2025 TCFD Index

Our sustainability governance is designed to embed environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects into core decision-making. We have defined responsibilities and processes to support the integration of sustainability into our operations and strategy.

The Management Board is responsible for managing the Company with the goal of achieving sustainable value creation. Our Supervisory Board oversees the management of the Company by the Management Board, advises the Management Board, and is involved in fundamental decisions. The supervision and advice it provides cover sustainability matters. We have defined responsibilities and processes to support the integration of sustainability into our operations and strategy. We focus on effective sustainability management to create lasting economic, ecological, and social value. Key elements include implementing long-term strategies, as well as legal and ethical compliance. For detailed information on governance, roles, and responsibilities for impacts, risks, and opportunities, see section "Sustainability Governance" in chapter "Sustainability Management" in the Sustainability Statement.

The Global Sustainability department drives our strategic sustainability activities. It manages initiatives in close cooperation with relevant teams from the business segments and global functions. The Global Head of Sustainability provides regular updates to the Management Board and Supervisory Board on the progress on sustainability initiatives and target achievements. Formal cross-functional project steering committees, project teams, and expert networks support the implementation of sustainability projects. As part of our enterprise risk management, the Corporate Risk Committee analyzes and discusses key risks, including those related to sustainability. The results are compiled bi-annually and shared with the Management Board.

The Corporate Sustainability Committee comprises senior representatives from the business segments and global functions, appointed by the Management Board. This committee is primarily responsible for operational aspects and projects that may require broader senior leadership guidance.

The Management Board and Supervisory Board, including the Audit Committee, receive regular updates on material developments and strategic initiatives in environmental, social, and governance aspects. They are informed about material sustainability impacts, risks, and opportunities. Updates on related topics and initiatives are provided by the responsible function or segment heads. Depending on the topic, updates are provided monthly, quarterly or annually, while some are addressed on an ad hoc basis. ESG aspects related to relevant processes, such as corporate risk management and internal audits, are part of these updates. Impacts, risks, and opportunities are also discussed in updates on material sustainability focus areas tied to global targets, customer and investor requirements, and regulatory developments. Risk mitigation and trade-offs, for example, the profit and loss (P&L) impact of sustainability initiatives, are also considered.

We monitor and assess sustainability impacts, risks, and opportunities as part of our business operations, due diligence, and corporate risk management processes. Our corporate risk assessment is conducted twice per year. It is based on a catalog of potential risks, which are reviewed in each cycle and include sustainability risks. We have implemented a process to assess sustainability opportunities and monitor negative impacts on people and the environment as part of our corporate risk management system.

The Management Board receives risk assessment results bi-annually, along with an annual update on risks on people and environment. The Audit Committee of the Supervisory Board monitors the effectiveness of the risk management system. In addition to corporate risk management process, various functions conduct regular or annual risk assessments to support our ongoing due diligence processes. This applies in particular to the Compliance, Procurement, Human Rights, IT, and environmental management teams. Descriptions of these assessments can be found in the topical chapters and the "Double materiality assessment" section above.

In the chapter "Risk and Opportunities Report," we disclose relevant short-term and medium-term risks, along with a detailed description of our corporate risk management process, mitigation strategies, and related controls.

The material impacts, risks, and opportunities related to climate change were identified through a double materiality assessment. This includes our impact on climate change resulting from business operations and our value chain. These factors are also regularly reviewed as part of the risk management process.

For detailed information see environment chapters in the Sustainability Statement.

For more information on the impact of climate related risks and opportunities, please see section "Assessment related to climate change" in the Sustainability Statement.

For more information on resilience against climate related risks, please see sections "Climate Scenario Analysis" & "Resilience Analysis" in the chapter "Sustainability Management" in the Sustainability Statement.

We monitor and assess sustainability impacts, risks, and opportunities as part of our business operations, due diligence, and corporate risk management processes. Our corporate risk assessment is conducted twice per year. It is based on a catalog of potential risks, which are reviewed in each cycle and include sustainability risks. We have implemented a process to assess sustainability opportunities and monitor negative impacts on people and the environment as part of our corporate risk management system.

The Management Board receives risk assessment results bi-annually, along with an annual update on risks on people and environment. The Audit Committee of the Supervisory Board monitors the effectiveness of the risk management system.

In addition to corporate risk management process, various functions conduct regular or annual risk assessments to support our ongoing due diligence processes. This applies in particular to the Compliance, Procurement, Human Rights, IT, and environmental management teams. Descriptions of these assessments can be found in the topical chapters and the "Double materiality assessment"section.

In the chapter "Risk and Opportunities Report," we disclose relevant short-term and medium-term risks, along with a detailed description of our corporate risk management process, mitigation strategies, and related controls.

We monitor and assess sustainability impacts, risks, and opportunities as part of our business operations, due diligence, and corporate risk management processes. Our corporate risk assessment is conducted twice per year and is based on a catalog of potential risks, including sustainability risks, which are reviewed in each cycle. We have implemented a process to assess sustainability opportunities and monitor negative impacts on people and the environment as part of our corporate risk management system. In chapter "Risks and Opportunities Report", we disclose the identified relevant short-term and medium-term corporate risks.

For more information on the resilience against climate related risks please see sections "Climate Scenario Analysis" & "Resilience Analysis" in chapter "Climate Change" in the Sustainability Statement.

For detailed information, please see environment chapters in the Sustainability Statement.

The structure of the internal risk management system is based on the internationally recognized framework for company-wide risk management, the "Enterprise Risk Management - Integrated Framework" of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). The sustainability-related risk and opportunity management is part of the internal risk management system.

For further information on the approach to sustainability-related risks and opportunities, see section “Risks and Opportunity Management” in chapter “Sustainability Management” in the “Sustainability Statement”.

Our environmental management approach is key to mitigating environmental impacts and addressing risks and opportunities. It includes continuous monitoring of national and international regulations to ensure compliance and align with evolving requirements. We have established internal environmental standards, complemented by external certifications such as ISO 14001 and ISO 50001, where necessary or appropriate.

Our production sites, distribution centers, laboratories and dialysis clinics are subject to internal and external audits to verify compliance with environmental laws, local regulations, certifications, and internal guidelines.

We use both location-based and market-based methods based on the residual mix that quantify emissions based on emission factors per country. We calculate our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions following the methodology of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. For the calculation of Scope 1 emissions, we use the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA’s) latest version of this guidance. We use International Energy Agency (IEA) emission factors, Reliable disclosure systems for Europe (RE-DISS) Residual European Mix as well as US Residual Mix (Green-e Energy Emissions Rates) for electricity consumption to calculate indirect emissions from electricity.

For more environmental metrics used, see our Sustainability Statement as well as our ESG Performance Data.

Scope 1: 365,205 tCO2e

Scope 2 (location based): 418,826 tCO2e

Scope 2 (market based): 284,402 tCO2e

Scope 3: 3,088,611 tCO2e

For more information on the impact of climate related risks and opportunities, please see section "Assessment related to climate change" in the Sustainability Statement.

For detailed information, please see environment chapters in the Sustainability Statement.

We aim to achieve climate neutrality in our operations globally by 2040 (90% reduction of marked-based Scope 1 and Scope 2 compared to base year 2020), excludes the use of carbon credits). By 2030, our objective is to reduce our combined direct (Scope 1) and indirect (Scope 2) market-based GHG emissions by 50% compared to our 2020 base year emissions (915,732 tCO₂e). Our global targets are developed using the guidance of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard published in March 2024) for achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C.

In 2025, we reduced our market-based Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 29% compared to our baseline. With this, we continue to achieve a minimum annual average reduction of 5,8% to be on track to meet our 2030 emission reduction target.