Sustainability

Since its foundation, the family-owned Diehl company has stood for sustainable growth. This fundamental position is reflected in questions of corporate governance as well as in social issues and the use of resources. In addition to social responsibility, active sustainability management is therefore an essential component of strategic alignment and long-term corporate success.

After defining initial areas of action in the previous year, a new organizational structure was created in 2022 as part of continued development of the sustainability strategy, and existing structures were expanded in order to anchor sustainability even more firmly in business operations and to integrate it operationally and strategically across the board. A central sustainability department bundles the Group’s activities in this area, promotes Group-wide exchange and reports directly to the Executive Board. The department also takes care of the fulfillment of legal and regulatory sustainability requirements and the active development of the topic within the company. Due to the  different business areas in various industrial sectors in which the Diehl Group is active, sustainability activities are mainly decentralized to the corporate divisions in order to meet the increasing requirements there as well.

In the reporting year, initial areas of action in the fields of environment, social affairs, and governance were examined. In addition, a variety of key performance indicators were defined and implemented for Group-wide measurability of progress. Furthermore, sustainability is now incorporated into risk management and strategy processes. In the area of the corporate divisions, Diehl Metering reported in detail for the first time in the reporting year on progress in seven defined focus areas after joining the Global Compact in 2021. Some corporate divisions have taken part in sustainability ratings related to climate (Carbon Disclosure Project) and to overall sustainability (EcoVadis) in order to secure their position for the future. Across the Group, the carbon footprint has been on the agenda since the reporting year, in order to facilitate assessment of the company’s overall climate impact. Work in determining this value has begun, in order to be able to report on its future development. Thus, Diehl intends to formulate clear reduction targets on the basis of this evaluation and the resulting measures. Compliance with internationally recognized human rights is also very important to the Diehl Group. Last year, in preparation for the German Supply Chain Act, the company expanded its human rights-related corporate due diligence and declared this mandatory for all employees.

In the current year, a complete picture of the situation is to be created for the first time, from the key figures and management approaches, as an important basis for the first sustainability report of the entire Diehl Group. The aim is to understand – better and more quickly – the impact of our own business activities and to apply appropriate strategies and measures for greater sustainability.