Providing information about sustainability

Stakeholder dialogue

Maintaining a dialogue with our stakeholders plays a key role in our success. In terms of sustainability, this means creating transparency in our performance and progress, actively providing information about key topics, and addressing societal developments and requirements in a timely manner. This allows us to continuously improve and increase confidence and trust in our company.

We embrace dialogue with our stakeholders and make use of various opportunities and formats to this end. For example, we invite stakeholders to events at MTU such as the 40th anniversary of MTU Maintenance Hannover last year, as pictured here.

We strive to conduct a proactive, mutually supportive dialogue with our key stakeholders. We pursue this dialogue regularly, with the actual frequency determined by the need for communication and/or information. Our aim is to achieve wide societal acceptance for our business activities and to provide information about the challenges, developments and technologies relating to sustainable aviation. This stakeholder dialogue also gives us the opportunity to respond to suggestions, expectations and feedback and act on new topics in good time. It helps us evaluate how our activities and products are affecting the environment and society in general. → Materiality analysis

Stakeholders are individuals, groups or organizations that have a regular relationship with MTU. Our key stakeholders are employees, customers, business partners, suppliers and shareholders. We are also in continuous dialogue with scientists, researchers, analysts, journalists, politicians, associations, NGOs, employee representatives, neighbors and communities.

Dialogue with shareholders:  At the Annual General Meeting (left) and Investor Day, we provided information about MTU’s business development and answered shareholders’ questions.

Communication with our stakeholders takes place over various channels and platforms so we can incorporate their interests and feedback. This dialogue is mostly tailored to the target group or a specific topic. We use an online survey available on our website to invite all stakeholders to discuss our sustainability strategy. In 2019, we collected and evaluated just under 250 responses, while expanding the survey to include questions about our efforts to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals. At our locations, we pursue a direct dialogue with the general public, for instance with community representatives, neighbors and other interest groups.

In 2019, key sustainability topics we addressed in our stakeholder dialogue included climate action and environmental protection in the aviation industry—in particular CO₂ emissions from products and production—sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), human rights (especially in the supply chain), sustainable finance as well as social topics such as diversity. We are also stepping up our use of social media channels to communicate about sustainability topics and we now post on Twitter and Instagram in addition to Facebook, LinkedIn and Xing. MTU currently has some 55,000 followers, and this figure continues to rise. In the reporting year, we also held a Sky Lounge on “sustainable flight” with representatives from politics, industry and associations and plan to do so again in 2020.

Industry dialogue: MTU took part in the National Aviation Conference 2019 in Leipzig (left). At the Paris Air Show, we provided visitors to our booth with information about our activities and concepts.

Our stakeholder groups and dialogue platforms

Political dialogue

MTU takes no party political position as a matter of principle. We purposely cultivate relationships with parties and factions on certain topics, as aviation is affected to no small degree by political decision-making, especially at the national and European levels. Our key points of contact include elected representatives and decision-makers from ministries at the state, federal and EU levels as well as from subordinate authorities and the German Armed Forces. To ensure transparency and adherence to external and internal regulations, the company’s political dialogue is managed centrally by the Group Representation Office of the Corporate Communications department. Topics of discussion with political decision-makers included innovation, technology development and funding, eco-efficiency in 2019, focusing on climate and flight as well as SAFs, the relevance of air traffic to society, site development, economic and labor market policy, and export of goods. We pursue our industry-specific interests through memberships in various professional associations. → Overview of our memberships in the GRI index under Organizational profile 

We do not make any financial or in-kind donations to political parties. All interactions in the political arena are carried out in compliance with the applicable legal and regulatory requirements and with our Code of Conduct, and must be granted central approval. Mandatory requirements are stipulated in our compliance management system and Code of Conduct, including those relating to donations, sponsorship, customer events, in-house events, hospitality and corporate gifts. Compliance with these rules and regulations is the responsibility of the relevant manager in each case and is ensured by means of an internal monitoring system. → Donations & sponsorship, → Compliance

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