Better Health for All

Henkel has expanded its portfolio to include materials for medical wearables such as smart health patches and continuous glucose monitors, enhancing remote health monitoring and diagnostics.

The company was also recognized as a Safer Choice Partner of the Year for laundry detergents with safer ingredients. Henkel conducts safety assessments for new products and technologies. , investigating ingredients for human health hazards, and develops alternative ingredients such as water-based formulations for adhesives. The company has significantly reduced its environmental footprint, which indirectly supports public health, achieving a 64% reduction of CO2 emissions in production per ton of product compared to 2017, a 20% reduction of scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2024 compared to 2021, a 39% reduction in waste per ton of products, and a 23% reduction in water withdrawal compared to 2010. The company does not hold healthcare-related patents or conduct clinical trials.

Fair Money & Economic Opportunity

Henkel AG & Co. KGaA operates in the adhesives, beauty care, and laundry & home care sectors, and is not a financial institution. The provided articles do not contain specific, quantifiable data points related to the company's involvement in lending, insurance, or direct financial services for external customers or communities that align with the quantitative thresholds of the 'Fair Money & Economic Opportunity' KPIs. While Henkel participates in a coalition pledging venture capital investment for start-ups

, this does not constitute a 'loan/insurance book' aimed at low-income, SME, or micro-segments as defined by the 'inclusion_initiatives' KPI. Therefore, all KPIs are omitted due to a lack of directly applicable evidence.

Fair Pay & Worker Respect

Henkel's Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) was 0.24 in 2024, improving from 0.31 in 2023.

The company's employee engagement index was 79% in 2024, a decrease from 82% in 2023. In terms of labor violations, Henkel US Operations Corporation received one OSHA safety violation in 2025 with a penalty of $5,674. Historically, the company has faced $28,742,672 in penalties since 2000, including 23 safety-related and 7 employment-related offenses, with $13,000,000 for employment discrimination. Cal-OSHA cited Henkel for six violations in 2013 following a fatal industrial accident and found 10 violations in 2016 and 2017. Henkel introduced a gender-neutral parental leave policy globally, offering a minimum of eight weeks of fully paid leave , which led to a 30% increase in parental leave uptake. The company also introduced an annual assessment to ensure all employees receive a living wage aligned with local benchmarks. Women hold 42% of management roles.

Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing

Compliance with the cross-sector Code of Conduct of the German Association of Materials Management, Purchasing, and Logistics (BME) is mandatory for all of Henkel’s suppliers worldwide

and serves as the basis for contractual relationships with strategic suppliers . If a corrective action plan for non-compliance is not implemented, Henkel may terminate the supplier relationship . In 2024, Henkel did not receive any notifications of infringements by its strategic business partners that would have led to termination .

Honest & Fair Business

Henkel maintains a gold standard anti-corruption policy with documented effectiveness, including a zero-tolerance stance, a Code of Conduct, and a group-wide compliance system.

This system, which covers all global operations with high-risk assessments and training, was externally audited in 2022 based on ISO 37301, confirming its effectiveness in competition law and anti-corruption. The company has been a UN Global Compact signatory since 2003 and prohibits political donations, with no authorizations given in recent years. Its comprehensive whistleblower policy provides multiple reporting channels, including an anonymous hotline and an external ombudsperson, and explicitly states that retaliation is not tolerated. Whistleblower reports are acknowledged within seven days , and a conclusion or update provided within three months. Over the past three years (2023-2025), Henkel incurred ethics-related regulatory fines totaling $1,987,874.

Kind to Animals

Henkel has a policy prohibiting discretionary animal testing for its cosmetic products (since the late 1980s), hair and body care products, detergents, cleaning products, and adhesives

. However, the company acknowledges that animal testing is still mandatory in some countries for regulatory approval , and it cannot rule out that ingredients were tested on animals by suppliers prior to market introduction . For over 40 years, Henkel has been committed to developing and using alternative testing methods , including in vitro skin models (Phenion) for safety assessments and product development across all three business areas . Henkel founded the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA) in 2005 and is a founding member of the International Collaboration on Cosmetics Safety (ICCS) established in 2022 . The company also works with national and international associations to convince authorities to cease mandatory animal testing and makes its expertise available to legislators to promote the acceptance of alternative test methods .

No War, No Weapons

Henkel's implementation of due diligence obligations is guided by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The company maintains a zero-tolerance policy for sourcing from regions with military conflicts. For conflict minerals (tin, tungsten, tantalum, gold), Henkel conducts supply chain due diligence in accordance with OECD Guidance, EU Regulation, and the Dodd-Frank Act. , , , They utilize the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) Conflict Minerals Reporting Template and third-party auditors. There is no indication that Henkel's products contain minerals that directly or indirectly finance armed groups. The company has served the defense market since the 1950s, developing adhesives, sealants, coatings, and surface treatments for military applications. In April 2023, Henkel sold its Russian business activities for 600 million euros. Additionally, Henkel provides humanitarian aid to Ukraine and neighboring countries and has integration initiatives for refugees.

Planet-Friendly Business

Henkel's near-term and net-zero climate targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and are in line with its Corporate Net-Zero Standard.

By the end of 2024, 47% of the company's purchased electricity was from renewable sources. The proportion of recycled plastic in its consumer goods packaging was 25% globally by the end of 2024. In fiscal year 2024, 97% of total demand for palm oil and palm kernel oil was sourced as certified raw materials. Henkel aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, with interim targets to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 42% and Scope 3 GHG emissions by 30% by 2030, both compared to a 2021 baseline.

Respect for Cultures & Communities

Henkel has established numerous formal partnerships with local and indigenous community groups, supporting over 30 non-profit organizations such as Boys & Girls Clubs and Habitat for Humanity.

Additionally, the company has 4 specific partnerships with organizations like the United Negro College Fund and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society to support Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous students. Henkel also collaborates with Solidaridad to support smallholder farmers in Colombia. No cultural appropriation incidents have been reported. The company provides sustainability reports in multiple languages, including English, German, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Serbian, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, demonstrating strong local language support in communications. Henkel also has a process and case-specific protocol to deal with incidents and compliance issues for internal and external stakeholders.

Safe & Smart Tech

Henkel's regulatory compliance shows significant gaps, evidenced by a January 2023 lawsuit alleging violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) for collecting facial geometry data without proper consent

. Further, 2023 California privacy request metrics reveal low compliance rates for user data control, with only 20% of access requests, 50% of deletion requests, and 53% of opt-out requests being fulfilled . In contrast, the company demonstrates strong data minimization practices, storing IP addresses and usage data for a maximum of 7 days and deleting or anonymizing it when no longer needed . Regarding data breaches, Henkel confirmed being affected by "Winnti" malware in 2018 , but stated that no sensitive information was lost , indicating no data loss incidents in the past eight years.

Zero Waste & Sustainable Products

By the end of 2024, 89% of Henkel's packaging was designed for recycling or reuse.

The company achieved 25% recycled plastic content in its consumer goods packaging by the end of 2024. Henkel has set company-wide waste reduction targets, including aiming for 100% of its packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2025, reducing virgin plastics from fossil sources in consumer products by 50% by 2025, and increasing recycled plastic content to over 30% by 2025. Henkel implements numerous waste reduction initiatives, such as launching a RE-product range of adhesives to improve packaging recyclability , introducing carbon-negative hot melt adhesives , developing solutions that can reduce plastic film consumption in palletizing by up to 90% , and operating refill systems for shampoo, soap, and detergent . The company's collaboration with Plastic Bank for sustainable cosmetic packaging won top honors in the 2020 Packaging Innovation Awards. Henkel has a GreenCircle Zero Waste to Landfill certification at its West Hazleton, PA facility. The company intends to discontinue the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other potentially harmful substances , with PVC currently making up less than 0.02% of packaging expenditure. Circular design principles are applied to several product categories, and Henkel has a Design for Sustainability program. For customer education, Henkel is developing new logos for product packaging to communicate recycling instructions and has partnered with the How2Recycle® label program.