We are committed to systematically analyzing the impacts of our business activities on affected communities and implementing suitable protective measures.
Material impacts, risks and opportunities and their interaction with strategy and business model [S3.SBM-3]
The following communities may be impacted by possible consequences of our own operations or those of our partners in the value chain:
Communities that live or work near Bayer’s operating sites, as well as communities that live further away if any impacts have long-distance effects (for example, through sites that discharge directly to flowing waters)
Communities along our value chain (for example, those affected by the operations of our suppliers’ facilities or located at the endpoint of the value chain e.g. location where agricultural products are harvested)
In principle, each of these communities could be affected differently by the negative impacts of our business activities. Due to the heterogeneity of our business activities and the location of our sites, an understanding is developed at the sites of the extent to which affected communities with certain characteristics could be impacted to a lesser or greater degree. The sites carry out risk analyses and, in doing so, must take into account their potential impact on the affected communities within their scope of action.
Possible impacts on affected communities can be systemic or individual. For example, the consumption of natural resources in our value chains can restrict access by local communities to critical resources and thus presents a systemic problem. Furthermore, incidents in our operations that can lead to air, water and soil pollution have individual impacts that could impair access by the community to important resources.