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Our key CR data relates to three areas – HSE (health, safety, environment), human resources and economics. We are constantly expanding and enhancing the quantity and quality of our key indicators to meet ever evolving internal and external requirements.
Key indicators play a pivotal role in guiding the success of our CR strategies. They enable us to measure developments in our five CR key dimensions and benchmark progress over a period of several years. This allows us to quickly recognise areas offering room for improvement and define concrete improvement targets. At the same time, our key indicators are also an important information tool for stakeholders. In selecting and measuring areas to be benchmarked, we are guided by international recommendations and guidelines such as the Global Reporting Initiative (Glossary) (GRI), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and Responsible Care (RC) initiative, and look in particular at the main environmental impact of our business activities.
The merger between Linde and BOC posed major challenges in acquiring and consolidating this data. Differences in scope, fundamental definitions and measurement methods first called for comprehensive standardisation. Against this background, we are now focusing our reporting activities on core key indicators that are particularly relevant to our business and about which we are able to make full and complete statements.
Presentation of key indicators
Wherever possible, we are now publishing our key data in comparative format for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006.
In the course of restructuring The Linde Group around the gases and engineering businesses, we also adapted the presentation of our data accordingly, and will now be publishing it in retrospect for 2004 and 2005 as well as for the 2006 financial year. The data for the BOC gases business in financial year 20061 is stated separately. We have deducted figures relating to the KION Group, Linde’s former forklift
segment, from the year-based comparison and excluded spin-offs in 2006. The data in the CR Report 2007 therefore deviates from corresponding figures in the CR Report 2005.
When viewing our key indicators by year, it is important to note that The Linde Group has grown significantly as a result of the BOC merger. Since emissions and resource consumption are directly related to production, financial year 2006 saw an increase in our absolute environmental figures. To demonstrate this clearly, we display the BOC and Linde figures separately in certain instances.
Data collection
In 2006, both Linde and BOC gathered company-wide performance figures in the HSE and human resources areas using their own reporting tools2. For a more comprehensive, standardised and consolidated presentation, we have also collected additional data for the same year. This was compiled by representatives in the SHEQ (Glossary), HR and finance departments within each division.
We acquired Linde key data for 2005 and 2004 using the web-based data collection and information system “Reportal”.
Outlook
We are still working on the task of standardising the key indicators and definitions of the former Linde and BOC organisations (see also chapter "about this report"). We intend to establish a new, web-based data collection system for this purpose, standardised across the entire Group.
We will also be aiming to meet the following additional objectives in our future reporting:
- Definition and implementation of more detailed and standardised Group-wide criteria for HSE and HR key data acquisition within the framework of ongoing qualitative data optimisation
- Expanded scope for key indicators in line with internationally recognised standards and stakeholder requirements, covering all core sustainability issues
- Extension of data acquisition to all consolidated organisations and locations, with a target consolidation level of 100 percent
- Further development of central key performance indicators (KPIs (Glossary)), enabling the formulation of concrete goals and definition of necessary measures for the most important sustainability issues. The prerequisite for this is a consistent repository of comparable data, which we will focus on establishing in 2008
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In achieving these objectives, we will be guided by the following criteria: | |
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RELEVANCE |
Our key indicators will meet all the core environmental, social and economic sustainability issues we have identified, and provide effective guidance for our stakeholders in assessing The Linde Group performance. |
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COMPARABILITY |
We will base our key indicators on standardised definitions and criteria. We will select and present our figures in such a way that they enable identification of changes over time and support comparison with other organisations. |
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TIMELINESS |
We will gather and update our key indicators regularly. We will be collating safety data on a quarterly basis, for example. |
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CLARITY |
We will publish our key indicators in a clear and comprehensible format. |
1 The period under review for the former Linde organisation is the financial year year from 1 January to 31 December 2006. The BOC data spans the business period from 1 October 2005 to 30 September 2006.
2 Data acquisition was performed at company level by the former Linde organisation and at location level by BOC.
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