Exchanges with internationally recognized sustainability experts play a special role in Henkel’s dialogue with its stakeholders. For its 2004 and 2005 Sustainability Reports, we asked experts from Brazil, China, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, and the USA to describe the challenges and priorities they see in their countries and regions. We chose these experts on the basis of their knowledge of the challenges their countries face and their experience in corporate sustainability management.

In the meantime, the experts in Italy and Mexico have continued their dialogue with the local Henkel managers. We were thus able to compare our views of the challenges with those of the experts. And the experts were able to gain greater insight into the Company’s activities and ideas. This dialogue helps us to adjust our alignment to sustainable development and social responsibility to reflect external expectations in the different regions, and to find the right answers – especially when it comes to developing appropriate solutions at the local level.

Collectively, the experts’ contributions present a balanced picture of the key issues in emerging economies and industrialized countries. It is clear that, while many of the challenges of sustainable development are similar everywhere, priorities and perspectives differ widely from region to region. Emerging economies, in particular, expect multinationals to contribute to the development of their countries. In industrialized countries, in contrast, maintaining competitiveness is increasingly becoming a key challenge. The table presents the results of our dialogue with the experts in condensed form and gives concrete examples of the varied expectations.

Based on the results of the dialogue, we have developed our Sustainability Reporting still further. The new reporting structure directly reflects the key areas identified in the dialogue and indicates the Company’s responses to the different regional and global challenges. This approach is intended to emphasize how seriously we take our corporate responsibilities and contribute to sustainable development.

The above table presents a summary of the results of the expert dialogue and offers specific examples of the regionally differing expectations. The detailed version of the expert statements are provided below: