Tunza for Youth - United Nations Environment Programme

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the Bayer headquarters here in Leverkusen at the start of this year's Bayer Young Environmental Envoy Program. We are delighted to have you as our guests here for a week dedicated to environmental protection and Sustainable Development.

I would like to extend a particularly warm welcome to the Environmental Envoys, who have traveled here from fourteen countries on four continents. On behalf of Bayer's Board of Management, I would like to congratulate you on your outstanding achievements in your countries, as a result of which you have been named Environmental Envoys.

As well as proving your sound knowledge of environmental issues, you have all shown a special commitment to improving environmental conditions in your countries.

We hope that the information you receive here at Bayer will enhance your knowledge of the environment and help involve more young people around the world in environmental matters.

This program offers all participants an opportunity to build networks both in their home countries and here in Germany and to discuss environmental issues.

Bayer has been running the Young Environmental Envoy Program since 1998. Initiated in Thailand , it has been extended to more countries each year. Originally, all participants came from the Asia-Pacific region, where this project is still one of the most important environmental education programs for young people. Since the establishment of this program, more than 5,000 young people – like yourselves – have submitted outstanding applications to take part. Including you, 200 environmental envoys have been invited to visit us here in Germany in the course of the program.

This year we are particularly pleased to welcome for the first time young people from an African country, namely Kenya . We are delighted that this program has proven so popular with young people around the world.

Since last year, the Young Environmental Envoy Program has had a new patron: the program is now organized by Bayer in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The film at the beginning already gave you an idea about our partnership with UNEP – I would like now to again reiterate the main aspects and elements of this cooperation. Bayer and UNEP have been cooperating on environmental programs for young people in the Asia-Pacific region for nearly a decade. Both sides therefore only considered it logical to place this successful partnership on a global footing. It makes Bayer UNEP's first private-sector partner in the field of youth environment programs.

Of course, it goes without saying that an industrial enterprise such as Bayer and an environmental institution such as UNEP do not always agree. However, our experience over the many years that we have been working together has strengthened us in our belief that common goals are best pursued jointly. This is the foundation of the partnership between UNEP and Bayer: together we want to support young people worldwide in their commitment to environmental protection.

The partnership between Bayer and UNEP thus now comprises a dozen joint youth environment programs. Bayer supports projects of UNEP's global program for young people initiated under the name of “Tunza”. “Tunza” is Kiswahili and means “to treat with care and affection”. Bayer has also incorporated activities of its own which already existed such as the Bayer Young Environmental Envoy program you are taking part in.

Let me mention the most important other activities jointly organized by Bayer and UNEP this year:

• We organized the Bayer Eco-Camps in countries where interest in the envoy program is immensely high, to select the participants of the field trip to Germany . Many of you have taken part in these successfully.

• The Tunza International Youth Conference was held in Bangalore , India , from October 12-18 this year. 150 people from 67 countries took part in this, the second global environment conference for young people, where they were able to exchange positions on environmental protection. We are particularly pleased that UNEP has decided to hold the next conference in 2007 in these rooms of the Bayer headquarters.

• The three regional UNEP Youth Environment Networks in Asia have all organized important meetings this year.

• The Eco-Minds Forum took place in the Philippine capital Manila just under three weeks ago. Held every two years, this youth forum established by Bayer provides students from Asia-Pacific with a unique platform for working on practical solutions to concrete environmental issues in this region.

Guest of honor this year was the President of the Philippines , Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. And although it was in the middle of the night in New York , the Director of the UN Millennium Project, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, participated in the conference via a video link-up.

• The Eco Forum in Poland focused, like the Ecology in Focus photography competition held in Poland , Hungary and the Czech Republic , on Eastern Europe .

• The International Children's Painting Competition on the Environment was held in 2005 for the 14 th time. This year, it attracted impressive entries from 10,000 children from over 60 countries.

Bayer also provides support for the UNEP Youth Magazine “Tunza”, which is produced “by young people about young people for young people”. One of the co-editors of the magazine – Mrs. Erin Senff – is also present at today's Envoy program and I would like to extend a warm welcome to her.

The former British Prime Minister and writer Benjamin Disraeli once said: “Man is not the creature of circumstances. Circumstances are the creatures of man!” That was 130 years ago – but his words are equally relevant today.

Let us turn our attention to the environment – or rather: Sustainable Development, in other words, how economic, ecological and social aspects interact.

Environmental protection is one of the cornerstones of Sustainable Development because such issues can no longer be viewed in isolation. Their reach is far wider – affecting the profitability of companies and their responsibility to discuss the global and social impact of their activities and act accordingly.

Sustainability plays a role in business decisions, production process and products all along the value-added chain – which includes our customers and suppliers – in performance indicators and, last but not least, in Responsible Care, the voluntary program of the chemical industry geared to a continual improvement in the areas of health, safety and environmental protection.

Transparency and credibility are key elements of our corporate policy. That is why we were one of the first companies in Germany to start publishing clearly defined targets some years ago. We allow our performance to be measured against the achievement of these self-imposed objectives.

We have set ourselves both quantitative and qualitative targets to provide a systematic basis for continuous improvement. If you read our latest Sustainable Development Report, you will see that we have achieved or even exceeded most of the targets we set ourselves in the past.

As a manufacturing company, we still regard environmental and health protection and safety as key tasks in the achievement of our goals. Even though public interest in such issues appears to have declined somewhat in Europe – or perhaps attention has simply been diverted to other important issues – they have not lost their overriding importance for us.

Bayer has a long tradition of environmental protection: we started to analyze the environmental impact of the company's actions systematically more than a century ago to enable us to identify ways of optimizing production processes.

Naturally, we are proud of this long tradition, which shows the far-sightedness and social responsibility of our founding fathers. Nevertheless, we do not look backwards: our sights are fixed firmly on the future and the new challenges we intend to address.

These days, reporting on the corporate sector tends to focus on value management and shareholder value, mergers and acquisitions, rising sales and returns.

Those terms naturally also play a key role for Bayer. After all, it is important for us to safeguard our international competitiveness and ensure a sustained increase in the value of our company.

However, we must not allow ourselves to focus solely on commercial considerations and neglect ecological objectives.

Bayer is actively committed to the principles of Sustainable Development. For us, sustainability goes well beyond environmental protection.

The program adopted by the community of nations in Rio in 1992 comprises the following elements:

• the demand made by society to protect natural resources;

• the desire for socially and environmentally compatible products and processes and

• the expectation that companies should make a contribution to the development of society and observe ethical principles.

We at Bayer are committed to these principles and endeavor to balance economic, ecological and social considerations.

As well as aiming for technological and commercial leadership in our sector, we therefore want to set standards for environmental protection and social responsibility.

Output at Bayer has increased considerably over the past ten years – thank goodness! However, at the same time, we have been able to achieve a substantial reduction in key environmental parameters such as energy consumption, waste volumes, emissions and wastewater loads.

A successful business performance accompanied by an improvement in environmental data is difficult to achieve. However, I believe that we have managed to find a good balance. We have to make sure we sustain this track record in the long term because, unless we take a responsible approach to the environment, our future prospects are minimal. Equally, ecology without due consideration for commercial efficiency is a threat to prosperity and thus to our ability to invest in ecological and social progress.

The link between ecological and commercial aspects was therefore enshrined in binding policy guidelines published by our company back in the 1980s. I quote: “Comprehensive environmental protection, maximum safety, high product quality and optimum commercial efficiency are factors of equal importance for achieving our corporate objectives.”

That has not changed to this day – even though the Bayer Group has changed considerably.

So what does modern environmental protection look like at Bayer? Over the past three decades we have steadily improved ecological standards in production. Originally, the challenge was to dispose of production residues in an environmentally compatible manner. In second-generation environmental protection attention has turned to minimizing residues and making efficient use of resources.

In manufacturing processes, conventional disposal methods are now only the last resort if it is not possible to use more modern waste management methods. A key principle of environmental protection at Bayer is avoiding waste altogether. In fact, “waste” is often the wrong term: many products generated in the production process can be reprocessed, recycled and re-used.

Besides, modern environmental protection is not simply about waste disposal and recycling. In-process environmental protection means looking at the entire lifecycle of a product. Starting in the development phase, we therefore look at the environmental impact of production and the ecological implications of use of the product and disposal at the end of its useful life.

So what would an ideal product be like? It should be useful, high-quality, cost-effective for the processor or consumer and yet profitable for the producer. It should also be safe to use and environmentally compatible. This ideal can rarely be achieved. However, through constant improvements we can try to come closer to our goal. And that is precisely the yardstick we use to measure our actions.

Some years ago, Bayer introduced an “Eco-Check” method to systematically evaluate the environmental performance of present and future products. This aspect of product stewardship focuses specifically on the interaction of the three dimensions of Sustainable Development: economic, ecological and social sustainability.

To make sure that our products add economic, ecological and social value, they are analyzed using six key criteria:

• Firstly : people and their health – that means safe use by consumers, processors, customers and employees.

• Secondly : environmental compatibility in the production, use and disposal of the product.

• Thirdly : the product lifecycle – including identifying the potential environmental impact of widespread emissions and a possible shortage of resources over the entire product lifecycle. This is known as an ecological audit of the product.

• Fourthly : technology – here we examine the safety and availability of production processes and raw materials.

• Fifthly : public value, in other words general acceptance of the product and its value for society.

• Sixthly : economics – this involves weighing up the economic risks and benefits of the product.

As I have already said, for us economic responsibility goes hand in hand with ecological and social responsibility. We are therefore involved in some 300 social projects in all the countries around the world where we operate. Our declared aim is to contribute to the positive development of society in these countries.

To ensure that this is rooted in our organizational structure, we established a Corporate Sustainability Board for the Bayer Group in 2003. Its role is to decide on goals, strategies and major initiatives to drive Sustainable Development throughout the Bayer Group. Moreover, a number of our programs have been included in the United Nations Global Compact initiative.

At this morning's workshops you discussed many important aspects of environmental protection and the sustainability of industrial production. During your tours of Bayer's facilities and local environmental authorities in the next few days you will be able to build on that. Consequently, I do not want to confront you with too many details today. However, I would like to give you an example of our efforts to keep the air clean. This is a key area which I feel is a good illustration of what we at Bayer mean by preventive and sustainable environmental protection.

In the 1980s and 1990s we concentrated mainly on protecting surface waters. As a result, we reduced contaminant discharges by up to 90 percent in some cases. In view of the high standards already achieved, further improvements are almost impossible. Our latest endeavors have focused on emissions into the air.

I am quite sure that everyone here today feels strongly about the hotly debated issue of climate change. The main reason for your field trip to Germany is to find out how politics, industry and private households interact in environmental protection and Sustainable Development. This is also important with regard to global warming. A concerted international policy, a commitment by industry to more environment-friendly products and processes and environmentally conscious behavior by our citizens have to go hand in hand.

Ladies and gentlemen, we at Bayer are very proud to report that we have already achieved – in some cases more than achieved – the ambitious targets set by both the German government and the Kyoto Protocol for the reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the next few years.

The aim is to reduce emissions in Germany by 25 percent from the 1990 level by 2005 and by 50 percent by 2020. Bayer has already reduced emissions of greenhouse gases by more than 60 percent. We thus play a leading role in our country, a fact we are very proud of.

We have achieved this through a wide range of efforts that have resulted in a continual improvement in Bayer's environmental profile. These include innovation-driven research, utilizing state-of-the-art technologies, modifying processes and using new power plants fired by gas rather than coal. This makes them more efficient and reduces emissions of harmful substances.

Only recently, Bayer again received international recognition for its achievements so far in the field of climate protection when the company was included as “Best in Class” in the Climate Leadership Index. Established in 2002 by the “Carbon Disclosure Project” investor initiative, this first global stock index for climate protection consists of the ten percent of the world's 500 largest companies who have made the most important contribution to climate protection.

Evidently, these environmental efforts cost money, a lot of money. Over the past 12 years Bayer has invested about 16 billion euro in the construction and operation of environmental protection facilities. We believe that has been a worthwhile investment – because environmental protection is always an investment in the future.

With the aid of modern, sustainable environmental protection, we are also able to reduce the use of natural resources and protect the environment while operating efficiently. In that way, we achieve a balance between commercial and ecological requirements, which is necessary to ensure Sustainable Development. One aspect that is particularly important – and no doubt especially interesting for you as Environmental Envoys – is that our high environmental standards apply worldwide. That means they apply to all our operations in more than 150 countries.

Over the next few days you will be finding out how Bayer puts Sustainable Development into practice on a day-to-day basis and you will have an opportunity to talk to our experts. We hope that your trips to key environmental institutions will also give you some interesting new insights.

Do not be afraid to put your ideas across in the discussions and ask questions. We want to share your experience. And we would like you to take back as many insights as you can to your countries if you believe they can help encourage a positive trend there. That is what I would like you to get out of the next few days.

We sincerely hope that your visit to Germany will prove another convincing example of our far-sighted cooperation with UNEP on youth and environment programs.

Because our commitment to the principles of Sustainable Development is not an empty promise. We want to live up to our position as a socially and ethically responsible corporate citizen. We believe that our technical and commercial expertise gives us a responsibility to work for the benefit of people, accept social responsibility and make a lasting contribution to environment-friendly development. Young people play a particularly important role in these efforts.

I would therefore like to wish you all an enjoyable time here at Bayer and all the best for the future.