Clariant constantly engages with its stakeholders to stay attuned to their needs and gain feedback on how to best create value for them. Clariant’s key stakeholders are its customers, employees, and shareholders, as well as the environment.

1. Appreciation lies at the core of Clariant’s stakeholder engagement

Clariant expresses appreciation to its stakeholders through a variety of channels: in its unflagging commitment to transparency and integrity; in fostering a culture of dialog and mutual respect; and by committing to sustainable, innovative technologies. A continuous dialog allows Clariant to understand all stakeholders’ needs and develop corresponding solutions that meet the most stringent standards and set new industry benchmarks.

2. Ongoing engagement with stakeholders creates valuable insights

Clariant uses various channels to engage with its stakeholders. In addition to feedback received from daily interactions with customers, Clariant runs a biennial survey to monitor customer satisfaction, which is critical to learn about customers’ perception of Clariant as a supplier and business partner. Read more In addition, Clariant regularly conducts customer interviews in the context of the Marketing Excellence Initiative and Innovation Excellence Initiative. In 2018, these engagements included 538 customer interviews and 150 industry expert interviews. Read more

Clariant pays close attention to engaging with its employees on all levels, focusing on its core value of appreciation. Appreciation means providing the support and resources that employees need to achieve their goals, and giving credit for extra effort. Development goals and performance are discussed during annual Performance Dialogs as well as 360-Degree Feedbacks. In 2018, Clariant conducted a company-wide survey to assess employee engagement and gain valuable insights for future organizational development. Read more In order to foster an ongoing dialog within the company, Clariant uses several channels to communicate with its employees, e.g., intranet, newsletters, townhalls.

For Clariant, ensuring transparency to all of its investors is a matter of course. The Integrated Report, the annual general meeting, investor updates, and an investor relations iPad application, as well as presentations at analyst conferences and roadshows, underpin this engagement. Read more In 2018, Clariant’s shareholder structure changed: The Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) acquired a stake of almost 25%. SABIC, one of the world’s largest petrochemical manufacturers, aims to act as strategic shareholder. The resulting stability will allow Clariant to develop as a strong specialty chemicals company.

To minimize the company’s impacts on the environment and safeguard natural resources, Clariant uses comprehensive management tools and programs that combine technology, data, and behavioral guidelines, and fosters a corporate culture that prioritizes environmental stewardship. Read more Clariant consistently steers its product portfolio toward safer and more sustainable solutions in order to protect customers, consumers, and the environment. Read more

3. A shared language communicates sustainability

Clariant has welcomed the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the United Nations member states in September 2015. The Agenda, including its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), marks a milestone on the global path to a more sustainable future.

Clariant recognizes the opportunity offered by the SDGs to share a common framework of action and language when communicating with stakeholders and reporting on sustainability objectives, impact, and performance. Clariant thus plans to further increase transparency on the alignment of its strategy with the SDGs and to regularly report on the progress made toward achieving them.

These universally accepted goals are highly relevant for the chemical industry and Clariant is committed to contributing to their realization. The SDGs are in many ways congruent with Clariant’s own sustainability objectives, strategy, and values. Sustainability for Clariant is a journey – a continuous effort to steer the company’s activities and product portfolio to contribute positively to global sustainable development.

Examples of Clariant’s contributions to the SDGs are the 2025 environmental targets Read more, the extensive work done through the Portfolio Value Program (PVP) to screen the product portfolio for sustainability and bring forward more sustainable products and Eco-Tain^® products, and the company’s efforts to promote health and safety in the workplace. Read more

Clariant’s various initiatives have wide sustainability impacts on value chains, communities, and society, and thus contribute to several of the SDGs, including SDG 12 »Responsible Consumption and Production«, SDG 8 »Decent Work and Economic Growth«, and SDG 6 »Clean Water and Sanitation«.

001 CLARIANT SUPPORTS THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Source: United Nations Department of Public Information

4. Stakeholder perspectives inform Clariant’s materiality assessment

In-depth engagement with internal and external stakeholders lies at the heart of Clariant’s process of determining the economic, social, and environmental topics that offer the highest potential for value creation for stakeholders and for the company. This prioritization of topics related to performance, people, and planet helps Clariant further develop its integrated management approach. Read more