Sustainability Organisation and Dialogue

A Sustainability Council headed by the Chairman of the Executive Board is responsible for sustainability strategy. The Council comprises managers from within the Group as well as the external expert Prof. Schaltegger from the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. This body provides a forum for discussing and approving sustainability issues and measures across the Group, as well as for regularly evaluating and updating the existing stakeholder structure. At Group level, the sustainability team reports directly to the Chairman of the Executive Board.

HHLA engages in regular dialogue with its stakeholders, who include customers (e.g. shipping companies), customers’ customers (e.g. forwarders), employees and their families, suppliers, potential and existing shareholders and investors, associations and institutions, research institutes, political decision makers, NGOs, local residents close to the terminals and interested members of the public. The Annual Report is an established medium which supplements this regular dialogue and takes the stakeholder groups’ interests into account.