Disclosure 102-42: Identifying and selecting stakeholders
Stakeholders are defined as groups or individuals that are significantly affected by the organization’s activities, products, and/or services; or whose actions can reasonably be expected to affect the ability of the organization to successfully implement its strategies and achieve its objectives. Stakeholder engagement is a key part of responsible business practices and is key to capturing opinions and insights from across the business. In the context of the Sustainability materiality analysis, Sika reviewed the various stakeholder groups in the reporting year.
A set of stakeholder groups were selected and prioritized / categorized according to the potential impact of Sika on the stakeholder, and the stakeholder’s ability to impact Sika. The results were verified with different entities within Sika (CTO, control panel with Senior Management) and largely confirmed the findings from the previous analysis. Overall, the financial community and regulators become a higher importance due to an evolving business landscape and shareholder structure. In the same year, the most relevant stakeholder groups were consulted for their contribution to the materiality process. Material aspects and topics were reviewed to detect any changes of priority or needs for re-evaluation.
Disclosure 102-43: Approach to stakeholder engagement
As part of the periodical review of our sustainability priorities Sika specifically engaged in the reporting year with selected principal internal and external stakeholder groups to review the materiality anaysis, last conducted in 2015. The following groups were approached via an online survey to provide input to define the future strategic framework and priorities: employees, customers, , financial analysts, investors, Sika Management, suppliers, academia and sponsoring partners. The results were integrated in the materiality analysis (see chapter 6: Reporting Practice).
In the year under review, Sika has been actively engaging with numerous stakeholder groups, including associations, sponsoring partners / communities via personal interactions, common projects or platforms, intensifying existing contacts and starting new cooperations. Please consult this People Page for more details regarding the various initiatives and activities Sika is supporting and contributing to.
The Sika Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB), established in 2016, is an important body providing an independent expert view regarding the direction and implementation of Sika’s sustainability strategy and to give further input on sustainability issues to Sika’s management and the sustainability team. The SAB consists of 5 members with academia, consultancy and NGO background and has been created to further reduce the company’s environmental footprint along the whole supply chain. . In 2018, the SAB met four times, in March, June, August and November 2018. The focus topics concentrated on the target areas “Local Communities/Society” (March), “Compliance” (June), “Sustainable Solutions” (August) and "Less Impact" (November). In November 2018, the SAB met in Cerano (Italy), where Sika Polyurethane Manufacturing S.R.L provided a factory tour, highlighting in particular work place safety. Local Sika entities regularly engage with their relevant stakeholders on local and national level, though not in a formalized manner. The revised international management system standards ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management) and ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management), to which all Sika companies are certified, have a strong focus on stakeholder engagement.
A guidance document for stakeholder engagement supports local entities in implementing this requirement into their processes and activities. The framework has been gradually implemented with the renewal of the local ISO certificates in the last few years, and will be further intensified in the years ahead.