About this report

Iron ore

Report parameters

All the facts and figures contained in this report refer to the entire voestalpine Group. The economic key figures and employee data encompass all of the Group’s consolidated companies. When compiling the environmental performance indicators, all of the voestalpine manufacturing companies, i.e., those companies that process, convert, or treat a product, in which voestalpine has a stake greater than 50%, were included. Sustainability impacts along the value chain that occur outside of voestalpine premises and beyond the Group’s direct sphere of influence are only partially addressed in this report.

Report content

The content of the report, the issues and aspects addressed therein, and the associated measures implemented that voestalpine is reporting on were defined in accordance with their significance. Both external and internal stakeholders were included in the process of determining the content of the report (see Stakeholder and material topics).

Reporting period

The voestalpine business year is from April 1 to March 31. The reporting period for the economic key figures and employee data comprises the business years 2014/15 and 2015/16; the environmental data refers to the 2014 and 2015 calendar years. As a result, the reporting period continues seamlessly where the previous report (CR Report 2013) left off. In order to improve comparability and to make the Group’s performance over time more clear, the tables depict the key figures of the last five business and/or calendar years.

Reporting cycle

voestalpine publishes a comprehensive CR Report every two years. In the years between reports, the most important facts and figures of the past business and/or calendar year are published in the voestalpine CR Fact Sheet to keep information current. This annual reporting cycle and the alternating cycle of CR Report and CR Fact Sheet will be maintained in the future.

Statutory requirements and voluntary guidelines

The present voestalpine CR Report was prepared in accordance the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reporting guidelines (Version G4, “core” option). The Global Reporting Initiative was established in 1997, and the guidelines it has set forth have been internationally recognized as the standard for sustainability reporting. Reporting in accordance with the GRI guidelines is not mandatory for voestalpine.

voestalpine has been a participating company of the United Nations (UN) Global Compact since 2013. The initiative calls on companies around the world to implement ten principles covering the areas of human rights, labor standards, the environment, and anti-corruption. This CR Report documents the objectives, measures, and results of voestalpine’s efforts to implement these ten principles in its corporate practice, and it is therefore a progress report on the implementation of the principles of the UN Global Compact.

As soon as the EU Directive 2014/95/EU (NFI Directive) has been implemented as Austrian law at the end of 2016, certain large companies will be obligated to disclose non-financial and diversity information. voestalpine will be one of the companies impacted by the NFI Directive. The associated disclosure obligations are already being fulfilled by voestalpine’s established CR reporting (report and fact sheet).

Languages

The Corporate Responsibility Report is available in German and English. The Corporate Responsibility Fact Sheet is available in 14 languages.