Ströer : Pdf Sustainability Report 2021

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

STRÖER SE & CO. KGAA

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CONTENT

1 | Introduction	01
2 | Foreword by the Supervisory Board ESG officer	03
3 | About Ströer	04
4 | Sustainability at Ströer	05
4.1	Central frameworks	05
4.2	Materiality analysis and reporting topics	05
4.3	EU taxonomy	07
4.4	Stakeholder dialogue	08
4.5	2030 Sustainability Strategy	09
4.6	Sustainability organization	11
5 | Environment: Becoming climate neutral	12
5.1	Environmental management	12
5.2	Climate strategy	12
5.3 Advertising media	15
5.4	Fleet and business travel	16
5.5	Sustainable office	16
5.6	Commuting by employees	16
5.7	Materials management	17
6 | Employees: Focus on people	18
6.1 HR management	19
6.2	Knowledge and involvement	21
6.3	Diversity	21
6.4	Staff development	22
6.5	Fair working conditions	23
6.6	Health and safety	24
6.7 Voluntary employee benefits	25
7 | Business partners and society: Sustainable solutions	26
7.1 Advertising media and street furniture	26
7.2	Posters that benefit the environment	28
7.3	Reach for sustainability topics	29
7.4	Pro bono advertising	29
7.5	Product stewardship	30
7.6	Sustainable supply chain and human rights	32
7.7	Corporate citizenship	34
8 | Governance: Acting in a way that builds trust	35
8.1	Corporate governance	35
8.2	Governance, risk & compliance system	41
8.3	Information security	42
8.4	Data protection	43
8.5	Compliance	44
8.6	Other areas of GRC	46
8.7	Political relationships	46
9 | Formal sustainability communication	48
9.1 About this report	48
9.2	GRI content index	49
9.3	Further notes	52

Introduction1

1 | INTRODUCTION

Dear reader, dear shareholder,

[102-14] [103-1] 2021 was a successful year for the Ströer Group, despite the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, we either achieved our financial targets or even slightly exceeded them. We were equally successful in the pursuit of our goals to improve sustainability performance.

Making our out-of-home advertising portfolio more environmentally friendly by digitalizing our advertising media played an important role in this. Consumption of materials (paper and adhesive) has been continuously and significantly reduced in comparison to traditional advertising, along with the travel involved in changing the posters, and disposal of the waste. At the time of the publication of this report, we cover the energy requirements of our approximately 6,100 digital advertising media with around 7,800 displays mainly with zero emission green energy.

We are also switching to green electricity in many other areas, and the transition is largely complete. Where advertising campaigns run by Ströer produce unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions, they are offset through certified climate change mitigation projects.

Year by year, our portfolio of products and services is also becoming more sustainable. For example, after years of development work, the giant posters of our subsidiary blowUP Media are now made entirely of recyclable materials - and they even clean the air.

Ströer is signaling its strong commitment to responsible advertising through strict internal policies. We have also supported hundreds of community projects and initiatives in recent years with our reach and a media volume of more than EUR 20m per year. We provided a substantial amount of advertising space pro bono in 2021, too, including for the UN chil- dren's organization UNICEF. We are also aware of our responsibility as an employer. Mindful of the changes to working conditions and processes brought about by the global pandemic that lasted for more than two years, we care about the wellbeing of our employees and we recently carried out a [403-4] staff survey to evaluate the physical stress and, especially, the mental stress suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The positive results of the study show that we were able to alleviate much of the stress and strain for our employees through our corporate culture and our straightforward and open communication about the measures we were taking. We also reaped the benefits of Ströer's efforts to make HR processes leaner and more efficient through standardization and automation. This work, which has been going on for a long time, enabled us to focus more intensively on supporting our employees, and having the right technical setup made flexible working far easier.

Introduction2

Good corporate governance is a key element of our ESG strategy and reflects the importance	from left:
of sustainability to the Company. The Supervisory Board of our general partner, which is re-	Henning Gieseke
sponsible for Board of Management remuneration, updated the remuneration system for the	CFO
Ströer Management SE
Board of Management to explicitly take account of ESG-related components. The Supervisory	Udo Müller
Board of the general partner also established a Remuneration Committee at its meeting on
Gründer/Co-CEO
June 22, 2022. A further important element of the Supervisory Board's work was its increased
Ströer Management SE
focus on sustainability topics. During the year under review, the Supervisory Board of Ströer	Christian Schmalzl
SE & Co. KGaA added ESG to the competencies of its Audit Committee and appointed an
Co-CEO
ESG officer of the Supervisory Board of Ströer SE & Co. KGaA to the Audit Committee. The	Ströer Management SE
Supervisory Board of our general partner also included ESG topics in the allocation of Board	Dr. Christian Baier
of Management responsibilities and appointed an ESG officer at Board of Management level.	COO
To make processes even more robust and efficient, the Governance, Risk & Compliance Man-	Board of Management
ESG Officer
agement unit introduced even more far-reaching and detailed oversight structures in 2021.
Ströer Management SE
We have already achieved many important milestones in recent years, with the support of
our employees, and we still have many more plans. The commitment and dedication of our
staff will enable us to achieve the goals we have set ourselves. We invite you to join us on
our journey, and also to talk to us. Your suggestions are welcome and will contribute to the
sustainable development and growth of Ströer.
We hope you find this report informative.
On behalf of the general partner

Udo Müller | Christian Schmalzl | Dr. Christian Baier | Henning Gieseke

Foreword by the Supervisory Board ESG officer	3

2 | FOREWORD BY THE SUPERVISORY BOARD ESG OFFICER OF STRÖER SE & CO. KGAA

Dear reader,

[102-14, 102-15] [103-1] Sustainability is an increasingly important factor for investors when making investment decisions and when setting financing terms. There is also growing public awareness of sustainability, particularly in relation to issues such as climate change, working conditions, social aspects, and governance. Opportunities, aspirations, and the realities at companies then quickly become the focus of interest and heated debate.

In light of these developments, and particularly because of the public awareness and importance of sustainability, policymakers at national and international level are also increasingly focusing on ESG topics (environment, society, and governance). The European Union's Green Deal and taxonomy, combined with new reporting obligations, have created environment- related requirements that will involve a significant amount of work to implement.

The Commission of the European Union is currently working on new standards for the social aspect of ESG, which companies will have to comply with in the future. Requirements relating to corporate governance are already a key part of national legislation and business practice and are reflected in regulations such as the German Corporate Governance Code, the General Data Protection Regulation, and the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act - to name just the most important.

All these initiatives and rules create sometimes far-reaching requirements and obligations, both substantive and procedural, although none of this is new to Ströer which has been working intensively on sustainability for a number of years as part of its day-to-day business operations. Continuous improvement is the watchword here. The next step will be for Ströer to tackle the details, i.e. sustainability structures and transparency. In 2021, the Company made significant progress on a number of key points, as described by the general partner in its introduction above.

The Supervisory Board of Ströer SE & Co. KGaA believes that a great deal has been achieved at the various work levels over the past two years. New business strategies with a strong focus on sustainability have been formulated and successfully implemented. New competencies have been created for sustainable practices and the reporting on them. Ambitious, yet realistic goals have been set and the resources necessary to achieve them have been made available.

Ströer's business operations will be carbon-neutral by 2025 at the latest, which is significantly earlier than the deadline set by the member states of the European Union for this target (2050). In addition to this environmental goal, Ströer has also set sustainability targets for its product portfolio, for HR, and for the corporate governance system, and has drawn up action plans to achieve them.

Ströer's current sustainability performance is at a high to very high level. Further improvements will inevitably be both on a smaller scale and more challenging. I have no doubt that Ströer will rise to these challenges with energy and determination.

Martin Diederichs

Supervisory Board ESG Officer

Ströer SE & Co. KGaA