportunity. We also
ensure that our employees remain healthy and able to work.
tesa is expressly committed to safe and fair working condi­
tions for its suppliers. Moreover, compliance with applicablelaws, directives and internal regulations is fundamental to
our actions.

These are theSDGs we support
in terms of“Society”:

We also feel responsible for shaping the future which includes
equal education and opportunities for the next generations.
We are committed to the future of our junior staff at the com­pany and of innovative minds that could one day become
junior staff. Thus, tesa supports a large number of educational
projects – increasingly also outside Germany.

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Responsibility along the supply chain
As an international company, we purchase raw materials allover the world. Accordingly, our global supply chains arecomplex. Europe and Asia are two of our most important
markets. The close cooperation with our suppliers enables
us to guarantee high product quality and security of supply. At the same time, we assume social and ecologicalresponsibility. We expect all of our suppliers to share ourstandards. That includes respecting and safeguarding
human rights.
To ensure the quality of our products and our business suc­cess, it is important that we always keep a close eye on our
supply chain and pursue a regular dialog with our suppliers.
Our local purchasing teams who precisely monitor the local
market play an important role. They are able to provide a
realistic assessment of possible risks, such as due to politicalinstability or changes to local legislation. We also continuously
optimize a network of alternative suppliers in order to reduce
potential procurement risks.
Our local purchasing teams closely cooperate with our pur­chasing experts at our Norderstedt headquarters. Our central
purchasing team monitors global trends such as fluctuating
raw material prices, changes in supplier sales and distribution
channels, and shifts in the competitive environment. Its tasks
include organizing our purchasing processes accordingly.
Our tesa purchasing network brings together cross-sector
purchasing activities and resources. As a central function, it
manages strategic processes across the Group.

Purchasing according to ethical guidelinesand global standards
Our Purchasing Compliance Guideline describes the global
purchasing processes and is part of the Group-wide Compli­
ance Manual. The Guideline requires key suppliers, who sup­ply tesa directly, to sign our Code of Conduct for Suppliers.
It establishes the baseline for the responsible managementof our global procurement processes and describes funda­
mental rules and obligations in the area of human rights,
labor standards, environmental protection and corruption
prevention. The Code of Conduct for Suppliers is based on
the ten principles of the UN Global Compact. New suppliersmust accept these rules of conduct before the first order is

44

43%

auditedpurchasing volume

In 2021, we covered 43 percent of our directpurchasing volume based on self-assessments
via EcoVadis.

placed. Otherwise, we will not do business with them. If theCode of Conduct for Suppliers is not yet a component ofexisting contracts, it will be integrated whenever the contract
in question is next updated. If a supplier violates our rules,
we expect that grievances are remedied. Otherwise, we willterminate the business relationship. tesa rejects any form of
human rights violations. Any reported violations will be dealt
with immediately. No indications of human rights violations
were reported in 2021.
Our buyers are trained on the Purchasing Compliance Guide­line, the Code of Conduct for Suppliers, antitrust complianceand sustainability. As part of this course, we also promoteawareness among participants of the need to respect humanrights. The requirement to respect and safeguard humanrights is also a core aspect of our Group-wide Code of Con­
duct (see p. 54). This Code of Conduct applies for all of ouremployees. It sets out rules and obligations in the areas oflabor standards, corruption prevention and environmental
protection.

Sustainability program for our suppliers
In mid-2020, we launched a sustainability program for our
suppliers to check whether human rights, working condi­
tions and environmental aspects are complied with within our
supply chain. Since then, we have invited suppliers to share

their sustainability performance with tesa via the “EcoVadis”
rating platform. EcoVadis is a collaborative platform throughwhich companies can gather the sustainability performanceof their suppliers. The assessment is the first step in creat­
ing transparency in the supply chain and thus contributes tosustainable development. At the end of 2021, we assessed
43 percent of our direct purchasing volume on the basis ofthese EcoVadis self-disclosure forms. Over the next few years,
we intend to gradually increase this share: By 2025, we will
review 80 percent of our overall direct purchasing volume
by means of self-disclosure forms. During 2021, we extended
the sustainability program to indirect purchasing.

tesa receives
Responsible Supplier Award
As a supplier, we received the Responsible Supplier Award
from our French customer Legallais in 2021. This shows that
we are setting a good example with our activities for sustain­
ability and our social commitment.

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Healthy and safe working
As an employer, we are obliged to protect our employees
against risks and hazards at work. Safety and health in
the workplace are a priority for tesa, even when measured
against our own high standards. There are good reasons for
this: A safe work environment provides a vital contribution
to the productivity of our workforce and the quality of our
products – and thus also to our customers’ satisfaction.
High occupational safety standards are therefore not leasta key factor in tesa’s competitiveness.
We aim for all of our employees and suppliers to benefit fromthe highest health and safety standards. For us, effective
occupational health and safety measures require a systematicand consistent approach. We focus on prevention and raise
our employees’ awareness of possible risks – for their own
protection and for that of their colleagues.
We see occupational health and safety as a holistic and pre­ventive management task: Our goal is to reduce the numberof work accidents to zero and to avoid work-related ill healthas well as physical and mental exhaustion at work. We regu­
larly check to see if we can make our company workplaceseven safer and healthier.

Occupational safety is apriority group-wide
At tesa, we are making progress in the area of occupationalsafety and health management through working committees,such as the occupational safety committees as required bylaw. In addition, our Occupational Safety Guidelines, which
apply throughout the group of companies, form the basis forour internal management system in the area of occupationalsafety. These are substantiated through additional guide­lines and operating instructions and are accessible to all of
our employees via our intranet. The guidelines also apply to
sub-contractors, who take on tasks in our production sites.
Our employees and especially our supervisors are awareof their responsibility for occupational safety. As part of ourtraining measures, we actively involve employees, keep them
regularly informed about activities and provide them withfurther training. Together with our occupational safety depart­
ment, corporate management assesses each year the volume

46

of accidents that have occurred in the respective year. Basedon this information, it then adopts new measures to increase
employees’ safety and reduce work-related health risks.

Production safety
Our occupational safety management activities focus in par­ticular on our production facilities: There, the risks of acci­
dents and adverse health effects are greater than at our officelocations. We have set a demanding goal as part of our sus­
tainability report: By 2025, all tesa sites that already have an
ISO 14001 certified environmental management system are
to obtain equivalent certification in the area of occupationalsafety. For example, we have already reached another import­
ant milestone for occupational health and safety at tesa with
ISO 45001 certification in 2021 at our plant in Suzhou, China.
We employ our own safety specialists at all of our ISO 14001certified sites. They are familiar both with tesa’s global occu­
pational safety and health guidelines as well as with local
legal requirements and conditions. The safety specialists
meet annually – either in person or virtually – to discuss
key occupational safety and health risks. They also initiate
joint projects, define standards and share information on
successes and their experiences. They thus help to avoid
accidents at tesa right from the start.

Risk prevention andhazard avoidance
Risk assessments are performed on a regular basis. They help
us to identify technical and organizational risks and shortcom­
ings even before they arise, e.g., work resources or work pro­cedures. This enables us to prevent accidents, avoid strain,
improve working conditions and thereby increase employees’
level of motivation.
We are preventative minded. New acquisitions or processadaptations, changes to machines, systems or in workrooms
can also have an impact on the safety and health of our col­leagues. That’s why we check where hazards can occur even
before equipment is purchased and put into operation. Occu­

pational safety committees, employee representatives as wellas management analyze the key findings of assessments
and define appropriate measures. Production facilities also
undergo routine inspections and evaluations. We take into
account new findings, determine additional measures if nec­
essary and update the relevant occupational health and safety
documents. Activities such as our headquarters campaign“Arrive safely – avoid commute-related accidents” helped
to raise employees’ awareness through tips and advice on
how to get to their workplace and back home “safely andsecurely”.
Handling hazardous substances
The handling of hazardous substances is also clearly reg­ulated: Representatives of our occupational safety, corpo­
rate regulatory affairs, production, as well as research anddevelopment jointly draw up the procedures for the handling,labeling, storage and transport of hazardous substances.
Employees who work with hazardous substances undergo
routine, mandatory health check-ups. In addition, the rele­vant technical units of our company monitor the safety offacilities and workplaces as well as related emission sourcesin a defined rotation. The procedure in case of an accident
with hazardous substances is governed by site-specific emer­
gency plans.
SafetyTour app
The “SafetyTour app” developed by the IT department was
introduced at all tesa production sites worldwide in 2021.
In addition to findings during walk-throughs and the corre­
sponding measures, measures taken in the scope of thecontinuous improvement process and measures resulting
from official inspections will also be integrated in the future.
Besides the simple entry of data and images, the measures
can be prioritized, selected, and better archived using a traffic
light system. A checklist ensures that no issue is overlooked
during the walk-through.

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Focusing on employees
Emergency preparedness
Fire protection was again a focus in the 2021 year underreview. For example, fire extinguishing training was held forfire protection assistants at the plants under COVID-19 safety
conditions. At the tesa Technology Center, the extinguishingconcept was adapted to increase employee safety whenextinguishing with CO2 and to prevent accidents.

Our goal: reducing accidents to zero
We would like to keep the number of accidents as low as
possible. This particularly applies to accidents resulting in a
prolonged incapacity for work, when the employee is absent
for more than three days.
In 2021, the frequency of accidents leading to more than
three lost days was 1.2 per million hours worked globally.

This was below the previous year’s figure (1.8 in 2020) andwell below the German industry average (BG RCI) of 12.3.
For us, this demonstrates that our occupational safety mea­sures are paying off and that we are getting closer to ourzero-accident target.

Our customers’ needs are changing ever more frequently.
At the same time, the demands they place on our products
are growing due to new technologies and trends as well
as global challenges, such as climate change and resource
scarcity. We will only be able to meet our customers’ ex­pectations – and repeatedly surpass them – with dedicatedemployees.

Safely through the pandemic

Our company’s success depends to a significant extent on theskills of our workforce and their willingness to undergo further
training courses. Our human resources strategy is designed
to continuously increase our attractiveness as an employer
through targeted measures to attract and retain well-trained
and committed employees for our company. We focus on
our employees’ diversity and development and ensure thatthey all have the same opportunities. In addition, our goal isto promote a corporate culture that strengthens performanceand teamwork as well as cross-functional and international
collaboration.

The global COVID-19 pandemic was and is a health threat
against which we must protect our employees around theworld. We already formed task forces in 2020 at all our sites
and plants to prevent infections and avoid risks. Measures
to protect against COVID-19 have been incorporated into
our management program and still require some effort fromour teams. Fortunately, in 2021, we have seen a high levelof engagement from our employees in the vaccination cam­paigns. This allowed us to gradually reduce the protective
measures at our sites.

People values:
our teamwork values

Occupational safety figures

Work accidents ≥ 1 day (number)

The “People Values” describe our corporate culture in our
day-to-day activities. Promoting this value system is part ofour strategy; we integrate modern, more flexible and agile
work methods, encourage collaboration between depart­ments, offer attractive training opportunities and encourage
all colleagues to experience the change themselves. The
People Values are implemented step by step. In 2021, we held
various communication courses and events within the scopeof our accompanying HR project “Our people – Our Values”
in order to publicize these new values and anchor them inour everyday work. For example, colleagues were asked tosubmit short videos on a corporate value of their choice. In
addition, all senior executives worldwide have been trainedon the People Values. Further measures for all employees arebeing planned for 2022; in addition, the People Values areto be integrated into employee appraisals and 360-degree
feedback.

2018

2019

2020

2021

21

22

18

21

Focus on our customers – Be close to yourcustomers to continuously deliver high value.
Set the pace – Be self-driven and proactive.

Accident frequency rate ≥ 1 day (number / 1 million working hours)

4.1

4.3

3.6

4.1

Work accidents > 3 days (number)

10

8

9

6

Accident frequency rate > 3 days (number / 1 million working hours) 1.9

1.6

1.8

1.2

Team up – Be open-minded and strive for successas one team.
Achieve and improve – Be focused on improving
performance and achieving results.
Challenge yourself – Be committed and open tochange and challenge yourself.
Act responsibly – Be fair and honest and act
responsibly.

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Lifelong learning,always staying up-to-date
The level of competition for employees in the science andengineering fields continues to increase within our industry.
In addition, the ongoing process of digitalization and interna­
tionalization is resulting in changing work requirements andmethods. We support this development with comprehensive
training and development programs, because highly quali­
fied, engaged and performance-oriented employees are adecisive competitive advantage for us.
Our further training programs include basic qualifications
for new employees as well as special formats tailored to therequirements of individual business units. This allows us tooffer our employees customized, attractive development
opportunities. In addition to classroom training, we offer awide range of online training courses which have been sig­
nificantly expanded in recent years.

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well-established tool that has been regularly used worldwide
by employees as an information and registration platform for
all continuing education offerings at tesa since its launch in2018. It is open to everyone by arrangement with their man­agers and includes, for example, the “Working in a Matrix” and“Project Management” training catalogs. The catalogs include
various training courses that are continuously updated andadapted to current needs. The training courses take placevirtually, thus enabling mixed groups of participants from dif­ferent regions and units. Overall in 2021, tesa’s e-learning
courses were taken 3,692 times worldwide.
In 2021, we added a sustainability e-learning course. This
interactive online training course introduces our employees
to the topic of sustainability in a playful way. The modern,informative format that looks like a comic is also intended toappeal to those who have not yet been exposed to the topic
to any great extent. This is intended to get all employees
excited about the most important sustainability goals. The
program is available in four languages and is being contin­
uously developed.

Modern continuing training becomes a journey
through the virtual world
To provide our employees suitable training opportunities fromhome due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we established the“Home Office Learning Journey” in March 2020, and contin­
ued this training in 2021. This comprises constantly changing
digital learning courses in the fields of sales, virtual leadershipand management as well as technical training. This offering
met with a strong response: A total of 1,109 employees took
part in our 25 courses during the year under review.
In 2021, we also offered digital qualification programs for
new managers for the first time and implemented them inseveral cycles at an international level during the year. Our
qualification courses are supplemented with the digital learn­ing platform LinkedIn Learning. With 1,407 activated licenses
worldwide and an average learning time of 45 minutes per
week per tesa employee (from January to October 2021), theplatform with its “Learning Journeys” has now been rolled
out across the board and is used regularly. We are currently
working on integrating LinkedIn Learning into our “Learning
Hub” learning management system to make it easier for users
to access LinkedIn Learning courses. The Learning Hub is a50

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3,692

courseparticipations

In 2021, our e-learning courses were taken
3,692 times.

Strong leadership culture
A good leadership culture is crucial for the working atmo­
sphere and creates working conditions that enhance perfor­
mance. We are convinced that it makes a significant contri­
bution to keeping staff turnover low and retaining committed
and well-trained employees over the long term so that theirknowledge and experience remain with the company for as
long as possible – an important competitive factor for us. Our
training strategy helps to ensure that we can fill key positions
with our own employees through attractive opportunities forpromotion and development. This enables them to apply theirvaluable experience and market knowledge in a profitableway, expand their expertise and skills, and thus secure ourlong-term corporate success.
Leadership development program
A three-stage leadership development program lies at theheart of tesa’s approach to executive development and isoffered worldwide in all regions and is now exclusively virtual.
The focus here is on building and developing leadership skills.
The newly established tesa People Values and the associatedtesa Leadership Model, which consists of the three pillars
Leading Self, Leading Teams, and Leading Organization, form
the framework for this.
•	The first stage is formed by the “Matrix Leadership”
courses, which are open to all employees who do not havedirect supervisory responsibility, but do have specialist

management responsibility or project responsibility, forexample. The course consists of two modules, which areoffered virtually worldwide in both German and English
and can be scheduled separately.
•	“Leadership & People Management Basics” is a virtual
learning journey for all managers who are in a supervisory
position at tesa for the first time. Over a period of six toeight weeks, the program teaches participants the essen­tials of leadership and, above all, aims to sharpen theirunderstanding of their own role as a manager. The programis offered virtually in cross-regional groups, thus enabling
not only a global exchange of experience but also greater
networking among managers at the international level.
•	The “Leadership & People Management Master Class” pro­vides experienced managers a modular program in which
strategy-related leadership topics are explored in greater
depth. The various modules are also offered virtually andin cross-regional groups.
•	With respect to increasing globalization and international
cooperation at tesa, we also offer an intercultural lead­ership training program for experienced managers enti­
tled “Managing Diverse Teams.” The focus of this virtual
qualification, which lasts approximately eight weeks, ison the specific challenges of managing international andintercultural teams.

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Management development program

Diversity and equal opportunity

Our management development program, which we launchedin 2019, is intended to help executives and managers to
expand their abilities and skill sets. In 2020, we launched
the “Advanced” building block management development
program and continued it in 2021 with a total of 22 managers
worldwide. This program was developed in cooperation with
the Ashridge Hult Business School. It covers all of the various
areas of management: strategic development, finance & con­trolling, B2B and B2C strategies and, finally, supply chain andHR management. In 2021, because of the global pandemic
and the associated travel restrictions, the originally plannedclassroom modules were also adapted and carried out in adigital format.

We aim for all of our employees to have the same opportuni­
ties – irrespective of their gender, age, origin, sexual orienta­tion or religion. Our human resources departments and ourmanagers worldwide are made aware of the need to prevent
any form of discrimination. We also create a corporate culture
in which all employees are valued and individual performanceis recognized. We emphasize two priorities in particular: creat­
ing an international work environment and promoting women
to management positions. Diversity is also a decisive com­
petitive factor that helps us to optimally address the different
needs of our customers and strengthen our innovative power
through a portfolio of different perspectives.

Internationality as a model
for successAs a global company, internationality is part of our DNA. We
benefit from filling positions with new colleagues from dif­ferent cultural backgrounds who bring their ability to bet­
ter understand the different requirements and market con­ditions of our international clientele to our company. Thisapplies especially to our headquarters in Norderstedt. We
also encourage our employees to apply for internal positions
across countries and functions. To do this, we introduced
our “X-perience” career model in 2019. This is intended tocreate a uniform understanding of promising development
and career trajectories throughout the company. Through the“X-perience the tesa world” concept, internal job postings
were an area of focus in 2021. These explicitly included arequest to apply for the positions in question at an interna­
tional level and moving beyond applicants’ current roles.

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tesa – Sustainability report 2021

In late 2021, our Hamburg-Hausbruch tesa plant had 36 train­
ees and one student completing a cooperative university edu­
cation and vocational training program. Machine and system
operators account for the largest group, with 13 trainees. Our
tesa plant Offenburg employed 35 trainees, eight of whom
are completing a cooperative university education and voca­
tional training program. In addition, emphasis was placed
on offering young unskilled temporary workers a perspec­tive and providing them with a training position: three outof five machine and plant operator trainees were previously
employed as temporary workers at the Offenburg site.

bruch. That corresponds to a hiring rate of 66 percent. At
75 percent, the rate in Offenburg was 25 percentage points
higher in 2021 than in the previous year.
tesa continuously breaks new ground for acquiring talent: For
example, the tesa plant in Offenburg has been sponsoring
the regional “Jugend forscht” research competition for many
years now.

Our hiring rate demonstrates that we aim to employ our train­
ees on a long-term basis: In 2021, we hired eight out of a totalof twelve trainees on a permanent basis at Hamburg-Haus­

Equal opportunity should be a visible feature of our corporate
culture. That includes appointing an increasing number ofwomen to management positions.

Diversity for trainees
Demographic developments and the resulting competition
for young talent are increasingly posing a challenge for the
recruitment of new trainees and cooperative studies students
in the technical and scientific fields. tesa is taking successful
approaches and always looks for new solutions to respondto the requirements of the labor market and the competitiveenvironment. For example, we developed a specific training
program that provides an opportunity to train employees in
the areas relevant to our business and helps young people
jump-start their careers. In addition to our training program atthe Hamburg-Hausbruch and Offenburg sites, we also offer
cooperative study programs.

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Compliance without compromise
Whether it’s about environmental or social issues or any
other matter of corporate management, tesa observes
applicable laws, regulations and the standards and guidelines we’ve established internally, making the company
a trustworthy partner for shareholders, employees, business partners, customers and other interest groups. But
we can only do this if we are familiar with and understandthe existing legal framework, applicable laws and internal
guidelines and apply them properly.

•	The United Nations’ (UN) Universal Declarationof Human Rights

Our Code of Conduct

Our compliance management system

The tesa Code of Conduct is our shared framework for all key
issues of corporate ethics and the binding code of conduct foreveryday business decisions. It’s our binding value frameworkand helps our employees, managers and corporate bodies toobserve and apply key principles and guidelines.

Based on the established IDW PS 980 standard, our Groupwide Compliance Management System (CMS) is intended toensure, to the maximum extent possible, that our employees
and managers adhere to legal provisions and internal rules.

The tesa Code of Conduct is based, in part, on the Ten Princi­
ples of the UN Global Compact and applies globally to all
Executive Board members, managing directors, managers
and employees.
Our Code of Conduct combines two key aspects: the commit­
ment to abide by rules and laws and the obligation to behavewith integrity, both of which are essential for long-term busi­
ness development. This is accompanied by the fact that tesa,
as an international company, feels an obligation to live up to
the values recognized and embraced in free democracies.
When it comes to our corporate activities, we observe thefollowing international standards and guidelines in particular:•	The guidelines of the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) for
multinational enterprises•	The fundamental conventions of the International
Labour Organization (ILO)

Our CMS follows the three principles set out below in orderto achieve this goal:
1.	Prevention – We set in place preventive measures, so as
to avoid violations.
2.	Recognition – We use risk assessment and additional con­trol mechanisms in order to identify and manage compli­
ance risks early on.
3.	Reaction and improvement – We punish any violationsof legislative or internal requirements as appropriate andcontinuously develop improvement measures.
Our Corporate Compliance Management department is
responsible for the CMS and helps tesa’s corporate man­agement to identify compliance risks and prevent violations.
Compliance risk assessments are thus conducted on a reg­ular basis in order to identify key compliance risk fields. The
Corporate Compliance Management department advises
the local compliance officers and helps them implement thecorresponding measures.

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As in previous years, our compliance program focused on theareas of antitrust law, anti-corruption, and data protection.
For further information about the areas of focus of our CMS,
please consult the compliance aspect in the Non-financial
statement , which we submit with our parent company,
Beiersdorf.

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Encouraging the next generation
Just as it did in 2020, in 2021 the coronavirus pandemic
posed major challenges not only for us as a company, butalso for society as a whole, which has had an impact on
our social commitment and involvement over the past
two years. In 2020, tesa put together a donation package
amounting to five million euros in an effort to provide help
quickly and without all the red tape during the global crisis.
By the end of 2021, more than € 3.6 million had gone toa variety of social and humanitarian projects worldwide.
One area that was especially close to our hearts was theeducation partnerships.
These are a suitable addition to our social commitment andinvolvement thus far: We at tesa are interested in helping
young people gain access specifically to subjects in science,technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as well as
important future technologies. The area of focus “For the
next generation of innovators” has therefore been a part ofour sustainability agenda since 2020. We began initiating
projects in this area in Germany in 2014, and there have also
been comparable projects in China since 2020. But due tothe coronavirus pandemic, we were only able to continue
our STEM efforts for young people in a limited capacity or,
in many areas, not at all in 2021. Other educational projects
with humanitarian objectives took more of a priority.

Education partnership with
Save the Children
The overall situation with the coronavirus has threatenedliving and learning conditions for millions of children aroundthe world, which is why tesa has been fighting side by sidewith the Save the Children organization to mitigate the neg­
ative impacts of the pandemic since 2020. With a donation
amounting to € 1.25 million, we had supported selected pro­jects in six countries – India, Vietnam, China, Mexico, Italy andGermany – on three continents by the end of 2021.

56

VietnamWhen the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, all of the schools
were closed in Vietnam and 24 million children could no lon­
ger go to school. Due to the insufficient infrastructure, many
children had no access to online learning, particularly in rural
areas and in segments of the population that belong to ethnic
minorities. As a result, the coronavirus further increased thegap in education in Vietnam. To support the children who
need it most, Save the Children helps local educational sys­
tems provide additional learning opportunities. One of these
initiatives is the provision of digital solutions such as training
videos that help parents practice reading with their children.
With helpful offers like these, teachers and caregivers canprevent children from falling behind in their learning.
China
In China, Save the Children’s educational support has focusedon early childhood education and elementary school edu­
cation for many years. The organization works closely withfamilies, teachers and communities and is committed, forexample, to nurturing resilience, self-esteem and social andemotional development. To optimally promote key elementsof social and emotional learning, a project supported by tesa
and Save the Children provides teachers and educational
staff with the materials they need – in the form of interactive
methods and both in-person and virtual training courses.

>3.6

million euros

in 2020 and 2021, we donated the total amountof more than 3.6 million euros for social andhumanitarian causes.

children, and Save the Children distributes masks, disinfec­
tants and information materials on COVID-19. They organize
training courses on psychosocial counseling and support for
caregivers, educators and volunteers and distribute basic
foods, learning materials and toys for schoolchildren.
MexicoIndia
With schools closed down due to the pandemic, many chil­dren run the risk of never returning to school. At the sametime, poverty is on the rise – and with it child labor, child traf­
ficking and violence. That’s why Save the Children in India
has focused its educational efforts specifically on those chil­dren who would otherwise fall through the cracks. Alterna­
tives such as online learning via smartphone, for example,
were not an option for the most disadvantaged children, as
most of them don’t have the necessary technical devices.
In fact, many families don’t even have access to electricity.
As a result, Save the Children’s approach also includes a
local “community outreach strategy”: Bal Rakshaks, which
are volunteers in the community, distribute backpacks withworksheets, books and other school materials to children in
need, discussing their homework with them and returning
finished work to the teachers. The volunteers continuously
analyze and update the worksheets to maintain an overview
of how well children understand the content. The Bal Rak­
shaks receive an expense allowance for their activities.
Due to the dramatic pandemic situation in India, tesa decided
in summer 2021 to provide Save the Children with another€ 250,000 for local aid projects. The donation went directly
to Save the Children’s Indian emergency fund and is being
used for infection prevention, food and learning materials andto treat the sick: COVID-19 treatment centers were set up for

Due to the current pandemic, the well-being and educationof more than 40 million children in Mexico are more at risk
today than ever before. With its extensive measures, which
include child protection, health, social protection, genderequality, psychosocial support, interest representation andeducation, Save the Children has reached around 300,000
children, with a key focus on Indigenous groups, migrants
and rural populations. The project “Creating Safe Spaces
to Go Back to School” helps better prepare children andteachers for homeschooling. Workshops organized by Save
the Children teach educators how to develop and implement
digital teaching and learning methods, effectively support
children remotely and help them with any general concerns
or questions they may have about the coronavirus. Depend­

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Environment

ing on the situation, Save the Children can provide children
and their families with digital and analog learning materials.
Especially disadvantaged families also receive food. The aimof the program is to prevent children from falling behind andensure they can return to school without any problems after
the pandemic.
Italy
COVID-19 has intensified the health, economic and psycho­social problems experienced by children in Italy. When theschools in Italy had to close down, they switched to digitallearning and many thousands of schoolchildren were unable
to take part in class – for example, because their families
didn’t have the necessary technical infrastructure. This
exceptional situation has also amplified existing risks suchas increased domestic violence against women and children.
Through its “Rewriting the Future” education program, Save
the Children has dedicated itself to reducing educational
poverty and preventing children from dropping out of school.
The 26 “Punti Luce” educational centers are an important partof this initiative and provide children and adolescents withan extensive range of support. For example, they provide
tutoring to boys and girls in need, so they can catch up again.
The program also offers sports, courses on art and media
skills, support options for parents and measures to combat
poverty. The centers are an important contact point for fami­lies, many of whom wouldn’t have had access to this type of
support without them. Save the Children also offers COVID-19
hygiene kits and the technical equipment required for remotelearning.
Germany
In Germany, tesa supports Save the Children’s digital edu­
cation measures, as children’s educational success is more
dependent on social background here in Germany than injust about any other industrialized country in the world. And
the coronavirus pandemic has also hit the children and ado­lescents of disadvantaged families harder than most othersin Germany. Attending online school sessions is often moredifficult for them, as they frequently lack the necessary tech­

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nical equipment and the space to learn without disruption.
The pandemic has shown that the ongoing digitalization willfurther intensify inequality in education without compensatory
measures. To close this gap, Save the Children developed
MakerSpaces in collaboration with our implementation part­
ners, Junge Tüftler (young inventors). At two model schools,
children and teachers can now learn new digital and “maker”
skills such as building robots, programming apps, internet
skills, 3D printing, video editing and a whole lot more. We also
worked with schools to develop a manual that helps otherschools set up their own MakerSpaces themselves.
At the end of 2021, tesa and Save the Children decided tocontinue their education partnership in 2022. With another€ 250,000, tesa is helping Save the Children to enable 150
million children around the world to return to school safely –this time with the global initiative “Safe Back to School.” With
this global campaign, Save the Children is doing what it can toprioritize the right to education of children around the world.
The Corporate Citizenship department, which is a unit ofCorporate Communications, is responsible for social commit­
ment and involvement at tesa. It coordinates and decides on
all of our headquarters’ support activities. The CSR strategy“tesa connects” and our sponsorship and donation guide­lines (Corporate Giving Policy) form the foundation for social
commitment and involvement at tesa.

Promoting STEM
STEM skills are important for preserving our livelihoods andfor social progress. They also help to deal with current chal­lenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic. As a technology
company, we aim to support young people in these subjects
and, in the future, to recruit qualified up-and-coming talent,
which is why the HR department is currently responsible forthese activities.
We develop our age-appropriate learning opportunities inclose cooperation with partner schools, universities, STEM
companies and other partners. tesa experts from different
fields provide an insight into their everyday working lives.
For instance, students in 11th to 13th grade will receive a fun
introduction to STEM subjects through the corresponding
courses. Students between the ages of 19 and 25 likewiseface the decision of which career they should pursue. We
aim to assist them in their decision-making through working
student activities and internships.

STEM courses at a local school that are taught by our researchand development employees there. With fun experiments
and practical exercises, 30 students between the ages of 11
and 13 are acquainted with a variety of technical topics suchas sound transmission, surface energy, air circulation andpressure, and the properties of light.
Innovation challenge for university students:
2021 Hackathon in China
We’re also looking to reach and motivate younger univer­sity students and inspire interest in our world. In 2021, wesponsored the Young Talents’ Chemical Innovation Challenge
Hackathon in China with nine other companies. The pur­pose of the competition is to provide chemistry and materials
engineering students with an initial insight into the chemicalindustry and help them choose their subject of study andcareer. We and the other partners supported more than 60
student projects in the areas of sustainability, circular econ­
omy and energy savings. One of the projects we supported
took third place.

tesa teams up with schools:
STEM courses in Suzhou
It’s important to us to nurture the talented minds of tomorrowand inspire children and adolescents to take an interest intechnology and science – for example, in the form of school
partnerships. The tesa plant in Suzhou, China, offers weekly

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Sustainable Development Goals Index
We contribute to the following SDGs and their corresponding targets:
SDG

Our contribution

4.4: By 2030, substantially increase
the number of youth and adults who
have relevant skills, including technicaland vocational skills, for employment,
decent jobs and entrepreneurship

Skills in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, mathematics)
are important for preserving livelihoods and for social progress. As a tech­
nology company, we aim to help young people in these subjects. We also
incorporated this goal into our sustainability agenda in 2020.
The coronavirus pandemic has led to further global inequality in education.
Since 2020, tesa has partnered with Save the Children in working to com­
bat the negative effects the pandemic has had on children and their lear­ning conditions, and is financially supporting education projects in a num­
ber of different countries.

Pages
54–59

tesa has been a member of the UN Global Compact since 2006. The ten
principles in the areas of human rights, labor standards, environmental
protection and anti-corruption represent the overarching guidelines for all
actions at tesa. With our membership, we have also committed ourselves to
Principle 6 “The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment andoccupation” and reject any form of discrimination in the workplace or in thefilling of positions.

Page
14

5.5: Ensure women’s full and effective
participation and equal opportunities
for leadership at all levels of decision
making in political, economic and public
life

60

In thisreport

SDG targets

7.2: By 2030, increase substantially theshare of renewable energy in the global
energy mix

Since the end of 2020, renewable energy sources provide 100 percent of
the electricity purchased for all tesa sites worldwide. We are supporting thedevelopment of renewable energy by purchasing green electricity. In the
future, we want to rely more on the use of renewable fuel sources, such as
biogas for our CHP systems.

Pages
24–25

7.3: By 2030, double the global rate of
improvement in energy efficiency

Two production facilities and our headquarters have an ISO 50001-certified
energy management system. The introduction of the energy management
systems paved the way for further increasing the energy efficiency of ourfacilities. Another strategic approach for tesa is the use of energy and re­source-saving technologies. This includes the efficient generation of ourown energy through cogeneration and photovoltaic systems.

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22–24

8.4: Improve progressively, through2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavor
to decouple economic growth from envi­
ronmental degradation, in accordancewith the 10-year framework of programson sustainable consumption and pro­duction, with developed countries tak­ing the leadOur products should be as harmless as possible to the environment overtheir entire lifecycle. During development and manufacturing we take careto ensure resource efficiency and to avoid production waste as much as
possible. Measures to this end are an integral part of our environmental
protection activities as a company. Wherever possible and sensible, we use
bio-based and recycled raw materials. The reduction and avoidance of
packaging materials also help to minimize waste and thereby the negative
impact on the environment.

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28–29,
34–39,
44–45,
46–48

8.8: Protect labor rights and promote
safe and secure working environments
for all workers, including migrant work­ers, in particular women migrants, andthose in precarious employment

As a responsible employer, we see it as our duty to protect our employees
from risks and hazards in the exercise of their activities. With a wide rangeof measures, we contribute to preventing accidents and occupational ill­
nesses. We have created a supplier program to increase transparency inour supply chain. We ask direct suppliers to share their sustainability per­formance with us.

SDG

In thisreport

SDG targets

Our contribution

12.2: By 2030, achieve the sustainable
management and efficient use of natural
resources

tesa develops eco-friendly, solvent-free production methods, and uses biobased and recycled raw materials wherever possible and sensible. We takecare to ensure resource efficiency and avoid production waste from theearly stages of developing our products and the methods used to produce
them. We are increasingly sourcing FSC®-certified paper from sustainable
forestry. In 2021, we launched our first FSC®-certified products.

12.4: By 2020, achieve the environ­men­tally sound management of chemi­cals and all wastes throughout their life
cycle, in accordance with agreed inter­national frameworks, and significantly
reduce their release to air, water andsoil in order to minimize their adverse
impacts on human health and the envi­
ronment

There is no way to eliminate all waste when producing goods. Our waste
and raw materials management activities are geared toward using materials
efficiently and recycling wherever possible. Therefore, we constantly workon minimizing production-related losses in the raw materials we use. tesa
recycles almost all non-hazardous waste and hazardous waste containing
solvents.

13.1: Strengthen resilience and adap­
tive capacity to climate-related hazards
and natural disasters in all countries

We have set ourselves the target of reducing our energy-related CO2
emissions by 30 percent in absolute terms by 2025 compared to 2018.
This goal is consistent with the scientific consensus that global warming
should not exceed 1.5° Celsius. We are aiming to achieve a completely
climate-neutral business model by 2050 at the latest.

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21–27

15.1: By 2020, ensure the conservation,
restoration and sustainable use of ter­res­trial and inland freshwater ecosys­
tems and their services, in particularforests, wetlands, mountains and dry­lands, in line with obligations underinternational agreements

We aim to use water responsibly. Our primary concerns are using water
efficiently and protecting it against contamination. Every year, we keep
track at our production facilities of water data such as water consumption
and effluent quantities and also perform a regular water risk assessment.
We also report the results through CDP.

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30–31

16.5: Substantially reduce corruption
and bribery in all their forms

We reject any form of corruption, bribery or other forms of unlawful conduct.
Corruption prevention is one of tesa’s Core Compliance Fields and plays acentral role in the Compliance Management System.

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54–55

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61

Imprint
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D-22848 Norderstedt
Contact
tesa SE
Corporate Communications
Tel.: +49 (0) 40 888 99 0
responsibility@tesa.com
tesa.com/en/sustainability

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