UN Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for everyone at all ages.
 

More Value – Less Impact Focus 

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

TARGET: 100% of new product developments with "sustainable solutions" until 2023. 

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

TARGETS 2023:

• 50% less accidents
• 0 fatalities

Sika's commitment

Product safety: Customer safety has always been of crucial importance to Sika. Sika only offers products that are safe and compatible with human health. When formulating products the company only uses ingredients that comply with all relevant legal regulations and that have been thoroughly tested for compatibility with health.

Improving labor standards & workplace safety: Sika employees leave the workplace healthy. Thats's the overall priority. The company implements an effective workplace prevention program to strengthen Occupational Health and Safety culture.

Activities @ Sika

• Sika strives to extend the service life of buildings and industrial applications in order to reduce maintenance effort, to improve energy and material  efficiency, and to further enhance  user-friendliness and health  and  safety  profiles. 
  
• The Group monitors ecological and safety aspects during the development, production, and product-handling stages. For this purpose, it has introduced the specific checking of new developments against a sustainability profile.
• Sika Life Saving Rules are in place to keep all Sika employees, contractors and visitors safe from harm while at work. They apply to all Sika sites and to Sika employees when visiting clients or suppliers. They are a condition of entry to Sika sites and must be adhered to at all times.
  

SDG

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
 

More Value - Less Impact focus

Community Engagement

TARGETS 2023:

• 10,000 working-days of volunteering work
• 50% more projects
• 50% more direct beneficiaries

 

Sika's commitment

Internal

• The aim is to provide at least ten hours of training per year for each employee. In 2019, this figure stood at 11.4 hours (previous year: 16.8 hours).
   

External:

• Community Engagement: The main goals, among others, are to support communities in infrastructure development for social projects, to support education and vocational training, and to support pürojects which link social causes with ecological interests.
• Sika seeks to promote on-the-ground self-help. The local Sika companies thus put forward specific aid applications and, working with local partners, supervise the projects from site up to completion.
  
• Sika endeavors to provide intelligent support for projects through the application of company-specific expertise, voluntary work by its employees, and long-term collaboration with partners.
•  

Activities@Sika

Internally:

• E-learning platform, with more than 360 internal trainings.
  
• Programs offered by the Sika Business School encompass more than 100 courses. In 2019 they were attended by 1,700 participants.
  
• More than 5,500 training hours completed online.
• Partnership with the London Business School.

Externally:

• Community Engagement focuses on education and vocational training.  

SDG

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

More Value - Less Impact focus

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

TARGET 2023:

• 10,000 working-days of volunteering work
• 50% more projects
• 50% more direct beneficiaries

WATER

TARGET 2023:

• 15% less water consumption per ton sold
  
  

Sika's commitment

Living Lakes Initiative: Sika supports the Living Lakes network which sets out to promote sustainable development and the protection of drinking water, lakes and wetlands. Many of Sika's community engagement projects are aiming to guarantee clean and fresh.

Sustainability performance of production sites: reducing water consumption and treating water locally.

Activities @ Sika

• Community Work: "Water and Climate Protection" is one of the three key areas of focus in project funding.
  
• Measures to reduce consumption, or to re-use water, particularly in geographic regions where water is scarce. closed-loop cooling, switching from public to surface and ground water, reducing the amount of drinking water used in production.
  
• By reusing wastewater, Sika aims to reduce its water consumption on a larger scale.
  

SDG

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

More Value - Less Impact focus

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

TARGET 2023

• 10,000 working-days of volunteering work
• 50% more projects
• 50% more direct beneficiaries
  
  

Sika's commitment

With ist program "Sika Cares", the company is helping local communities to build up and maintain infrastructure for social projects. Important elements also encompass the advancement of education and vocational training, as well as projects that focus on water and climate protection.

Activities @ Sika

• 567 projects have been supported by Sika worldwide in the domain of community engagement since 2015.
• Different project, for example the "ProjeKt Inspire" in Tanzania, open up career opportunities for the younger generation, and focus on helping reintegrate people with disabilities into the workforce.
  

SDG

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

More Value - Less Impact Focus

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

TARGET: 100% of new product developments with "sustainable solutions" until 2023

Sika's commitment

Urbanization has a major impact on the construction industry and the mobility of populations, and it also stimulates demand for Sika technologies, solutions, and products. Dense population clusters, and heavily limited space on which to build, are factors conducive to the construction of high-rise buildings that use high-performance, safe, and environmentally sound building materials, from the foundation to the roof. Large numbers of people living in small areas also pose significant challenges in terms of infrastructure, transportation, and energy supplies, as well as cultural and leisure offerings. Likewise, rising population densities go hand-in-hand with the expansion of such elements.

Activities @ Sika

• Sika solutions to build infrastructure and develop emerging and developing countries
• Community Initiatives to support local infrastucture
• Product Innovations in construction and industrial production

SDG

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

More Value - Less Impact focus
 

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS
TARGET 2023: 100% of new product developments with "sustainable solutions" until 2023

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
TARGET 2023:

• 10,000 working-days of volunteering work p.a.
  
• 50% more projects
• 50% more direct beneficiaries

CLIMATE PERFORMANCE
TARGET 2023:

12% reduction of CO₂-emissions per ton sold

Sika's commitment

With its sustainability strategy "More Value – Less Impact” strategy, Sika pursues the objective of creating lasting value for people and the environment, while at the same time adopting a moderate and sustainable approach to the utilization of resources. Thus, shaping the future sustainably. The target area "Climate Performance" encompasses the reduction of CO₂ emissions. This is linked to increased energy efficiency at its more than 300 production sites around the world through lowering consumption of fossil fuels and electricity per ton of product sold by 15% until 2023.

Another target is to increase the use of renewable electricity by 50% . Innovation also places a strong emphasis on sustainable product development. One way to do this is with solutions that make it possible for customers to save or reduce CO₂ emissions, directly or indirectly. Another way is with products that help customers construct and operate buildings that are more sustainable and CO₂ efficient.

Activities @ Sika

• Sika solutions for sustainable construction and new forms of mobility
• Construction chemicals, shotcreting machines and waterproofing membranes allow efficient tunneling
• Composite materials substantially prolong the service life of aging engineering structures such as bridges
• High-Performance and Low Cement Mortars
• Root-resistant polymeric roof membranes and systems allow the installation of green roofs to improve the urban climate
• Special concrete repair mortars and resins considerably extend the service life of bridges and concrete structures
• Concrete Admixtures allow earthquake safe constructions.
• SikaPower®adhesives in automotive lead to up to 50% weigh reduction and CO₂ reduction

SDG

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

More Value - Less Impact focus

Waste / Water

TARGETS 2023:

• 15% less waste generation per ton sold
• 25% higher recycling rate of total waste
• 15% less water consumption per ton sold

 

ENERGY

TARGETS 2023:

• 15% less energy consumption per ton sold
• 50% renewable electricity rate
  

 

Sika's commitment

EFFICIENCY:  Sika aims to boost the sustainability performance of its production sites by reducing water consumption and treating water locally. The company implements measures to reduce consumption, or to use lower-grade water qualities, particularly in geographic regions where water is scarce. Efficient production means closed loop cooling, and switching from public to surface and ground water, reducing the amount of drinking water used in production. By reusing wastewater, Sika aims to reduce its water consumption on a larger scale. Efficient use of entry goods is crucial to all Sika companies, as production processes are material intensive and use high volumes of non-renewable resources. Efficient production in this context means reducing and reusing production scrap and packaging materials. It also consists of reducing energy consumption in its operations through optimizing processes and infrastructures.

Activities @ Sika

• The decrease in energy consumption is a consequence of a global strategy: Sika continued to replace lighting solutions with the latest LED technology.
  
• Shorter batch time in production led to a higher output on existing production lines, resulting in increased energy efficiency.
  
• The replacement of technical equipment focuses on new energy efficient installations, such as motors, air conditioning, heating/cooling, and pressurized air systems.
  
• Energy efficient operation of electric motors with frequency converter, leakage detection and fixation of air losses in pressurized air systems, and energy efficient cooling of process water with use of cooling tower and optimized logistics.
  
• Sika reduces the amount of waste per ton sold by putting in place activities such as optimization of the production planning, streamlining the production process layout, and the reuse of production waste.
  
• water from cleaning processes is reused.
• Measures to reduce consumption, or to use lower-grade water qualities.. Efficient production means closed loop cooling, and switching from public to surface and ground water, reducing the amount of drinking water used in production. By reusing wastewater, Sika aims to reduce its water consumption on a larger scale.
  

SDG 13

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

More Value - Less Impact focus

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

TARGET: 100% of new product solutions with "sustainable solutions" until 2023.

CLIMATE PERFORMANCE

TARGET: 12% reduction of CO₂-emissions per ton sold.

ENERGY

TARGET:

• 15% less energy consumption per ton sold
• 50% renewable elictricity rate
  
  

Sika's commitment

Sika solutions aim to enable clean energy, lower emission, and less input with more output. CO₂ emissions  are  mostly  a  consequence  of  fossil  fuel  energy consumption, and can only be limited within Sika by increasing energy efficiency. The overall target is to reduce CO₂ emission by 12% per ton sold by 2023.

Activities @ Sika

• Sustainable innovations to enable clean energy, lower emission, less input with more output Sika products take less from the environment and offer more in durability and longevity, which results in a smaller overall environmental footprint
  
• CO₂ emission per ton sold decreased from 31 kg CO₂ per ton sold (2018) to 27 kg CO₂ per ton sold in 2019.
• Sika’s reduces energy consumption in its operations and contributes to a lower CO₂. footprint. Energy consumption per ton sold was 363 megajoules (2018: 424 megajoules), which leads to a reduction of 14.4% compared to the previous year.