These revelations were made as the company released its Sustainability Report for 2014/2015, outlining its sustainability commitments, activities and achievements in five focus areas based on the company’s model for responsible growth – Marketplace, Supply chain, Environment, Workplace and Community.
“We have made some great improvements for a number of key resource efficiency parameters which is particularly impressive given that we have shifted to more specialized and tailor-made products that, in general, require more resources per produced unit,” says Arne Frank, President and CEO, AAK Group.
Frank explains that calculated per produced unit energy consumption, water discharge and CO₂ emissions have been reduced by 2.8%, 3.3% and 11.0% respectively.
“These achievements have been delivered by a very dedicated and highly responsible global organization. We’re also very pleased to see that our dedicated focus on safety really has paid off globally with a 58% reduction in Lost Time Injury Rate at our production plants,” he adds.
Palm oil commitments
AAK also reports strong progress on its palm oil commitments, specifically on the implementation of the company’s sustainable palm oil policy including traceability to mills.
By the end of last year, the supplier had achieved 100% traceability to mill for all palm oil sourced at origin and 97% overall for palm oil, palm kernel oil and their derivatives. In parallel, qualitative risk assessments against AAK palm oil requirements had been completed for all identified supplier mills.
In addition, AAK reports on the very successful women’s groups program in West Africa, having reached out locally in Burkina Faso to 55,000 women, a 49% increase compared to last season.
The company’s shea sourcing programme in West Africa has also grown and now includes more than 86,000 local women. AAK’s Sourcing Director Henrik Vingaard is presenting on how to create sustainable supply chains at the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit in Paris.