Der ESG-Fragen-Kompass - Annex

Annex

Annex A - sustainability issues

Annex B – Definitions

Affected communities

Persons or groups who live or work in the same geographical area and are or could be affected by the activities of a reporting company or its upstream and downstream value chain. Affected communities can range from communities living immediately adjacent to the company's operations (local communities) to communities living further away. Affected communities include actually and potentially affected indigenous peoples.

Article 12(1)

Regulates from which point companies are excluded from the Paris-aligned EU reference benchmarks.

Balance sheet total

Is the sum of all assets or liabilities and equity in the company's balance sheet.

Benefits in kind

For example cars, private health insurance, life insurance and wellness programmes.

Bribery

The dishonest persuasion of one person by another to act in their favour by giving them a monetary gift or other incentive.

Climate-related hazards

Are drivers of climate-related physical risks arising from the impacts of climate change on the company. They can be divided into acute hazards, which occur as a result of specific events (such as droughts, floods, heavy precipitation and wildfires), and chronic hazards, which occur as a result of longer-term climate changes (such as temperature changes, sea level rise and soil erosion) (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139). Physical risks are derived from climate-related hazards, the exposure of the company's assets and activities to these hazards, and the company's sensitivity to these hazards. Examples of climate-related hazards include heat waves, increasing frequency of extreme weather events, sea level rise, glacial lake outburst floods and changes in precipitation and wind patterns. Climate-related physical risks can be identified and modelled using climate scenarios such as the IPCC scenario SSP5-8.5, which considers high-emission trajectories.

Climate-related risks

Arising on a gross basis refer to gross physical risks and gross transition risks that may occur as a result of the exposure of the company's assets and business activities to climate-related hazards.

Climate-related transition events

Can (according to the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), 2017) be policy- and law-based (e.g. increased obligation to report on emissions), technology-based (e.g. costs of transitioning to lower-emission technologies), market-based (e.g. higher raw material costs) and reputation-based (e.g. increased stakeholder concerns).

Company-specific

Information on sustainability aspects that are specific to the company.

Confirmed incident

occurs when either legal proceedings or a formal complaint have been filed with the company or a competent authority, or when the company has itself identified a violation through its established procedures. Such procedures may include, for example, audits, formal monitoring programmes or grievance mechanisms.

Consolidated

The information covers several companies belonging to a corporate group. The values are therefore combined (consolidated) to show an overall picture of the entire group.

Consolidated sustainability report

The information in the sustainability report covers several companies belonging to a corporate group. The values are therefore combined (consolidated) to show an overall picture of the entire group.

Consumer

Persons who acquire, consume or use goods and services for personal use either for themselves or for third parties, but not for resale, trade or for commercial, business, craft or professional purposes.

Convictions

If no convictions have occurred in the reporting year, this question can be marked as "Not applicable for my company", which will automatically hide the sub-questions and mark them as completed.

Cooperative

Cooperatives are associations of an open number of members that serve to promote the trade or economic activities of their members.
In practice, different types of cooperatives exist, such as credit, purchasing, sales, consumer, utilisation, user, construction, housing and settlement cooperatives.

Corruption

Abuse of entrusted authority for personal gain, which can originate from individuals or organisations. This includes practices such as bribery, fraud, extortion, collusion and money laundering. Corruption also encompasses the offering or acceptance of gifts, loans, fees, rewards or other advantages to or from a person as an incentive to do something that is dishonest, unlawful or a breach of trust in relation to the company's business activities. This may include monetary or in-kind benefits such as free goods, gifts and holidays, or special personal services provided to obtain an undue advantage or that may lead to moral pressure to obtain such an advantage.

Direct greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1)

Direct greenhouse gas emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the company.

Employee turnover

Employee turnover refers to employees who leave the company voluntarily or due to dismissal, retirement or a fatal work accident.

End-user

Persons who ultimately use or are intended to use a particular product or service.

Fines

for violations of anti-corruption and anti-bribery regulations refer to punitive fines imposed for such violations by a court, official body or other governmental authority and paid into a public fund.

Fixed-term (employment) contracts

Fixed-term employment contracts are characterised by the fact that, in addition to a start date of the employment relationship, there is also an end date.

Future initiatives

Planned measures or projects that are still in preparation or implementation.

Geopositions

The geoposition is specified using area points in the case of individual units or polygon points used to demarcate the boundaries of a larger site that is less similar to a single unit.

Governance

The management and control of the company.

Governing bodies

The governing body is the highest decision-making authority in a company. Depending on the legal system applicable to the company and the classification of its legal personality, the governing body may be structured differently.

Green or near-natural areas

are areas that serve to preserve or promote nature. They may be located on the company premises, e.g. green roofs, façades or constructed biotopes, or also outside, provided they are owned or maintained by the company and primarily benefit biodiversity.

Hazardous waste

Waste that has one or more of the hazardous properties listed in Annex III of Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste.

Indirect greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 2)

Indirect greenhouse gas emissions are emissions that arise as a result of the company's activities but at sources owned or controlled by another company. Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased or acquired electricity, heat, steam or cooling consumed by the company.

Indirect greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 3)

Are all indirect greenhouse gas emissions that arise along the entire value chain of a company but cannot be directly attributed to the company (e.g. from suppliers, customers, waste disposal, business travel). Following the GHG Protocol, they are divided into 15 categories (upstream & downstream) and often account for the largest share of the carbon footprint, making their capture critical for companies to achieve climate targets and meet regulatory requirements.

Key markets

Are those customer groups or geographical regions in which your company generates the largest share of its revenues or that are of central importance to your strategic direction.

Location-based Scope 2 emissions

Emissions from electricity, heat, steam or cooling purchased or acquired and consumed by the reporting company, calculated using the location-based allocation method, in which generator emissions are allocated to end users. They reflect the average emission intensity of the grids in which energy consumption takes place and are based primarily on data on average grid emission factors. Typical sources of Scope 2 emissions are all operational facilities that consume electricity (electric motors, lighting, buildings, etc.), heat (heating in industrial processes, buildings, etc.), steam (industrial processes) or cooling (industrial processes, buildings, etc.).

Meaningful participation

This refers to genuine influence on decisions, not merely being informed.

Measures

refers to measures and action plans (including transition plans) implemented to ensure that the company achieves defined targets, and through which the company responds to material impacts, risks and opportunities, and decisions to support these with financial, human or technological resources.

NACE code

is the EU classification system for economic activities.

Non-binary/diverse person

A non-binary person identifies neither exclusively as male nor exclusively as female, but falls somewhere on the gender spectrum in between, outside or beyond these two categories.

Policy

Is a framework of objectives and management principles established by the company that guides decision-making on sustainability topics, even if it is not always recorded in writing in smaller companies.

Practices

Specific ongoing measures or processes through which the company implements sustainability in practice.

Public

Information or a document is considered public if it can be viewed by external persons without any access restrictions.

Reporting year

The period to which the data applies. It must cover 12 consecutive months (e.g. 01.01.2024 – 31.12.2024 or 01.07.2023 – 30.06.2024).

Revenue

The sum of all income from sales and services within the reporting period.

Scope 1 Direct greenhouse gas emissions

Direct greenhouse gas emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the company.

Scope 2 Indirect greenhouse gas emissions

Indirect greenhouse gas emissions are emissions that arise as a result of the company's activities but at sources owned or controlled by another company. Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased or acquired electricity, heat, steam or cooling consumed by the company.

Scope 2 Location-based emissions

Emissions from electricity, heat, steam or cooling purchased or acquired and consumed by the reporting company, calculated using the location-based allocation method, in which generator emissions are allocated to end users. They reflect the average emission intensity of the grids in which energy consumption takes place and are based primarily on data on average grid emission factors. Typical sources of Scope 2 emissions are all operational facilities that consume electricity (electric motors, lighting, buildings, etc.), heat (heating in industrial processes, buildings, etc.), steam (industrial processes) or cooling (industrial processes, buildings, etc.).

Scope 3 Indirect greenhouse gas emissions

Are all indirect greenhouse gas emissions that arise along the entire value chain of a company but cannot be directly attributed to the company (e.g. from suppliers, customers, waste disposal, business travel). Following the GHG Protocol, they are divided into 15 categories (upstream & downstream) and often account for the largest share of the carbon footprint, making their capture critical for companies to achieve climate targets and meet regulatory requirements.

Sealed surfaces

are areas where the natural soil has been covered – for example by buildings, roads or car parks – preventing water from entering the ground.

Sector-specific

Information on sustainability aspects that are common in one's own sector.

Social economy entities – according to the Recommendation of the European Council of 29 September 2023

Refers to a group of private law organisations that provide goods and services for their members or for society. This includes organisational forms that operate according to the following core principles:

1. Priority of people and social and/or ecological objectives over profit interests,
2. Reinvestment of all or most profits/surpluses to further social and/or ecological objectives and carry out activities for the benefit of members/users ("collective interest") or society as a whole ("common good"),
3. Democratic and/or participatory forms of governance.

Subsidiary

A company that is dependent on another company (parent company). Although the subsidiary is itself a legal entity, it is closely connected to its parent company economically and legally within a corporate group.

Targets

Specific, measurable objectives that define what the policy is intended to achieve and the criteria by which implementation will be assessed.

Transition plan

A climate transition plan sets out a series of current and future measures to align the company's business model, business strategy and business operations with the overarching global objective of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Underpinned by a GHG reduction target compatible with this objective, the significance of such a transition plan lies in the fact that it makes it possible to understand how the company will transition to a low-carbon economy and to track the progress achieved in doing so. A climate transition plan serves as a mechanism for accountability and transparency and encourages companies to develop credible pathways for climate action through their measures.

Unconsolidated

The information refers only to the individual company, without including data from subsidiaries or affiliated companies.

Value chain

The full range of activities, resources and relationships associated with the company's business model and the external environment in which it operates. A value chain encompasses the activities, resources and relationships that the company uses and relies upon to design its products or services from conception through delivery and consumption to end of life. Relevant activities, resources and relationships include the following: a) those within the company's own operations, e.g. human resources, b) those along its supply, marketing and distribution channels, e.g. procurement of materials and services and the sale and delivery of products and services, and c) the financial, geographical, geopolitical and regulatory environment in which the company operates. The value chain includes actors that are upstream and downstream from the company. An upstream actor provides products or services that are used in the development of the company's own products or services (e.g. suppliers). Operations that are downstream from the company receive products or services from the company (e.g. distributors, customers).

Water consumption

Water consumption is the amount of water brought within the system boundaries of the company that is not or is not intended to be returned to the water environment or transferred to a third party.
This typically concerns evaporated or vaporised water (e.g. in thermal energy processes such as drying or electricity generation), water incorporated into products (e.g. in food production) or water for irrigation purposes (e.g. in agriculture or for irrigation at operational sites).

Water discharge

Water discharge refers e.g. to the amount of water that is discharged directly into bodies of water such as lakes or rivers or the public sewage system, or transferred to other companies for cascading water use. It can be regarded as the company's water output.

Water withdrawal

Water withdrawal refers to the amount of water brought within the organisational boundaries of the company from any source during the reporting period. In practice, for most companies this is the amount of water drawn from the public water supply network, as shown in utility bills. However, water withdrawal may also include water from other sources such as groundwater from the company's own wells, water from rivers or lakes, or water received from other companies. In the special case of agricultural companies, water withdrawal would also include rainwater if it is collected and stored directly by the company