Global Compact – the Corporate Initiative of the United Nations

The United Nations Global Compact is a strategic initiative for companies that undertake to align their business activities and strategies with ten universally recognized principles in the areas of human rights, labor standards, environmental protection and the fight against corruption. Bayer was one of the first signatories in 2000.

Signatories to the Global Compact undertake to observe ten principles based on universally recognized U.N. standards. More than 14,000 organizations have since joined the initiative, including over 10,400 companies from more than 160 countries.

Through its signature, Bayer has undertaken, for example
 

• to support the protection of human rights within its sphere of influence,
• to guarantee international labor standards,
• to improve environmental protection and
• to fight corruption and bribery.

Signatories are also obligated to report each year on the progress they have made in implementing the 10 principles. At Bayer, the Sustainability Report serves as a progress report in which we describe how we embed the 10 principles within our strategies and processes, and what efforts we undertake to support societal priorities. It also meets the requirements of the Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability Leadership Criteria, which have applied at Bayer since we joined the UNGC’s corporate sustainability leadership initiative LEAD in 2011. Here we are active in two platforms.

Over the past decade we have steadily expanded our commitment to the Global Compact. For example, we became a signatory to the CEO Water Mandate and the Caring for Climate initiative. And we have signed the Women’s Empowerment Principles, a set of seven principles governing gender equality that sum up how women can be strengthened in the workplace, on the employment market and in the community. In 2019, we joined the Science Based Target Initiative and thus support ambitious goals with respect to the protection of water resources and the climate.

To ensure that the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact are anchored in our business operations, we have developed guidelines, policies and company positions that are binding for all employees around the world. This applies equally to our suppliers, whom we obligate to observe the 10 principles worldwide.