Sustainability strategy

For Geberit, sus­tain­abil­ity means being ori­ented to­wards the fu­ture and being suc­cess­ful over the long term. A long-term ori­en­ta­tion re­sults when a bal­ance is struck be­tween eco­nomic, eco­log­i­cal and so­cial as­pects in all de­ci­sion-mak­ing processes. Sus­tained high prof­itabil­ity is being striven for. In ad­di­tion to share­holder value, value is si­mul­ta­ne­ously cre­ated for many other stake­hold­ers (cre­at­ing shared value): in­no­v­a­tive, de­sign-ori­ented and sus­tain­able prod­ucts; train­ing and ed­u­ca­tion of plumbers, plan­ners and ar­chi­tects; the small­est pos­si­ble eco­log­i­cal foot­print along the en­tire value chain; pro­duc­tion plants with prospects for nu­mer­ous re­gions; a co­op­er­a­tion with sup­pli­ers and busi­ness part­ners that is based on fair­ness; and lead­er­ship for sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment in the san­i­tary in­dus­try.

The vi­sion of achiev­ing sus­tained im­prove­ment in the qual­ity of peo­ple’s lives with its in­no­v­a­tive so­lu­tions in the field of san­i­tary prod­ucts rep­re­sents the start­ing point. To bring this vi­sion to fruition, Geberit con­tin­u­ously re­fines its prod­ucts, sys­tems and ser­vices and sets new stan­dards as a mar­ket leader in the area of san­i­tary prod­ucts. The long-term core strat­egy is based on four pil­lars: focus on san­i­tary prod­ucts, com­mit­ment to de­sign and in­no­va­tion, se­lec­tive ge­o­graphic ex­pan­sion and con­tin­u­ous op­ti­mi­sa­tion of busi­ness processes.
The sus­tain­abil­ity strat­egy sup­ple­ments the core strat­egy with eleven con­crete mod­ules. These mod­ules strengthen the busi­ness model and the added value for var­i­ous stake­hold­ers in the areas Peo­ple, Planet and Profit in a tar­geted man­ner. The re­sults of Geberit’s ac­tiv­i­ties show the di­verse added value in the three di­men­sions of sus­tain­abil­ity. This is il­lus­trated by con­crete key fig­ures. At the same time, the re­sults con­tribute to the UN Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals (SDGs) set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment (see G4-2. Goal num­ber 6 – “Clean Water and San­i­ta­tion” – is a key focus for Geberit due to its prod­uct port­fo­lio. How­ever, sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions are also made when it comes to “De­cent Work and Eco­nomic Growth” (goal num­ber 8), “In­dus­try, In­no­va­tion and In­fra­struc­ture” (goal num­ber 9) and “Sus­tain­able Cities and Com­mu­ni­ties” (goal num­ber 11).
The fol­low­ing graphic il­lus­trates how Geberit lives and breathes in­te­grated sus­tain­abil­ity. Ad­di­tion­ally, the most im­por­tant key fig­ures in the Areas Peo­ple, Planet and Profit are summed up in a sep­a­rate overview.

The mod­ules of the sus­tain­abil­ity strat­egy bun­dle cur­rent or fu­ture pro­jects, ini­tia­tives or ac­tiv­i­ties. Each mod­ule con­tains clear re­spon­si­bil­i­ties with mea­sur­able ob­jec­tives, de­rived mea­sures and quan­tifi­able key fig­ures for ef­fec­tive mon­i­tor­ing.

The fol­low­ing pages pro­vide an overview of the sus­tain­abil­ity mod­ules with im­por­tant facts and achieve­ments for 2016 as well as the out­look for 2017 to 2019. The cur­rent sus­tain­abil­ity strat­egy cov­ers the en­tire Geberit Group, in­clud­ing the San­itec Group, which was ac­quired at the be­gin­ning of 2015. Al­though the eco­log­i­cal foot­print and the num­ber of em­ploy­ees in­creased sig­nif­i­cantly due to the in­te­gra­tion, the Geberit Group is stick­ing to its strate­gic ap­proaches and am­bi­tious goals. Geberit aims to be a pi­o­neer and leader in the san­i­tary in­dus­try in the area of sus­tain­abil­ity.