In the debate about progress in society as a whole, the concept of sustainability plays a central role. The basis of sustainable development is to keep a balance between economic, ecological and social considerations. For Bayer, this entails in specific terms a commitment to safeguard the long-term commercial success of the company through innovative products, conserve resources, treat the environment responsibly and make a global contribution to maintaining a humane society. For this reason, we have developed special management structures and strategies, set ourselves objectives against which we allow ourselves to be judged and endeavor to report transparently. In our annual Sustainable Development Report we inform, for example, on how we put into practice our commitment to the ten principles of the UN Global Compact. In so doing, we alignourselves to the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Our reporting is based on our dialogue with our stakeholders, who include employees, customers, suppliers and investors. Of equal importance to Bayer are the interests of our direct neighbors at our sites and of non- governmental organizations (NGOs), public administration and politicians, and representatives of academia. The goal of our dialogue is to familiarize ourselves with the information needs of our stakeholders and to take account of these in our sustainability projects.