Triple honors for sustainability

Accepting the awards in Frankfurt, Barbara Kux, member of Siemens' Managing Board and the company's Chief Sustainability Officer, stated: "In the last five years, we've not only succeeded in fully and completely achieving our key sustainability goals; we've also improved our ranking in the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) every single year. Our designation as the DJSI's Supersector Leader for 2012 means that – for the first time in our history – we're the world's most sustainable industrial enterprise within nine industries, an extraordinary honor for us as a company and a tribute to the outstanding performance of all our employees."

Every year since 1999, the international investment group RobecoSAM has invited the world's 2,500 largest companies to take part in a sustainability assessment. The analysis encompasses all aspects of sustainability – everything from corporate governance, supply chain management, compliance, risk management, innovation, environmental management and climate strategy to employee development, occupational health and safety, and corporate responsibility. The assessment is the basis for the compilation of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and the presentation of the RobecoSAM Sustainability Awards.

Siemens has firmly anchored its sustainability strategy along its entire value chain. Sustainable products and solutions create major business opportunities. In fiscal 2012, the company generated revenue of €33 billion with its Environmental Portfolio – an amount equal to around 40 percent of its total sales. Siemens is now one of the world's largest suppliers of ecofriendly technologies. In fiscal 2012, green technologies from Siemens enabled customers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 332 million tons – an amount equal to about 40 percent of Germany's total annual CO² emissions.

Siemens has also been rigorously reducing its own resource consumption – both within the company and along its supply chain. For example, Siemens increased its energy efficiency in fiscal 2012 by eight percent compared to 2010 while improving its efficiency in the area of waste production by six percent and in the area of CO² emissions by 12 percent. Energy efficiency programs are already underway at more than 100 of the company's production facilities. New buildings and key existing structures are being rigorously optimized to improve sustainability. In addition, Siemens intends to obtain LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification – the international environmental building standard – for all its new buildings. The company is expanding its success along its entire supply chain. As part of its Energy Efficiency Program for Suppliers (EEP⁴S), more than 1,000 Siemens suppliers have assessed their energy efficiency to date, identifying average potential energy savings of about ten percent.