The principles of corporate governance ensure that our company is managed and supervised in a manner that is both responsible and geared to sustained value creation. Corporate governance creates transparency, thereby promoting the trust of our national and international investors, our business partners, our employees and the general public. At the same time, corporate governance is an applied form of risk prevention, systematically safeguarding our company from potential damage.

Values and guiding principles
In 2005, as a tangible manifestation of its forward-looking strategies, commitment and responsibility, Linde adopted a Corporate Responsibility Policy. That policy forms the core of the company’s voluntary espousal of corporate responsibility and is outlined in detail in the section “Corporate Responsibility”.

The “Code of Conduct”, which was also adopted this year, is based on the Corporate Responsibility Policy and defines the corporate values in more concrete terms. The Code of Conduct imposes significant demands on all employees of Linde AG, and is the yardstick of all our activities. Linde expects its employees to acknowledge the Code of Conduct – and, indeed, all other guidelines – as binding. The central Corporate Compliance Committee (Glossary) regularly reviews the development of the Code and monitors its compliance.