Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a not-for-profit organisation that has the goal of supporting the sustainability reporting of international organisations and above all companies by developing uniform guidelines. The GRI provides comprehensive reporting standards with defined management approaches and indicators for companies to report their economic, environmental and social performance.

The reporting of sustainability issues has been carried out in accordance with the GRI-Standards issued by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) since the 2017 financial year. We have selected the Core option, which comprises the most important elements for providing information to stakeholders. Our sustainability reporting also complies with the Communication on Progress requirements for the UN Global Compact and is based to an increasing extent on the UN Sustainability Goals (www.enbw.com/green-bond). These two framework standards, as well as the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, have been used as the basis for the non-financial declaration.

Building on the materiality analysis that was conducted for the first time in 2013 EnBW has continuously expanded the identification of key issues and the simultaneous link with the strategy development process in recent years. Material aspects are determined by internal standard processes, by using the framework provided by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and in accordance with the GRI-Standards on Sustainability Reporting published by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Other current developments flow into the determination of future key issues, such as the work of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) on climate-related risk reporting.

On the one hand, topics are considered material if they have a significant influence on long-term value added and thus the performance and future viability of EnBW. Of particular importance here are contributions to the strategic orientation as a sustainable and innovative infrastructure partner. On the other hand, aspects reflecting any important economic, environmental and social impacts the organisation may have and that significantly influence the perception of stakeholders are also taken into account.

Material themes are continuously implemented in the functional and business units, as well as in the individual companies of EnBW. In addition, the findings from the materiality analysis flow into, for example, the strategy process and stakeholder management.

The materiality analysis process was updated in the 2018 financial year. It comprises three steps: the creation of an overview of the themes relevant to strategy and communication, the development of a list of themes relevant from the perspective of sustainability and the derivation of material themes from the reputation analysis. During each step of the process, the themes identified were continuously compared to the key themes that were dealt with by the Supervisory Board in 2018. Every step leads to a distinct prioritisation of themes and ultimately to a final list of the top themes that can be allocated to the categories of transformation of the portfolio, growth and sustainability.

Further information on the fulfilment of other sustainability standards (german) is available on the EnBW website.

Below you will find selected chapters from the Integrated Annual Report 2018 containing non-financial information:

The high level of integration in the whole reporting process is underlined by this audit of the complete Integrated Annual Report with reasonable assurance. KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft arrived at the overall conclusion that the entire audit did not lead to any reservations and issued an unqualified audit opinion. This includes the non-financial declaration. The full set of consolidated financial statements and the combined management report for the company and the Group for the 2018 financial year, as well as the unqualified audit opinion issued by the auditor, are accessible to the public on the website of EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG at www.enbw.com/report2018-downloads.

The report was submitted to GRI together with other sustainability information, which are deposited on www.enbw.com/performance-inidicators, for the GRI Content Index Service.

The confirmation for fulfilment of the GRI Content Index Service by GRI is still pending – the detailed information on general and specific standard specifications of the Global Reporting Initiative (including the Electric Utilities Sector Supplement) will be published soon.

Further Information on the GRI Content Index can be found here.