As a globally active company, it is of great importance for Zeppelin’s business success to have an open and constructive dialog with all stakeholders. This helps us to build trusting relationships, deepen partnerships and learn about sustainability-related requirements for our business. Together with stakeholders, we identify sustainability topics relevant to Zeppelin, assess their urgency, and define action areas for ongoing improvements.
| Stakeholders | Channels | Frequency and material topics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal | |||
| Works Council | Direct | Involvement in specific projects such as New Work | |
| Employees including subsidiaries/SBUs | Intranet, internal social network, newsletter, idea management, training courses, employee opinion survey, and town hall meetings | Feedback/sentiment, strategy and focus topics, sustainable developments, and CSR knowledge transfer | |
| Sustainability management | Steering committees, CSR status update, Intranet, newsletter, jour fixes, direct | Requirements, objectives and implementation of measures, progress and challenges | |
| Shareholders/bodies | |||
| Supervisory Board | Reporting by the Management Board, Management Board directly, surveys and interviews (stakeholder dialog) | Monthly reports, three regular Supervisory Board meetings annually; CSR status quo and progress | |
| Board of Trustees of the Zeppelin Foundation | Reporting | Quarterly reporting by the Chairman of the Management Board | |
| Friedrichshafen Municipal Council as company representative | Reporting, surveys and interviews (stakeholder dialog) | Annual reporting on the annual financial statements, special reporting on topics relevant to shareholders | |
| External | |||
| Customers | Direct, customer visits, trade fairs, stakeholder dialog, customer inquiries (including direct, EcoVadis, and social media) | Products and services, sustainability indicators and measures | |
| Caterpillar | Direct, stakeholder dialog | Work with Caterpillar to create customized solutions, participate in training, address product and market requirements | |
| Suppliers | Direct, stakeholder dialog | Exchange and cooperation with suppliers | |
| Government & authorities | Direct, stakeholder dialog | Direct, stakeholder dialog, legal cadastral register, communication on specific topics (trade associations, trade supervisory office, and environmental office) | |
| Financing partners and investors | Bankers Day, press conference on financial statements, investor conferences, and stakeholder dialog | Regular dialog on financing topics | |
| Associations | Direct, stakeholder dialog | Active work in associations | |
| Science | Direct, stakeholder dialog | Projects with universities, lectures, seminars, discussion panels, and founder of the Zeppelin University Foundation |
Based on stakeholder surveys and SWOT analyses, the materiality matrix was created for the first time in 2016 and continually updated and revised over the years. The identification of the material topics took into account both the recommendations of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards 2021 and the requirements of the future Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (refer to section 4.8).
