As a global company, we believe that profitability has to go hand in hand with compliance with laws and regulations, and a sense of responsibility toward our employees and the environment. For this reason, we have established clear guidelines for employee conduct in these areas.
Our strategic planning and day-to-day business practices comply with strict ethical and legal standards. Our Business Conduct Guidelines, which govern internal cooperation as well as behavior vis-à-vis external partners, are binding for all Siemens employees as well as the Managing and Supervisory Boards and require compliance with the law, mutual respect, honesty and integrity. As a uniform code of behavior, our Business Conduct Guidelines are the core of our Compliance Program. In January 2009, we revised and expanded our Guidelines from the ground up. For example, we considerably broadened the rules for dealing with business partners.
Siemens’ Code of Ethics for Financial Matters was introduced in 2002 as a consequence of Section 406 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Code combines Siemens’ regulations regarding the proper handling of financial matters – for example, Siemens’ traditional “four eyes principle” – into one document. It applies not only to the company’s CEO and CFO but also to every Siemens employee involved in business administration.
The men and women who work at Siemens come from many different nations and age groups. They differ in skin color, culture, religion and ethnic and social background. Working in multinational and multicultural teams, they leverage a wide variety of perspectives to increase the wealth of ideas in our company. The Guiding Principles for Promoting and Managing Diversity have been binding for Siemens worldwide since 2001.
In order to meet our social and business responsibilities, we protect the environment and human health and use natural resources sparingly. This applies to every company unit in every country where we are active. We not only comply with the relevant laws and regulations, but also set our own standards. The “Principles Environmental Protection, Health Management and Safety (EHS)” provide the organizational framework for this. Consequently, our Policy for Environmental Protection, Health Management and Safety is an essential part of these guidelines. This policy describes our approach to these areas and forms the basis of our commitment to act proactively.
"As a global company we are facing special responsibility for worldwide long-term challenges such as demographic change, climate change and diminishing resources. Sustainability is the key to securing our company’s future. Our commitment to being a socially responsible company requires that we meet the demands of commerce in an ecologically and socially sound manner. Hence, achieving excellence for Environmental Protection, Health Management and Safety is a high priority within Siemens. A demonstrated commitment will increase the competitive advantage of businesses and our customers, and lay the foundation for a successful future.
Siemens strives through our innovative products, systems and solutions to improve the quality of life the world over. This includes high energy efficiency for climate protection, supply of clean water, health protection, and environmentally compatible transportation systems. For this, we consider the entire product lifecycle.
We design, develop, manufacture and market our products and services so as to protect the environment and human health in a manner that meets or exceeds any applicable regulations, and in order to minimize the impact on our natural resources. We design our working conditions in ways that safeguard our employees’ performance, safety, health, motivation and satisfaction.
Environmental Protection, Health Management and Safety contribute towards human health and the company’s assets. Our global system for managing EHS is the basis for continuous improvement of our performance on these areas.
All managers and employees act in accordance with this policy and observe the relevant regulations."