CEO Letter
Dear Stakeholders
Sustainable Innovation is Oerlikon.
Sustainability is an integral part of Oerlikon’s strategy. For us, it is more than a concept. It is a living principle entrenched in the innovations we develop for our customers as they seek to become smarter in terms of their use of resources — to achieve more with less.
Following our strategy, economic and ecological sustainability are intrinsic parts of our business process as you will see in this first report. Our technologies allow our clients to become more sustainable. Through our actions and measures, our own operations and processes contribute to a healthier planet.
Furthermore, we take care: in terms of social sustainability, we not only offer great working conditions for our employees all over the world, but also differentiate ourselves through responsible and reliable relations with our other partners, such as universities, research institutions, suppliers and investors.
We engineer and process materials and surfaces to enhance and upgrade products’ functions. Working collaboratively with customers in key markets, we make equipment and tools last longer, improve the manufacture of textiles, help cars and airplanes use less fuel and pioneer advances with an impact on the future of mobility. The result: solutions and services that are more cost-effective for our customers and help to protect of our planet and its inhabitants.
That is how Oerlikon defines sustainable innovation — and how sustainable innovation defines Oerlikon.
We have always seen innovation and sustainability as interdependent, and in that sense, nothing has changed: our core sustainability values are rooted in our history, traditions, culture and products.
What is new is our heightened consciousness of how important it is to articulate these values, to make a public commitment to them and to demonstrate that our operations and financial targets are in sync with our capacity to make the world a better place. Now, is the right time for us to join the ranks of those who are proactively engaging with sustainability and inspiring others to do the same. We want to explicitly state our responsibility ascaretakers of our global ecosystems and champions of sustainability. I offer this commitment to you unequivocally on behalf of myself, our Board of Directors and each of our Oerlikon colleagues; we have all dedicated ourselves to this mission.
Oerlikon enables customers to achieve more with less.
I am pleased to present our inaugural Sustainability Report, which formally acknowledges a core value at the foundation of our R&D, our business growth and our mission: a commitment to sustainability and to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report showcases Oerlikon’s past and current contributions to sustainability and presents our targets for 2030, which place an emphasis on the SDGs that are most pertinent to our operations and represent Oerlikon’s greatest opportunities for impact.
The report further serves as our public commitment to transparency and regular documentation of our progress in sustainability. Our targets cover environmental and social aspects, including the increasing use of renewable energies, reducing share of disposed waste, increasing female representation in management and leadership roles and ensuring zero harm to our people - to name a few.
We help our customers to reach their goals: using less fuel, facilitating future mobility, extending the lifetime of tools and saving energy in processing polymers and beyond.
We are using 2019 as our baseline year since 2020 was an extraordinary pandemicimpacted year. Using 2019 as our baseline makes tracking and comparability more meaningful as it is more representative of Oerlikon’s normal business operations. Here, you can find more details about our targets.
On behalf of our Executive Committee and the entire Oerlikon team, I invite each of you to accompany us on this journey.
We are grateful as always for your collaboration and for your support as we take on the challenge of creating an enhanced Oerlikon and building a sustainable future.
In partnership,
Dr. Roland Fischer
