Once again, we look back on a challenging year. As a healthcare company, huge demands have been placed on us by the pandemic. Yet even during this time, more than 300,000 employees have continued to show their unswerving commitment. They have been there and are still there – for our patients, for our customers, and for Fresenius.
This human contact is essential in the healthcare sector. Digital applications cannot replace it, although they can strongly support and strengthen it. The pandemic has accelerated developments here – while at the same time showing us where there are gaps that we can close. The good news: Many people now realize that digitalization can also bring great benefits in medicine. Telemedicine is just one example.
When it comes to sustainability, too, much has happened. We improved our sustainability management, both Group-wide and in each of our business segments. For the first time, we included Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets in the short-term variable compensation for Management Board members. And we plan to add them to the long-term variable compensation plan, which we are currently revising.
» Human contact is essential in the healthcare sector. With the pandemic, many people now realize that digitalization can also bring great benefits in medicine. «
We will further strengthen our commitment to climate protection. We aim to halve our direct and indirect CO2 emissions by 2030 and to become climate-neutral by 2040. We also intend to improve the measurability of our progress: Therefore, we are defining Group-wide performance indicators to track the impact of our emissions, including in both the upstream and downstream value chain.
For the first time, we are reporting on how our business activities contribute to climate change mitigation. We can make an important contribution through our capital expenditures for constructing and renovating hospitals and clinics. Accordingly, we will ensure that this spending increasingly conforms with demanding European Union taxonomy requirements for “green building.”
We also have further increased transparency in our reporting to include, among other things, our tax compliance and our approaches in clinical research and innovative treatment management.
I wish you interesting and informative reading.
Yours sincerely,
Stephan Sturm
Chairman of the Management Board