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Sustainability-related policies

Sustainability-related policies

At Messer, sustainability is a guiding principle embedded in our daily operations. Our sustainability-related policies support and enable responsible business practices that align with our vision, purpose and values. 

These policies serve as a framework to ensure that our employees, business partners, and stakeholders share a common understanding of what it means to act with integrity, respect human rights, protect the planet, and prioritize health and safety.

Explore how our policies are advancing our sustainability commitments. 

Sustainability-related policies - Overview of policies

The Code of Conduct is the key document of the Messer Code, a set of rules which stands for an active corporate governance and is intended to serve all employees as an orientation for their daily work in conformity with the Messer's corporate mission statement. The Code of Conduct defines standardized, globally binding corporate guidelines for the Messer Group and is based on the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact relating to human rights, working standards, environmental protection and the fight against corruption. It is complemented and substantiated by the Group Guidelines and the other group-wide or locally applicable guidelines, manuals and other internal regulations. 

In addition to our generally binding Code of Conduct, which is aimed toward all employees, the Business Partner Code of Conduct shall apply to all Messer Business Partners. It defines a uniform, globally binding guideline for Messer’s Business Partners and focuses on internationally recognized human rights, labor standards, environmental protection, and anti-corruption standards (ESG). Thus, it describes the requirements and principles of cooperation with integrity between Messer and our Business Partners.

The Declaration of Principles goes into detail on Human Rights and Working Conditions at Messer. In contrast to the Business Partner Code of Conduct, it does not focus on Business Partners but describes how exactly Messer deals with the individual topics of Human Rights and what efforts have been made so far. This document can be sent to Business Partners to provide more understanding and awareness for the processes at Messer.

The Corporate Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) Commitment reflects a unified commitment across Messer to uphold health and safety as core principles of our business demonstrated through our operations. We strive for zero accidents and take responsibility for the safety of our employees, customers, and contractors throughout our value chain. In addition to the Corporate SHEQ Commitment, regional health and safety policies further reinforce the importance of safety in our operations and the commitment of the leaders of each region to uphold these principles.

The Global Climate Policy outlines our position on key elements of a comprehensive climate strategy, including decarbonization, water, and waste, and specifies our governance, approach, and the key impacts, risks, and opportunities that were deemed material and important through Messer’s double materiality assessment. The policy also describes the mechanisms in place to monitor progress. The policy applies to all board members and employees of Messer SE & Co. KGaA and of its subsidiaries and covers upstream, own operations, and downstream aspects of Messer’s value chain. This policy is internal and not available for download.