Ladies and Gentlemen,
The word sustainability is generally understood to take in three areas - environment, business and social responsibility, with the emphasis frequently only on ecological aspects. But this approach is far too simplistic. The problems we are confronted with on a daily basis can no longer be classified simply as business, ecological and social issues. We have defined six factors as criteria for success: effectiveness, efficiency, resources, solidarity, impact and fairness. Each time we face a problem and need to assess options for action and reach a decision, all six factors are included in the analysis, in developing and implementing solutions, and in monitoring their success.
We are ready to meet the challenges. Priority is given to solving the major economic (globalization in all its facets), ecological (sparing use of natural resources) and social problems (work on the age pyramid). In our first Sustainability Report we have taken stock. Where do we stand? What deficits do we have to address? What are our strengths and how can they be expanded? We still have some catching up to do in installing a sustainability management system. We will create networks, secure and document optimized dataflows. And we will of course report on our progress - also online on the internet.
We see sustainability in the classic sense: meeting the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. For us, this means that alongside optimized business performance, innovation is a key criterion for sustainable development. Only companies that know and meet their customers’ wishes will achieve long-term market success. ThyssenKrupp Steel possesses a great deal of potential in both products and production technologies. With our employees, we are setting benchmarks in the steel industry, and the Executive Board would like to express its appreciation and gratitude to our workforce for their motivation and commitment.
Dr. Karl-Ulrich Köhler,
Chairman of the Executive Board
continue with: What we understand by sustainability