The rating agency ISS ESG assesses the sustainability of companies with regard to environmental, social and corporate governance issues. These ratings are public here, where available. In addition, the company can voluntarily provide information and refer to research, reports and ratings from others.
Merck KGaA
ISIN: DE0006599905 | WKN: 659990 | Symbol: MRK | Type: Equity
Infos for Sustainability
ESG Profile
We believe that we can harness science and technology to help tackle many global challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity and unequal access to health in various countries. Always guided by a robust set of values, we approach all our actions and decisions with a sense of responsibility. Sustainability has been vital to us for many generations.
We can only ensure our own future success by creating lasting added value for society through our core business. As a sustainable enterprise, we seek to balance environmental, social and governance aspects – for us as a business, for our stakeholders and for society at large.
For a global science and technology company like us, sustainability is an essential component of our Group strategy. Through our business activities, we want to be economically successful and create value for society. At the same time, we endeavor to avoid generating subsequent costs for society.
We want to create long-term added value for society, which is why we have defined three goals within our sustainability strategy:
- In 2030, we will achieve human progress for more than one billion people through sustainable science and technology.
- By 2030, we will integrate sustainability into all our value chains.
- By 2040, we will achieve climate neutrality and reduce our resource consumption.
In order to reach our sustainability goals, we are pursuing numerous initiatives and projects, measuring our progress along the way. This ensures that we successfully implement our sustainability strategy and that sustainability becomes a success factor across all our business sectors.
In working towards these goals, we are helping reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Out of 17 SDGs in total, we contribute the most to the following five SDGs with our business and our behavior:
SDG 3: Health and well-being
SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth
SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production
SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals
Reporting
Merck Sustainability Report 2023
Merck Sustainability Report 2022
For us, sustainable entrepreneurship and profitable growth go hand in hand. Through our business, we want to create sustainable value for our company, our stakeholders and society while balancing ecological, social and business aspects. In doing so, we are helping tackle the great challenges facing today’s world, such as disease, poverty, hunger, and climate change. Our ambition is to leverage science and technology to achieve progress for humankind. In our sustainability report, we comprehensively present our understanding of sustainable entrepreneurship.
We have a long-standing history of embracing corporate responsibility, which is also reflected in our reporting practices. We have been detailing our efforts to live up to our corporate responsibility since 1993, focusing initially on environmental topics. In 2003, we began reporting on sustainability topics every two years. Since 2016, we have been publishing a report annually.
In our sustainability report, we describe the strategic direction of our sustainable entrepreneurship as well as the focus areas in which we intend to achieve our sustainability goals. We want to inform our stakeholders transparently and comprehensively about our activities and successes as well as the challenges we face.
We align the content of our report with the internationally recognized guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the principles of completeness and materiality as well as input from our stakeholders. This report has been prepared in accordance with the GRI Standards: Comprehensive option. Furthermore, we have taken into consideration the requirements of the capital market for assessing companies’ sustainability performance.
Every year, we carry out a materiality analysis to determine the sustainability topics of relevance to our Group. We have derived the content of this Sustainability Report from the results of the materiality analysis, which can be found together with the materiality matrix under the chapter Materiality analysis.
Moreover, in 2021, we integrated our disclosures pursuant to the SASB standards (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) and the requirements of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) into the Sustainability Report. Through this step, we aim to meet the increasing transparency expectations of our investors and other stakeholders.
We are reporting our progress in implementing the principles of the United Nations Global Compact on the respective UNGC website.
ISS ESG Ratings*
| ESG Rating Overall | B |
| Environmental Rating | B- |
| Social Rating | B |
| Governance Rating | B- |
| ESG Rating Decile Rank | 1 |
| ESG Performance Score | 65.46 |
| ESG Corporate Rating Prime Status | Yes |
| SDG Impact Rating Overall | 5.8 |
| Disclaimer: All rights in the information provided by Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and its affiliates (ISS) reside with ISS and/or its licensors. ISS makes no express or implied warranties of any kind and shall have no liability for any errors, comissions or interruptions in or in connection with any data provided by ISS. | |
| *Data provided by ISS ESG | |
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