tesa recently released its 2020 Sustainability Report, which presents its agenda for greater sustainability. The company reports that it considers sustainable action, production, and management essential aspects of its strategic perspective and has once again increased its efforts accordingly. Last year, tesa hailed "sustainable growth" as a key component of its corporate strategy. The core element is the new Sustainability Agenda, which serves as a blueprint to align the tesa business responsibly as well as holistically along the entire value chain. Subdivided into three areas (Environment, Customers, and Society), the agenda contains specific goals and measures that are explained in the 48-page Sustainability Report 2020.

"We've come a good step closer to our goal of operating climate-neutrally by 2050: Between 2018 and 2020, we managed to reduce our energy-related CO₂ emissions by 23%," said Norman Goldberg, Ph.D., CEO of tesa SE. "Since the end of 2020, all tesa offices and production locations worldwide receive 100% of their electricity from renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind energy or hydropower. Moreover, in 2020 we joined the initiative Business Ambition for 1.5°C."

An example of an adhesive solution that helps tesa customers in the electronics industry to be more environmentally conscious is reportedly the tesa^® Bond & Detach products. Thanks to these tapes, different smartphone components, such as the battery, can be firmly bonded and then removed without residue for repair purposes or at the end of the device's service life. This simplifies recycling and saves resources. Over the past few years, more than 1.5 billion smartphones worldwide have been equipped with tesa Bond & Detach.

tesa also announced that Stefan Röber, Ph.D., has been named its new chief sustainability officer, effective April 1. He has served as the head of tesa Product and Technology Development for the past 14 years.

"Our current portfolio is quite impressive," Röber said. "At the moment, we have almost 50 active projects which explicitly support sustainable action in product and technology development: two thirds at product level and one third at technology level. The spectrum ranges from tapes with adhesives made from bio-based monomers for smartphones to adhesive packaging tapes that can simply be disposed in the compost after use."

According to Goldberg, "The different facets of sustainability will become increasingly relevant and turn into an even more significant competitive factor. We are therefore very pleased that Dr. Stefan Röber and his 500-strong international team of experienced product developers and engineers will drive the topic forward. Especially since there are great synergies between sustainability and product and technology development."

A separate chapter in the tesa Sustainability Report is dedicated to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spring of 2020, the company reports that it decided to make €5 million (approximately $6 million) available to alleviate the need where it was greatest. Donations from the tesa Group are connected to the Beiersdorf Group's Care Beyond Skin aid program. The executive and supervisory boards at tesa also decided to support the global COVID-19 crisis funds run by Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children. Moreover, tesa donates in seven regions to local organizations selected directly by the affiliates.

Learn more at www.tesa.com.