Our Environment
Create transparency
The published information aims to show our stakeholders how Tönnies accepts its responsibility towards people, animals and the environment.
All information refers to the company Tönnies Holding ApS & Co. KG and includes all subsidiaries and production sites in Germany and abroad. The reporting period is the year 2017. Depending on the availability of data, we will present the development of our key figures compared with the previous year or in the context of an industry comparison and will refer to our plans for the future.
Shape the future together
We have always sought out interaction with our most important stakeholders and have responded to their interests. It is now time to take a new communication path. In recent years, Tönnies has grown significantly, integrating new sites and opening up further areas of activity.
We are responding to these changes and using this platform to open an active sustainability dialogue. The first step was for Tönnies to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the group’s own environment. To this end, we listed all direct and indirect contacts as well as all partner groups within and outside the direct value creation chain and business activities. The result of this was the identification of five main stakeholder groups with whom we can further expand the direct dialogue.
More intensive dialogue with our five main stakeholder groups
Active communication with our stakeholders
We have also defined our primary areas of activity on the basis of a materiality analysis. This analysis forms the central component of the sustainability process.
To identify the central action areas, we evaluated the following areas:
- intensive discussions with our stakeholders
- press enquiries and requests for comment in the last three years
- issues arising from symposia and conferences we have attended or at which we spoke
Using these analyses we were able to identify a total of 35 sustainability issues directly related to our business activities.
Our areas of activity
For a clear visual representation, the 35 sustainability issues are assigned to the three pillars of sustainability.
Our materiality matrix
The next step was to investigate the 35 issues using two relevant questions and represent them in a matrix.
- How does each issue affect the evaluation and decisions of the stakeholders?
- How does Tönnies influence the economy, environment and/or society with regard to each issue? Can Tönnies exert this influence itself or with the help of its partners, e.g. the supplier or customer?
The graphic to the right shows the issues that are rated most highly by the stakeholders and on which we, at the same time, have a strong influence.
Nine core issues of sustainability
The core issues of sustainability for Tönnies are those that are most important for the decisions of the stakeholders and on which Tönnies can exert a direct and lasting influence.
From the analysis we identified nine core sustainability issues for us which we communicate to our stakeholders in a transparent, fair, open and respectful way. We look forward to the dialogue on animal protection during slaughter, animal welfare in animal husbandry, food safety, resource consumption, working conditions, meat and healthy food, handling of antibiotics, housing management and the climate protection in animal husbandry.
We are starting the dialogue with the first four of these issues. We are also gradually working out our positions on the other four core issues and will inform you here as soon as they are online.
