Gütersloh, 06/30/2021

Now Out: New Communication On Progress For UN Global Compact

Bertelsmann publishes its eleventh consecutive annual Communication on Progress (CoP) for the United Nations Global Compact,  the world’s biggest initiative for responsible corporate governance. In the report, Bertelsmann transparently documents the progress the company has made in the field of corporate responsibility (CR) over the past year. Chief Human Resources Officer Immanuel Hermreck is pleased with what has been achieved and the wide range of measures in place worldwide: “We intend to raise the bar for our efforts even higher and are currently working with the divisions on our first Bertelsmann-wide program to systematically keep developing our key corporate responsibility topics.” You can read more about this topic here. 

Increasing gender equality

Besides topics such as content responsibility and learning, the CoP gives an account of the progress made on increasing gender diversity and the path to climate neutrality in 2030. Among other things, Bertelsmann has moved closer to its target of increasing the share of women in top and senior management across all divisions to a third by the end of 2021. The proportion of women in top management rose to 27 percent at the end of last year. In senior management, the proportion remained stable at 30 percent. The target of women constituting a third of the top and senior management pool and 50 percent of the career development pool was already achieved by the end of 2020. Bertelsmann plans to be climate-neutral at the company’s own sites by 2030, as regards employees’ business travel and the manufacture of the company’s own products. In 2020 greenhouse gas emissions were decreased by 15-percent to 1.1 million tons of CO₂ equivalents - compared to the base year of 2018, when around 1.3 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalents were generated.

Along with nearly 14,000 other companies and organizations from around 160 countries, Bertelsmann has been a signatory to the UN Global Compact since 2008. The company thereby expressly commits to the UN Global Compact’s ten principles in the areas of human rights, labor standards, environmental protection, and anti-corruption. In its report, Bertelsmann follows the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which are internationally regarded as the leading framework for CR reporting.