Sustainability Report 2016 / 2017

Projects 88 Promoting Biodiversity: Our Projects Werner & Mertz is an ecologically oriented and socially responsible company engaged in many cooperative efforts and projects. Conserving resources, reducing emissions and advocating effective recycling help to improve conditions for biological diversity. Werner & Mertz has supported numerous nature conserva- tion projects for many years. In cooperation and partnership with environmental and nature conservation associations NABU, WWF and others, we concentrate on projects for the preservation or restoration of wetlands, rivers and floodplains near the Rhine, in the Morava-Dyje floodplain in Austria, in France and elsewhere. Biodiversity in Good Company Biodiversity plays a central role in our corporate activities. That’s why Werner & Mertz is a founding member of the initiative “Biodiversity in Good Company” and a member of the board of directors. In 2008 the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety launched the “Business and Biodiversity” initiative with the goal of bringing the subject of biodiversity to the business world. It worked! In 2011 a group of engaged companies assumed responsibility for the initiative and now manage and finance the association without any government funding. The cross-industry initiative includes small and large Ger- man businesses and many international companies too. In the Mission Statement and Leadership Decla- ration, members pledge to integrate the conservation of biodiversity in their corporate management sys- tems. Furthermore, the members serve on political committees to promote more biodiversity initiatives.