For us, sustainability means a commitment to responsible and transparent corporate governance geared to lasting success. With this in mind, in 2011 we drew up a sustainability strategy for the first time. We specify here in more concrete detail the higher-order corporate strategy of the Group with an eye to sustainability considerations and commit explicitly to our strategic objective of sustainable value creation. Parallel to our Group strategy, the sustainability strategy is revisited every three years. The considerable importance attached to sustainability issues is reflected in the associated responsibility within the company: the sustainability strategy, goals and measures are reviewed and approved by both the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board.
Our stakeholder universe was defined as part of the elaboration of the sustainability strategy. The selection of relevant stakeholders is determined by our business activities and our geographical presence, and it is regularly reconciled with representatives of the business centres. Particularly important stakeholder groups for our company are as follows: clients, employees, the capital market, the public sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
In 2017 we reviewed our corporate and sustainability strategy in keeping with our three-year strategy cycle. In conformity with the Group Strategy, the sustainability goals that had been set for the strategy cycle just ended were revisited and modified to reflect the current need for action. The materiality analysis was also updated. Our Sustainability Strategy for the years 2018 to 2020 defines four action fields.
In the context of our Sustainability Report we discuss the individual action fields at length in the following sections, describe the material topics and elaborate on our goals and measures.