212,000 plastic bottles collected

Sustainability

RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FUTURE

What does sustainability mean for Bayer 04?

Football is of enormous social significance – that was, is and will be the case in the future. For exactly that reason, Bayer 04 have had the target for years of making football sustainable and fit for the future. This happens in three areas: environment, society and club management. Bayer 04 also always gets involved regionally and globally as a locally rooted and internationally famous football club, both inwardly and outwardly. The Werkself thereby accept responsibility in times of sustainability transformation. Bayer 04 want to continue to promote and extend the community influence of football, lead the way as an exemplary enterprise and attractive employer as well as accept ecological challenges to make professional football more environmentally friendly through innovation.

Strategy

Bayer 04 is aware of its responsibility regarding the promotion of sustainability. This challenge is accepted as a significant partner in the region (in particular working with the City of Leverkusen), as a modern company and as a responsible member of the football community. The mission consists of integrating sustainability, in all its respects, as an important aspect in the decision-making process in our operations, in prioritising key subjects and using the charisma and role model function of the club to achieve greater sustainability and to make it attractive and rewarding.

COMPASS UNDER THE CROSS

Based on the club strategy, the sustainability efforts of Bayer 04 also stand for:

Eagerness to succeed – Change. Improvement. Success. Bayer 04 is always working on improvement. Also with sustainability aims, Bayer 04 is working to maximise potential and achieve the best possible results.

Quality – Honesty. Responsibility. Transparency. Bayer 04 accepts responsibility for performance achieved in aiming for sustainability. That includes an honest and transparent approach to action taken. There is no room for green washing under the Cross.

Innovation – Modern. Open. Innovative. With modern structures, open minds and innovative partners, development potential is secured to make professional football under the Cross more environmentally friendly, inclusive and fair.

Affinity – Involvement. Dialogue. Inspiration. Diverse interests groups come together at Bayer 04 and they should be addressed, listen to and involved in the sustainability process. In its function as a role model, Bayer 04 looks to inspire sustainable thinking and action and lead the way by example.

Courage – Challenges. Being constructive. Tenacity. Bayer 04 will be honest, critical and constructive in assessing performance levels. We show courage and tenacity in taking on challenges and following new paths.

Basis

Materiality assessment

The process of materiality assessment has been produced and implemented by an internal working party under the remit of sustainability management at Bayer 04. The results of the analysis serve as a basis for the development of a sustainability strategy. Based on relevant frameworks, a preselection of 29 significant sustainability subjects has been made in the context of professional football in Leverkusen.

The key stakeholders (employees, male and female athletes, fans, local authority, sponsors, associations, media, parent company, management) assess the relevance of subjects for Bayer 04 in terms of materiality.

This produced a ranking of key subjects that the working group set out as the priority focus themes in the subcategories of Environment, Society and Club management. The sustainability strategy was developed taking account of the fundamental club strategy.

Operational Work

An internal working group with expertise from a range of fields regularly confers on sustainability subjects and develops interdepartmental measures in line with the strategic approach. The implementation of planned measures is decided by the sustainability steering committee at the club. The steering committee is made up of members of the management.

The incorporation of sustainability issues is driven through organisational integration into the responsibility of different sections. As part of sustainability reporting and the associated establishment of information flow, a sustainability control body is being set up to pursue and assess these aims in future.

Sustainability report

Bayer 04 Leverkusen has published its sustainability report for 2023.

The 80-page report shows the range of work of Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH in the fields of environment, society and club management. The report also provides a detailed insight into the many sustainability measures taken by the double winners as well as future targets and projects at the club. The document is available now on the club's media channels.

Fernando Carro, Bayer 04 CEO: "Bayer 04 has already underlined the significance of the subject area with the establishment of the sustainability department in 2022. As an organisation in the spotlight of publicity, we want to make a substantial contribution to social responsibility – the sustainability report documents this awareness in great detail."

In addition to the comprehensive activity and project reports plus strategic considerations in the area of sustainability, the report also contains concrete figures from the reporting year of 2023. These are consciously aligned to the reporting standard VSME ESRS (Voluntary Small and Medium Enterprise European Sustainability Reporting Standards) that was published as a draft by the EFRAG (European Financial Reporting Advisory Group).

Matthias Adler, head of the sustainability department at Bayer 04, said: "A broad body of data basis for reflecting on and maximising processes at the club. The associated process, which all sections at Bayer 04 continue to be involved in, highlights what Bayer 04 is about now – and where we want to be in the future. Our new sustainability strategy will help us with that."

The 2023 sustainability report is available here. In addition, there will be a limited printed edition (both only german version).

Sustainability Report 2023

Areas

Environment

Professional football has high environmental effects. Bayer 04 look for innovative solutions that are better for the environment and always implements them. The club never wants to stop improving.

Society

Bayer 04 sees its local, regional and international endeavours in the area of community issues as a given as the sport of football is by definition a social event. Bayer 04 also sees itself as a responsible employer off the pitch, a committed neighbour and actor for positive cooperation.

Club management

Bayer 04 is not only one of the biggest football clubs in Germany but also a medium-sized enterprise with commitment to the home city of Leverkusen and Bayer AG. That also involves a high standard in terms of integrity and compliance. The club believes in fair play – both on and off the pitch.

News

Social Commitment - 09.10.2025

Jersey competition for a good cause - proceeds go to Leverkusen food bank

Contribute to a good cause and win something special! The Bayer 04 jersey competition is entering its third round: From 10 October and up to and including 29 November, raffle tickets can be purchased for five euros each at the Fanwelt on the south side of the BayArena for the chance to win one of two signed away jerseys. The proceeds from the raffle will be donated to Tafel Leverkusen e.V. as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations.

Social Commitment - 07.10.2025

Bayer 04-HILFT day at the city library: ‘It's impressive what you can achieve together’

Bayer 04 is once again helping out for a good cause this year: For the ninth Bayer 04-HILFT day, a large part of the Werkself workforce once again got involved in a social project in the region. Following the restoration of the outdoor area of a day nursery in 2024, this time the team came together to redesign the indoor and outdoor areas of the Leverkusen City Library with great support from Lebenshilfe-Werkstätten Leverkusen and partner Coca-Cola. Club representative Stefan Kießling and some of the Werkself players were also involved in the project.

Ferdinand Pohl und Nils Gernhardt bei der Aktion BioBrotbox

Social Commitment - 02.09.2025

‘Very important project’ - BioBrotbox campaign with Bayer 04

Bayer 04 has again supported the annual Leverkusen BioBrotbox packing event for the 20th time - this year for the first time in the form of sponsorship. Caroline Kehrer and Juliette Vidal, two players from the Women's team, as well as U19 players Ferdinand Pohl and Nils Gernhardt helped out. A total of 2,016 lunch boxes were packed for first-formers in Leverkusen.

Social Commitment - 04.08.2025

Participation on the big stage – Inklusionswerkself at Genuine World Cup 2025 in the USA

USA – it's common knowledge that everything here is supposed to be a bit bigger: The streets, the shops, the stadiums – and also the moments sometimes. For the Bayer 04 Leverkusen Inklusionswerkself (our team for athletes with intellectual and developmental disabilities) participation in the Genuine World Cup 2025 in Huston was more than just a big tournament. It was an experience that left its mark – from a sporting, human and international perspective.

Bayer 04 - 22.03.2025

Earth Hour: BayArena switches the lights off for the planet

On Saturday 22 March, lights at the BayArena will be switched off from 20:30 to 21:.30 CET. As in previous years, Bayer 04 are again joining in with the climate protection campaign ‘Earth Hour’.

News centre

Projects

Bayer 04 has been committed to a large number of successful projects for years in and around Leverkusen as well as worldwide.

Bayer 04 & Plastiks

For Bayer 04, waste is one of the key topics of its sustainability strategy, which is why the conscious and responsible handling of recyclable materials and their reuse is one of the central goals of the club's sustainability efforts, both in Leverkusen and beyond.

Plastiks, a green tech company with roots in Barcelona, combats greenwashing by making recycling cycles traceable. Plastiks is now active in over 20 countries - including Brazil - in cooperation with local organizations. As part of its collaboration with Plastiks, Bayer 04 supports the company Green Mining in Sao Paulo. Green Mining has been promoting the separation of recyclable materials since 2017. They not only collect around 40 tons of plastic waste per month, but also attach great importance to good working conditions and fair pay.

Bayer 04 is financially supporting the construction of a recycling station by Green Mining and is helping to collect and recycle up to 100,000 kg of plastic waste (equivalent to around 2.9 million 1.5-liter PET bottles). The recycling station provides both a point of contact for selling recyclables to Green Mining and a base for educational work. Plastiks verifies the proper implementation of waste collection and recycling of recyclables using environmentally friendly CELO blockchain technology, thus ensuring the transparency of the joint environmental efforts.

The Bayer 04 shop also donates a portion of the sales of sustainable items to the project. Bayer 04 fans can also participate in the project by making direct donations to the Green Mining Project. A banner on the right-hand side of the screen shows the current progress of the project, which is updated regularly.

Bayer 04-Help-Day

Started as a one-off project in 2015, the 'Bayer 04 HILFT-Tag" day of support is becoming more and more of a traditional event for the Bayer 04 workforce. Every summer a public entity in Leverkusen is given a revamp – very much to the pleasure of all involved.

In cooperation with the City of Leverkusen, the club annually selects a public entity that can be improved in many ways. With the final building work the Bayer 04 staff, the Werkself and the Bayer 04 Women are supported by Lebenshilfe e.V. Leverkusen. The day of action was held at a Leverkusen day nursery in 2015 and 2016. The Opladen driver training course was spruced up in 2017 and in 2018 the players and staff are involved at the Wildpark Reuschenberg. In 2019 it was the turn of the Neuland Park. After a two-year break due to the pandemic, 2022 brought help to the Burgloch allotment society and in 2023 it was the turn of NaturGut Ophoven and this year at a children´s day-care centre.

Simply Football

Since 2010, Bayer 04 have been involved with the network partners in supporting the ‘Einfach Fußball’ project initiated by Bayer AG. At over 20 venues in Germany, intellectually challenged young people have the opportunity to regularly take part in their favourite hobby. A team of coaches from Bayer 04 supports the training sessions at SSV Leverkusen-Alkenrath e.V. as well as in the winter months at the "Liga 20" facility. The focus at the sessions is on fun in sport. Individual training content is led by Young Coaches. They are long-term participants of the programme who have been able to complete additional training.

Bayer 04 Learning Curve

The ‘Bayer 04 Lernkurve’ (Learning curve) set up in 2001 is a programme aimed at linking the areas of education and sport. The provision has been taken up by countless schools in and around Leverkusen covering all age groups and types of school.

The workshops deal with the issues of the ability to work as a team, nutrition, preventing bullying, media skills, racism and sexism. These courses are offered to classes 1 to 10 but working groups can also be booked on a range of themes.

Werkslöwen Actions

Be as close to the players like never before and on the hallowed turf at the BayArena: That is not a problem as part of the Werkslöwen Aktionen. It doesn't matter whether as an active child in the matches ahead of a Bundesliga game, children accompanying the Werkself players onto the pitch or as part of a banner and choreograph team. Visiting the BayArena becomes an unforgettable experience for children and young people of different age groups. Following the events, all groups have the opportunity to watch the Werkself live from the stands.

PRE-MATCH GAMES

Two hours before kick-off at a Bundesliga match, selected teams under the age of nine from Leverkusen have the unique opportunity to play on the hallowed turf at the BayArena. The focus is always on fun for the children.

WERKSELF ESCORTS

Around 500 children per season run onto the pitch with the Werkself and the visiting teams ahead of kick-off at the stadium before Bayer 04 Bundesliga home games. The children have an unforgettable experience on the day. Not just because they accompany Bundesliga stars onto the pitch but also because they meet the Bayer 04 mascot Brian the Lion in person.

BANNER AND CHOREO TEAM

Just before the Werkself games kick-off, the Choreo team waves Bayer 04 flags. The banner team presents the logos of the two clubs on big banners.

Networking

THE FOOTBALL CLUB SOCIAL ALLIANCE (FCSA)

Bayer 04 has been an official member of the Football Club Social Alliance since the end of January 2009. The Alliance is an association of professional football clubs working together on social programmes in areas of conflict and development plus in the field of disability football. The aim is to get involved in supporting children and young people in difficult circumstances using the positive power of football. Working alongside football clubs of the Alliance, Bayer 04 trains teenagers and young adults across the world to be qualified coaches in children’s and disability football. They are known as Young Coaches. Instructors from the professional clubs impart specialist football knowledge as well as social expertise. They inspire the Young Coaches to become involved in sport for disadvantaged children in their areas and have a positive effect on their development. The targeted football projects enable the Football Club Social Alliance to reach thousands of children in Asia, Africa and Europe each year and provide sustainable support in the areas of social expertise, health, education and development.

EUROPEAN FOOTBALL FOR DEVELOPMENT NETWORK (EFDN)

Bayer 04 have been an official member of the European Football for Development Network since the summer of 2015. There are currently 31 European professional clubs under the umbrella of EFDN engaged in range of community activities. The network aims to use football to achieve the target of helping teenagers and adults to integrate and develop regardless of their ethnicity. The international network is designed to enable constructive exchanges between individual members through self-motivated projects. Bayer 04 contributes with its community commitment as a key actor in the network.

Bundesliga moving

Bayer 04 have been active for many years in the area of "healthy and active growing up for children and young people." It is close of the club's heart that children in nurseries or infants schools have a good and continuous offer of exercise in their everyday. The Werkself looks to lead the way as a "good neighbour" and serve as a role model and support for Leverkusen institutions. That is evident in the implementation of concrete measures for children and young people for example at the Catholic kindergarten St. Josef in Manfort-Leverkusen.

The project "Bundesliga bewegtt" aims to give every child the opportunity to take part in a low-threshold activities. This is not exclusively targeted at football but is also a general, broad provision of activity that covers the the broadest possible range from motor activity through ball games to catching and running games.

Football fans in training

Working in partnership with the Deutsche Krebshilfe Cancer support group and the Institute for therapy and Health Research (IFT Nord), Bayer 04 launch the project "Football fans in training" in the 2016/17 season. Under the motto of "Your home game. Your club. Your health." overweight fans had the opportunity in 90-minute courses, under professional guidance at Bayer 04 sites, to lose kilos and be able to room joy being active in the group. With the sports – nutrition – motivation course for overweight men and women between the ages of 35 and 36 it is also about looking at your own nutrition in circles of similar people. The 12-week free program contains both coaching for long-term improvement of nutrition and lifestyle as well as a range of light to moderate physical activity.

Festival of friends

Year after year, during the festive season, Bayer 04 supports numerous charities in Leverkusen and the surrounding area. Every year, the club supports the voluntary homeless charity Kältegang Leverkusen with care packages, bakes its own biscuits and, together with the Kinderarmut (Child Poverty) network, provides gifts for disadvantaged children and young people. In addition to the biscuits, the packages contain surplus items from older merchandising collections and various items of clothing from the fan jumble sale.

The Sterntaler community campaign run by the Leverkusen civic trust has also become a firm tradition at Bayer 04 over the past five years. The aim is to bring joy to children and seniors from day-care, pre-school and senior citizens' centres who cannot afford Christmas presents. To this end, the Werksclub employees all receive a wish list from senior citizens and children so they can fulfil the Christmas wish written on there.

Diabetes camp

In cooperation with Ypsomed, the Bayer 04 Soccer School runs exclusive one-day football camps for children and young people with diabetes every year. In 2017, for the first time, there was even a choice of several camps at different locations. The camp is aimed at children aged 6 to 15.

The full-day event includes two training sessions, supervision of participants by medical professionals, individual and age-appropriate coaching by licensed coaches from the Bayer 04 Football School, professional training conditions, assistance and technique training, professional training equipment, lunch and refreshments, as well as two tickets for an upcoming Werkself home game.