Ströer : Non Financial Group Report 2021

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Group non-financial report

STRÖER SE & CO. KGAA, COLOGNE DECEMBER 31, 2021

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT THE STRÖER GROUP ............................................................. 2

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT THE GROUP NON-FINANCIAL REPORT .................................. 3

DISCLOSURE UNDER THE EU TAXONOMY REGULATION ................................................................... 7

EMPLOYEE MATTERS ........................................................................................................................ 9

GENERAL .................................................................................................................................................... 9

WORKING CONDITIONS ............................................................................................................................... 10

VOCATIONAL TRAINING & STAFF DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................... 11

DIVERSITY & EQUALITY ................................................................................................................................ 13

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY ................................................................................................................. 14

GOVERNANCE ................................................................................................................................. 16

GENERAL .................................................................................................................................................. 16

IT SECURITY .............................................................................................................................................. 17

DATA PROTECTION ..................................................................................................................................... 19

COMPLIANCE (PARTICULARLY ANTI-CORRUPTION & BRIBERY MATTERS) ................................................................. 21

CONTACTS AND EDITORIAL INFORMATION .................................................................................... 25

Background information about the Ströer Group

Ströer SE & Co. KGaA, Cologne ('Ströer Group'), is a leading German provider of out-of-home media. We offer advertising customers individualized and fully integrated, end-to-end solutions along the entire marketing and sales value chain. Through our OOH+ strat-egy, we focus on the strengths of the OOH business, underpinned by our related business segments Digital & Dialog Media and DaaS & E-Commerce.

The Ströer Group markets and operates several thousand websites, primarily in German-speaking countries, and operates approximately 300,000 advertising media in the out-of-home segment. Our portfolio includes all forms of outdoor advertising media, including traditional poster media, exclusive advertising rights at train stations, and digital out-of-home media. In its dialog marketing business, the Ströer Group offers its customers wrap-around performance-based solutions ranging from location-specific or content-specific reach and interaction across the entire spectrum of dialog marketing through to transac-tions. And in the digital publishing business, we publish premium content across all digital channels and offer one of Germany's widest reaching networks with services such as t-online.de and various special interest sites.

In 2021, the Ströer Group generated revenue of EUR 1.6b. We employ around 10,000 people at more than 100 locations. Ströer SE & Co. KGaA is included in the MDAX index of Deutsche Börse. For detailed information on the business model and organizational structure, please refer to the relevant sections entitled 'Business model' and 'Segments and organizational structure' in 'Background and strategy of the Ströer Group' in Ströer SE & Co. KGaA's combined management report of the Company and the Group. This was published in the investor relations section of our website on March 30, 2022.1

1 Available at:https://ir.stroeer.com/investor-relations/financial-reports/

Background information about the group non-financial report

This separate combined non-financial report ('group non-financial report') fulfills the re-porting requirements of Ströer SE & Co. KGaA under the German CSR Directive Imple-mentation Act (CSR-RUG) (section 289b and section 315b-c of the German Commercial Code (HGB)). This year, for the first time, the non-financial report also fulfills the new disclosure requirements under the Taxonomy Regulation (EU) 2020/852.

The disclosures apply to both Ströer SE & Co. KGaA and the Group. In addition to the description of the business model and general information, the report contains disclosures on certain non-financial aspects to the extent that they are necessary for an understand-ing of the net assets, financial position, and financial performance of the Group as well as for an understanding of the impact of our business activities on the non-financial as-pects. The information required under the EU Taxonomy Regulation is also disclosed.

The disclosures relate to the reporting period from January 1 to December 31, 2021. The report covers all subsidiaries that are fully consolidated in the consolidated financial state-ments. We have indicated where this is not the case.

The Audit Committee and Supervisory Board examined this group non-financial report, which was prepared by the Board of Management for the Ströer Group as at December 31, 2021. The documents were discussed in detail at the meetings and the Board of Man-agement answered additional questions raised by members of the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board raised no objections following its review.

Method and approach

The materiality analysis of the aspects to be reported on under the CSR-RUG is carried out each year on the basis of a systematic two-stage evaluation process within the Ströer Group. We are thereby following the intention behind the legislation, i.e. identifying and reporting on those aspects that are material both to the Company's net assets, financial position, and financial performance and to the reportable aspects themselves.

The first step was to draw up a catalog of potential material topics that are aligned with the aspects of the CSR-RUG framework. The topics were selected using the Global Re-porting Initiative (GRI) standards and an analysis of the most important sustainability ratings. Based on this, a questionnaire was sent to all relevant segments of the Ströer Group with a request for comments. One of the primary aims of this survey was to provide an internal evaluation of the impact of the topics on the segments' net assets, financial position, and financial performance.

The next step was to evaluate the results of this survey in follow-up workshops. The in-ternal departments/service functions responsible for those topics that were considered to be material were invited to attend the workshops. Potential non-financial risks arising from the business activities of the Ströer Group on the aspects covered by the CSR-RUG were also discussed.

Finally, the process and its results were reviewed by the Supervisory Board's ESG officer to ascertain whether any adjustments were required.

Material aspects and topics

At the end of the two-stage process, the material topics for which disclosures are required in this non-financial Group report under the CSR-RUG had been identified (see table be-low).

Aspect	Topics disclosed in 2021
Employee matters	 Working conditions  Vocational training & staff development  Diversity & equality  Occupational health & safety
Governance	 IT security  Data protection  Anti-corruption & bribery matters
Environmental matters	 Based on the results of the materiality analysis, environmental matters and related topics are not addressed in depth in this re-port.
 In order to address sustainability in the round, however, we have included the environment aspect as a central pillar of our 2030 sustainability strategy and made climate action a focus area. This reflects the considerable social importance of this topic. We aim to be carbon neutral across the business as a whole by 2025. We have already introduced a range of measures and continued to drive forward with our efforts in this area in 2021. By the end of 2021, 80% of our entire OOH infrastructure was already run-ning on green electricity and our aim is to make this share even larger. The switch to green electricity is supported by the intro-duction of various energy-efficiency measures for our advertis-ing media and the optimization of our use of materials. We are already running carbon neutral advertising for our customers. Unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions are offset through a cer-tified climate change mitigation project.  We report in detail on this and other measures in our annual sustainability report, which we have been publishing since 2020.
Social matters	 Based on the results of the materiality analysis, social matters and related topics are not a focus of this report.  However, this aspect is addressed through the topics of IT se-curity & data protection, which have an equal bearing on both corporate governance and social matters.
Human rights	 Based on the results of the materiality analysis, human rights and related topics are not a focus of this report.  However, this aspect is addressed through the topics of work-ing conditions, diversity & equality and occupational health & safety, which deal with human rights issues in the context of the workforce.