UN Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 

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

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SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

TARGET 2024: 100% of new product developments with "sustainable solutions" until 2023. 

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

TARGET:

• 50% less accidents
• 0 fatalities

SDG

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

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Communitiy Engagement

TARGET 2014:

• 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 2018, this figure stood at 16.8 hours (previous year: 12.9 hours).

EXTERNAL:
Community Engagement: The main goals, among others, are to support communities in infrastructure development for social projects, to promote training in construction professions and trades, and to provide emergency aid to disaster-stricken regions. Sika also 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

INTERNAL:

• E-learning platform, with more than 320 internal trainings.
• More than 100 courses in the domain of leadership and talent management in 2018 were attended by 1,600 participants.
• More than 2,000 training hours completed online.
• Knowledge Management via SikaWorld

EXTERNAL:

• Sika supported in 2018 128 projects (+9% vs. 2017). The projects can be
  classed as “social” (including donations), “ecological”, “scientific”, and “sports and cultural”.

SDG

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

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

TARGET 2014:

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

WATER

TARGET 2024:

• 15% less water consumption per ton sold
  
  

Sika's commitment

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS: The composition of Sika products is designed to have the least possible impact on the environment.

OPERATIONS: 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.

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 aim to guarantee clean and fresh water.

Activities @ Sika

Products to use less water in construction

• Sika® ViscoCrete® technology allows the reduction of cement paste contents in conventional concrete, breaking the traditional limits to obtain a better concrete (in fresh and hardened states) with a lower cost. The use of new admixture technologies allows for a better concrete with less water and cement, maintaining or improving its properties.
• Through the application of its waterproofing products, Sika has made an impact on reducing water loss and increasing water quality, for example in drinking water reservoirs.

Community work in emerging markets

• In 2018, Sika supported Living Lakes projects to ensure drinking water in Africa, focusing on initiatives in Tanzania, South Africa, Burundi, and the Ivory Coast.
  

SDG

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

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

TARGET 2024

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

Sika's commitment

Sika wants to sustain local communities in order to help people to help themselves. Fields of activities are:buildings and infrastructure for social and ecological projects or education, preferably in connection with construction-related professions or ecological water projects correlating indirectly with Sika's field of waterproofing activities

The main goals, among others, are to support communities in infrastructure development for social projects, to promote trainings in construction professions and trades, and to provide emergency aid to disaster-stricken regions.

Activities @ Sika

The main goals, among others, are to support communities in infrastructure development for social projects, to promote training in construction professions and trades, and to provide emergency aid to disaster-stricken regions. Sika also seeks to promote on-the-ground self-help. Local Sika countries therefore put forward specific aid applications and, working with local partners, supervise projects from site 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.

SDG

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

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SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

TARGET 2014: 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

• Research and development of new products, systems, technologies,
  applications, and production processes form the basis of Sika’s innovations.
• More than 900 employees at 20 global technology centers and 44 local and 20 regional research and development
  facilities.
• Thanks to targeted investments in research and development, Sika is a
  global industry leader. Sika has a comprehensive range of products,
  systems and services that contribute to sustainable construction.
• Sika solutions to build infrastructure and help to develop emerging and
  developing countries.

SDG

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

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SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

TARGET 2024: 100% of new product developments with "sustainable solutions" until 2023

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

TARGET 2024:

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

CLIMATE PERFORMANCE

TARGET 2024:

15% reduction of CO₂-emissions per ton sold

Sika's commitment

INNOVATION: Sika has set a clear target that each new product must make a contribution to sustainability. In line with this, we systematically assess products throughout our innovation process. Innovation also places a strong emphasis on sustainable product development. One way to achieve 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 green building standards such as LEED, BREEAM and DGNB (amongst others).
• Composite materials substantially prolong the service life of aging engineering structures such as bridges.
• 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.
• Construction chemicals, shotcreting machines, and waterproofing membranes, allow efficient tunneling.

SDG

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

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Waste / Water

TARGET 2024:

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

ENERGY

TARGET 2024:

• 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.

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 could reduce 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.

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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 electricity rate
  
  

Sika's commitment

INNOVATION: 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 2024.

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.
  
• The company has set an energy efficiency target of 3% less energy consumed per ton sold and year.
  
• Energy reduction efforts have resulted in a GHG-rate reduction of 7.2% from 44.3 kg in 2017 to 41.1 kg CO² per ton sold in 2018.
  
• Sika aims to boost the sustainability performance of its production sites by reducing water consumption and treating water locally.
  
• 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.