Environmental Policies and Guidelines

Values & Principles (V&P), revised in 2021, is a guideline reflecting Sika’s fundamental values and management principles:

• “Customer First”
• “Courage for Innovation”
• “Manage for Results”
• “Sustainability and Integrity”
• “Empowerment and Respect.”

For more detailed guidance, the V&P refer to Sika’s Code of Conduct (CoC). All employees joining Sika pledge with their signature to uphold the V&P and the CoC. General Managers (GMs) and Sika Senior Managers (SSMs) are asked to renew their commitment to the V&P and CoC biannually, to be role models in living up to their commitment, and to ensure that their local employees are trained about both the V&P and the CoC.

The “Sustainability and Integrity” principle asks each employee to “operate with a strong focus on safety, quality, environment, fair treatment, social involvement, responsible growth, and value creation,” highlighting that “sustainability is a key component of our drive for innovation.” It also stipulates that Sika aspires “to enhance durability and improve both energy and material efficiency” for buildings, structures, and vehicles, while making “every effort to contribute to reducing resource consumption both within our own company as well as for our partners who trust in our products.” 

The Sika Code of Conduct (CoC), revised in 2022, solidifies Sika’s commitment to environmental protection and overall sustainability.

Section 10 is entitled, “Protect Health, Safety and the Environment.” This section highlights how each Sika employee carries a responsibility to comply with safety standards, environmental laws, and internal guidelines. Importantly, this section requires employees to “promote the sustainable use of resources and engage in sustainable business practices, by minimizing Sika’s environmental impact (air, waste, water, energy consumption, and biodiversity), contributing to a circular economy, and prioritizing environmentally friendly technologies.” Section 11 further stipulates that Sika employees must “ensure compliance of suppliers, service providers, agents and distributors with these rules” and refers to the Supplier Code of Conduct (SCoC). 

The Supplier Code of Conduct (SCoC), revised in 2021, sets clear rules and guidelines regarding environmental standards that must be implemented by all Sika suppliers.

Section 10 of the SCoC, which is entitled “Protection of Environment and Health, Commitment to Sustainable Development,” requires all suppliers to “maintain a recognized management system identical or similar to ISO 14000 ff. and ISO 45001”, thus “ensuring continuous monitoring and improvement of its operational impact on environment, health and safety.”

Further, suppliers are required to ensure “the safe management of waste, air emissions and wastewater discharges” along their own supply chain. To conserve energy, the SCoC asks suppliers to strive “for increased resource efficieny, by means of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly technologies to reduce the use of finite resources, energy consumption, waste, wastewater, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and any other negative impact on biodiversity, the environment, health or safety.” By signing the SCoC, suppliers grant Sika the right to assess compliance with these requirements through questionnaires or audits.

Sustainability Guidelines were established in 2020 to help implement the Sika Sustainability Strategy 2023. The guidelines provide recommendations on how to achieve objectives in the six target areas of the Sika Sustainability Strategy, including Water, Waste, Energy, and Climate Performance targets. The guidelines provide recommendations on how to initiate and structure projects, as well as best practice examples:

The energy guideline focuses on five main elements: energy consumption monitoring, energy efficiency improvements through equipment optimization, production process optimization and utilities management.

The water guideline focuses on four main elements: water consumption monitoring, water efficiency improvement through equipment optimization, cleaning process optimization and water reuse and recycling.

The waste guideline focuses on four main elements: sourcing optimization,production planning and process optimization, streamlined production processes and reuse-recycle of production waste.

The climate performance guideline focuses on three main elements: definition and guidance on the calculation of scope 1 and 2 emissions according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP), climate performance monitoring and recommendations on key actions to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions. 

The Sustainability & Operations Reporting (S&O) Handbook defines reporting guidelines on finance, operations, quality, and sustainability performance for a uniform reporting system, thus improving the quality of non-financial data and information. It is the binding reference for all S&O reporting issues in Sika Group and it is for use by several teams - finance, controlling, sustainability, EHS, operation - and non-financial auditors. It is applied by all Sika entities worldwide.