Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

The reporting of sustainability issues has been based since the 2017 financial year on the GRI standards, including the Electric Utilities Sector Supplement.

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.

We have continuously expanded our processes over the last few years for identifying material topics and linking them simultaneously with the development of the company’s strategy. Material aspects are determined via the framework provided by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), as well as in accordance with the GRI standards for sustainability reporting issued 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 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 our company. Contributions to the strategic orientation as a sustainable and innovative infrastructure partner are of particular importance in this context. 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 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 the reporting year. 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 2019 containing non-financial information:

The full set of consolidated financial statements – including the notes to the consolidated financial statements – and the management report for the company and the Group are included in the extended version of the Integrated Annual Report 2019 and were all audited by Ernst & Young GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft for the 2019 financial year. As in the previous year, a complete audit of the non-financial declaration was carried out in accordance with an extension of the auditing mandate made by the Supervisory Board. Ernst & Young GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft arrived at the overall conclusion that the entire audit did not lead to any reservations and issued an unqualified audit opinion. The high level of integration in the whole reporting process is underlined by this audit of the complete Integrated Annual Report with reasonable assurance. The full set of consolidated financial statements and the combined management report for the company and the Group for the 2019 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/report2019-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.

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