Corporate Responsibility at NORMA Group

Responsible management in all areas of the Company

As a manufacturing company, NORMA Group is aware of its ecological, economic and social responsibilities. Environmentally friendly and sustainable management are firmly anchored as essential components in the Company’s strategy. For this reason, the systematic inclusion of environmental aspects in business decisions plays an important role. To this end, NORMA Group has implemented a Group-wide environmental management system and certifies its production sites according to ISO 14001.

The aim of NORMA Group is to increase the efficiency of production processes and to continuously reduce energy and resource consumption. To achieve this goal, NORMA Group controls the energy consumption of all production sites and integrates its energy reduction targets into its environmental management systems. The management of the individual plants is responsible for the specific measures to reduce energy requirements and, in connection with this, to reduce CO₂ emissions. The measures include, for example, the use of alternative energy sources. In this context, for example, investments have already been made in solar panels and photovoltaic systems in the past.

For general control of energy consumption, there is also Group-wide ESG software in which each location reports and checks its energy data on a monthly basis. This serves to monitor local and regional energy consumption on a monthly basis. In addition, waste should be avoided wherever possible. Sub-meters have also been installed to monitor water consumption, potential water losses and the amount of water reused. Further projects for water recycling and reducing water consumption have been identified and implemented. The resulting long-term cost savings make a positive contribution to the Group’s profitability.

NORMA Group quantifies its targets for reducing greenhouse gases, water consumption and waste generation at its production sites and publishes them in its CR Roadmap. NORMA Group also includes the environmental impacts in the supply chain and the effects of the use of its products in its environmental strategy. Progress in achieving the climate, water and waste targets is reviewed at local level in regular assessments by Management and at global level by reporting aggregated data to the Management Board.

Carbon dioxide emissions – The key non-financial performance indicator

The key non-financial performance indicator relevant for management, and therefore also part of the Company’s forecast, is CO₂ emissions (Scope 1 and 2; method: “market-based”). In the first half of 2024, these amounted to a total of 2,297 metric tons of CO₂ equivalents (market-based and only NORMA Group’s production sites), and thus was lower than the previous year's figure by 10.7 % (H1 2023: 2,572 metric tons, market-based) ¹. NORMA Group’s target of reducing CO₂ emissions from its production processes by around 19.5% by 2024 compared to the reference year 2017 was already significantly exceeded in 2022.

Further information on the environmental strategy and other topics can be found in the CR REPORT 2023 and on the NORMA Group website at WWW.NORMAGROUP.COM.

¹_The CO₂ emissions that form the basis for calculating the ESG-LTI in connection with Management Board remuneration are reported in accordance with the GHG Protocol (market-based, Scope 1 and Scope 2). Scope 1 includes only emissions from natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas, and Scope 2 includes emissions from purchased electricity and district heating. When recording emissions, only emissions related to the production sites are taken into account. Since January 2022, NORMA Group has purchased electricity from renewable energies at all production sites. To this end, NORMA Group purchases “Energy Attribute Certificates.” These are also included in the target value. Further information can be found in the CR REPORT 2023 and the ANNUAL REPORT 2023.

Other relevant non-financial indicators

Invention applications

NORMA Group offers business solutions that help its customers respond specifically to megatrends such as resource scarcity and climate change. Ensuring the long-term ability to innovate is therefore a key driver for NORMA Group’s future growth. The strategic direction of NORMA Group’s innovation management is therefore based in particular on the defined megatrends and focuses on reducing emissions and protecting water resources. Based on these long-term trends, FORESIGHT MANAGEMENT and Business Development derive potential market segments for NORMA Group, for example in water management or the areas of battery thermal management and exhaust gas treatment.

Against this backdrop, the continuous development of new products that are geared to the changing requirements of end markets, customers and legal regulations is a constant focus. NORMA Group promotes the inventive spirit of its employees through targeted incentive systems and measures its ability to innovate based on the inventions reported by employees in a formalized process. A total of 13 invention reports were submitted in the first half of 2024 (H1 2023: 8).

Quality indicator

NORMA Group products are usually critical to the functionality of customers’ end products. For this reason, quality defects or functional failures can have a significant direct impact on customers or end users. Product safety, and thus the health of end users, is therefore strongly correlated with the quality of NORMA Group products. For this reason, it is a high priority for NORMA Group that the products it manufactures meet all of its customers’ expectations and quality requirements.

To ensure a global and standardized quality approach, all NORMA Group production sites are certified according to international quality standards.

In order to minimize defective production and maximize customer satisfaction, NORMA Group records the number of defective parts per million parts, so-called “parts per million” (PPM). This is an important non-financial key figure for improving product quality, which is recorded and aggregated on a monthly basis across the Group. In the first half of 2024, the number of defective parts per million parts (PPM) was 3.9 (H1 2023: 1.8).

Accident rate

The introduction of occupational safety management systems is not an end in itself. NORMA Group focuses on providing employees with a safe and risk-free working environment. Special programs, including the Safety Top Focus program, which was introduced in 2022 and has been continued since then, ensure that workplaces meet the highest safety standards and that accidents and incidents are avoided wherever possible. Risk monitoring and control, as well as technical precautions and training to prevent occupational accidents, are intended to ensure the implementation of occupational safety standards. Success in the area of occupational health and safety is checked through regular reporting by the global occupational safety department to the Management Board. At the production site level, root cause analyses are carried out, and appropriate countermeasures are determined. The progress of these measures is also regularly reported to the Management Board.

To control the effectiveness of management systems in the area of occupational safety, NORMA Group collects the accident rate indicator. The accident rate measures the number of accidents that result in a loss of work of more than three working days per 1,000 employees. In the first half of 2024, the accident rate was 3.5 accidents per 1,000 employees (H1 2023: 4.4).

Further information can be found in the CR REPORT 2023 and on the NORMA Group website at WWW.NORMAGROUP.COM.