Since 2011, Bertelsmann’s Corporate Responsibility (CR) reporting has followed the international standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the world’s leading framework for sustainability reporting by international companies and organizations, and known since 2016 as the GRI Standards. This report was created in accordance with the GRI Standards: Core option. Supplementary information in conformity with the sector-specific Media Sector Disclosures (MSD) are also included. Hyperlinks lead to further information, facts and figures about the responsible conduct of Bertelsmann and its corporate divisions on the Bertelsmann Website. The report’s content was selected based on a relevance analysis carried out with internal and external stakeholders to determine the CR priorities of Bertelsmann.

Bertelsmann also fulfills its obligation to produce an annual Communication on Progress as a participant in the UN Global Compact with its GRI reporting. A separate column in the table highlights the relevant reporting content for each principle.

In March 2022, Bertelsmann also published a Combined Non-Financial Statement in the Bertelsmann Annual Report 2021 (pp. 44-52), which complies with the German CSR Directive Implementation Act.