Our Commitments

As a company, we want to provide effective impulses for our environment, our society and our consumers. For this reason, we have already set ourselves ambitious and concrete targets for some focus fields and are currently in the process of defining more for the course of 2020.
With our targets we want to actively contribute to the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

New Commitments for 2020+

Our new sustainability agenda, which will come into effect from 2020, comprises seven focus fields. We have set ourselves ambitious targets for some of these focus fields already and plan to set more during 2020. The following targets for the ENVIRONMENT area have already been adopted:

  • Climate Positive Future

    • 30% absolute reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2025 (vs. base year 2018)
    • Climate neutral operations by 2030

  • Fully Circular Resources

    • 50% reduction of fossil-based virgin plastic by 2025
    • 30% recycled material in our plastic packaging by 2025
    • 100% of our packaging refillable, reusable or recyclable 
      by 2025
    • 30% waste reduction in our production facilities by 2025
      (vs. base year 2018)

     

  • Sustainable Land Use

    • All our renewable ingredients should come from sustainable sources by 2025
    • Deforestation-free sourcing of our main raw materials
      (e.g. palm oil, soya, paper) by 2025
    • 100% of our palm (kernel) oil sourced sustainably by 2020
    • 100% FSC certified paper by 2020

  • Regenerative Water Environments

    • NIVEA 100% free of microplastic by 2021
    • Eucerin 100% free of microplastic by 2023
    • Use of exclusively biodegradable polymers in our European product formulas by the end of 2025
    • 25% reduction of our water consumption per manufactured product by 2025 (vs. base year 2018) 

  • Climate Positive Future

    Climate Positive Future

    • 30% absolute reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2025 (vs. base year 2018)
    • Climate neutral operations by 2030

  • Fully Circular Resources

    Fully Circular Resources

    • 50% reduction of fossil-based virgin plastic by 2025
    • 30% recycled material in our plastic packaging by 2025
    • 100% of our packaging refillable, reusable or recyclable 
      by 2025
    • 30% waste reduction in our production facilities by 2025
      (vs. base year 2018)

     

  • Sustainable Land Use

    Sustainable Land Use

    • All our renewable ingredients should come from sustainable sources by 2025
    • Deforestation-free sourcing of our main raw materials
      (e.g. palm oil, soya, paper) by 2025
    • 100% of our palm (kernel) oil sourced sustainably by 2020
    • 100% FSC certified paper by 2020

  • Regenerative Water Environments

    Regenerative Water Environments

    • NIVEA 100% free of microplastic by 2021
    • Eucerin 100% free of microplastic by 2023
    • Use of exclusively biodegradable polymers in our European product formulas by the end of 2025
    • 25% reduction of our water consumption per manufactured product by 2025 (vs. base year 2018) 

For the SOCIETY and CONSUMER focus fields, we are currently still in the process of defining and adopting new targets for 2025, which we will make transparent and explain here in due course.

Our previous Achievements

For 2020, we had set ourselves ambitious targets for the three areas “Products”, “Planet” and “People”. We have consistently pursued these goals since 2012 and have already achieved some of them in 2019.

  • Products

    For the “Products” area, we wanted to generate 50% of our sales by 2020 from products with an improved environmental impact (Base year 2011). By the end of 2019, we exceeded this target by 55%.

  • Planet

    For the “Planet” area, we set ourselves the target of reducing our energy-related CO2e emissions per product manufactured by 70% by 2025 (Base year 2014). By the end of 2019, we had already come very close to this goal with a CO2e reduction of 65%. We achieved our goal of switching all our sites worldwide to electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020 ahead of schedule in 2019.

  • People

    By end of 2019 we reached a total of 1,068,958 families over a period of seven years (since 2013), thus exceeding our original 2020 target to reach and improve the lives of one million families around the world. In close collaboration with local experts we have implemented long-term social projects in more than 50 countries through which we delivered lasting benefits to local communities.

  • Products

    Products

    For the “Products” area, we wanted to generate 50% of our sales by 2020 from products with an improved environmental impact (Base year 2011). By the end of 2019, we exceeded this target by 55%.

  • Planet

    Planet

    For the “Planet” area, we set ourselves the target of reducing our energy-related CO2e emissions per product manufactured by 70% by 2025 (Base year 2014). By the end of 2019, we had already come very close to this goal with a CO2e reduction of 65%. We achieved our goal of switching all our sites worldwide to electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020 ahead of schedule in 2019.

  • People

    People

    By end of 2019 we reached a total of 1,068,958 families over a period of seven years (since 2013), thus exceeding our original 2020 target to reach and improve the lives of one million families around the world. In close collaboration with local experts we have implemented long-term social projects in more than 50 countries through which we delivered lasting benefits to local communities.

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