Starlinger intern, 2024/01 - Issue 36

SUSTAINABILITY AT STARLINGER– FROM COMPULSORY TO VOLUNTARY

OUR COMPULSORY CONTRIBUTION As we explained in our articles in the winter 2022 issue, Starlinger will be impacted by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) from the 2025/26 financial year on. This new European Commission directive on sustainability reporting requires us to disclose sustainability issues on an annual basis as part of the management report. However, the sustainability landscape is very broad. So, how do we know what to report on? The principle of “double materiality” helps us with this. This concept is used to determine the material topics that need to be reported. To this end, a sustainability survey involving discussions was conducted in the autumn of 2022. Internal and external stakeholders gave their opinions on a total of 18 sustainability topics. Also employees of Starlinger were invited to take part. Subsequently, a workshop was held with the Executive Board in March 2023 to assess the financial aspects of the sustainability topics. To summarise, the following list of significant and therefore reportable topics emerged:

Publication of the relevant indicators for the material topics is planned for the end of 2024 as part of the next sustainability report. This is voluntary, but serves as preparation for the mandatory reporting two years later. In keeping with the key topic of “Occupational Health and Safety”, our CSR department focused heavily on running the “Fit & X’sund Weissenbach” (Fit & Healthy Weissenbach) project last year. You can find a detailed status report on this on pages 18 to 20 of this issue of Starlinger Intern. More interested in the (equally important) topics “Energy Efficiency” and “Waste Management” ? You can find a report on them on page 16. OUR VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION Starlinger, like many other companies and institutions, is currently on a mission to achieve greater CSR and sustainability. Many issues call for networking and collective problem-solving if we are to build a future that is fit for our grandchildren: • As a company, it is important to us that we play an active role in shaping the public discourse. For this reason, our CEO Angelika Huemer took the opportunity at the beginning of the year to express her views on the topics of recycling, innovation and climate protection on the LinkedIn and Facebook pages of the “Packaging for the Future” platform as part of a CEO opinions carousel . This demonstrated that the innovations we develop as a mechanical engineering company are integral to the sustainable solutions of the future that are in demand in many places.

Environment

Waste management Energy efficiency

Company

Occupational health and safety Working atmosphere

Corporate management Procurement Digitisation

Customer satisfaction through innovation Economic performance

If you are interested, you can find the statement by scanning the QR code.

• The annual and publicly accessible reports regarding the UN Global Compact are a further element of our corporate image in terms of CSR and sustainability. Starlinger is one of the signatory companies of the world’s largest voluntary sustainability initiative. Our first progress report was successfully submitted in December 2023. • Moreover, it is essential that we continue to develop our expertise and keep our CSR and sustainability agendas up to date. We meet this requirement by participating in various webinars (for example, on the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai) or face-to-face events, such as the two day “4 th Austrian Sustainability Summit” in Vienna.

Sustainability survey and dialogue with all stakeholders during the 2022 in-house exhibition

This list of topics forms the basis for the first comprehensive compilation of data relating to sustainability. The principle “We can only improve what we measure” is applicable here. To do this, we continually request data from various departments in order to calculate the relevant key figures. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody involved for their patience and co-operation in this matter!

10