Vision. The objective of SOLARWORLD AG is the worldwide establishment of a reliable, environmentally friendly and safe energy supply. Solar energy is the key to resource and climate protection; it contributes to the avoidance of military conflicts through growing independence from fossil resources. We are working on making solar power generation competitive in all markets as quickly as possible and at making the decentralized use of solar energy possible for all people, thus gaining an opportunity for sustainable development.
Steering and control. The group strategy and the resulting group objectives are determined by the SOLARWORLD Management Board. The review, control and further development of our strategic objectives take place in the course of the year during regular strategic meetings attended by the Management Board members and the General Managers of the subsidiary companies. In the “Ethics Council” established in 2007, projects with an emphasis on ethics and sustainability are discussed, further developed and approved. The goals for the business units are then derived from the decisions taken by the top level decision-making bodies.
Organization Chart Management and Control
The Target/Actual Comparison Check of financial control indicators performed by our group-wide Investment Controlling, including a report to the Management Board, makes sure that developments are spotted at an early point in time, that appropriate measures can be initiated, and that targets can be adjusted to changing market and corporate developments.
As an instrument of strategy implementation we further developed the indicator-based control instrument of the Sustainable Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) in 2008. In some areas, we are already steering the company according to the targets and indicators of the SBSC today. We will continue to develop and implement the SBSC beyond 2008, the period of review.
As sustainability is an integral part of the SOLARWORLD corporate strategy, the SBSC includes both economic targets (financial control indicators: sales, EBIT, ROCE) and ecological and social aspects (non-financial control indicators: customer satisfaction, employee identification, CO2eq, etc.). In 2008 this involved the definition of group-wide top level targets, performance drivers, measures and indicators in close cooperation with the functional units.
SOLARWORLD SBSC has five perspectives that directly build on one another: Finance, Customers, Processes, Employees, Society.
The cascaded interlinking of the perspectives guarantees that the causal effects of individual factors on long-term success are taken into consideration. In the transition between the perspectives an answer is given to the question as to how the identified strategic targets and performance drivers of the respective higher perspectives can be achieved. In this way we integrate all the factors mentioned into our economic corporate management through cause-and-effect chains.
Sustainability Management at SOLARWORLD AG
The tools of the SOLARWORLD Sustainability Management are directly linked to other management instruments in which a Target/Actual Comparison Check of financial and non-financial control indicators was performed in the year 2008:
The Total Productive Management tool serves continuous process optimization in the group and contributes to accelerated innovation. Thus, it is linked directly to the process perspective and indirectly to the customer perspective. Total Productive Management will make it possible that, by way of cost reduction along the entire value chain and an increase in product efficiency, we will reach grid parity in a few years’ time.
Quality management is closely related to the customer perspective. The supreme objective: to offer customers a high quality product that meets their requirements and is easy to handle. The Code of Conduct (under development) contains sections on the topics of product quality and supplier contracts. In addition, SOLARWORLD is developing a Suppliers’ Code, which should be adopted in 2009.
Customer Relationship Management is also part of the customer perspective: We want to offer our customers the best possible service and meet their specific wishes. In our own Code of Conduct the rules regarding how to deal with our business partners are clearly laid out.
Environmental Management is closely linked to the process perspective as our production – in contrast to our administration – has a much greater impact on the environment. This is why we set ourselves internal targets for resource utilization in the areas of energy, water, waste and CO2eq emissions that go well beyond the legal requirements. A whole section in our code of Conduct is dedicated to the topic of environmental and resource protection.
Our Health and Safety Management is associated with both the process perspective and the employee perspective. As a result, we make sure that the health of our employees is always protected in the best possible way at work. The Code of Conduct contains sections on Health and Safety. Reference is also made to business unit and site specific manuals on these topics.
Risk Management is an instrument that covers all business segments. Risks are recorded in all departments group-wide and can thus concern all the perspectives of SBSC. In turn, risks can also be identified by means of SBSC early indicators. The Code of Conduct deals in detail with topics such as preventing and fighting corruption as well as other aspects of good corporate management (corporate governance).
Sustainable corporate development requires ethical behavior. The ten guidelines of the SOLARWORLD Ethics were prepared in 2008 and are to be approved by top management early in the new fiscal year. They are intended to offer guidance to all our employees. In addition, the group-wide Code of Conduct is to provide our employees with recommendations for concrete action. www.solarworld.de/sustainability
Internal targets achieved and targets set for 2008/2009+
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