News

AAK releases sustainability report

18 Oct 2016

AAK has released its Sustainability Report for 2015/2016, outlining its sustainability strategy, objectives, activities and achievements within the five focus areas of the company’s model for responsible growth.

AAK has released its Sustainability Report for 2015/2016. The report outlines AAK’s sustainability strategy, objectives, activities and achievements within the five focus areas of the company’s model for responsible growth – Marketplace, Supply Chain, Environment, Workplace and Community.

“Despite shifting our focus to more specialized and advanced products that in general require significantly more resources per produced unit, our overall resource efficiency continues to show good results,” said Arne Frank, President and CEO, AAK Group. “Calculated per produced unit energy consumption, water consumption and carbon dioxide emissions have all been reduced by between 4 and 6%. Furthermore, we managed to reduce waste sent to landfill by 44%. Waste to landfill represented 1.3% of total waste disposals, leaving 98.7% disposed for reuse, recycling or recovery. All these very great achievements were delivered by a very dedicated global operations organization.”

AAK also reported strong progress on palm oil sustainability commitments. By August, 2016 AAK says it had achieved 98% traceability of palm oil, all palm kernel oil and residuals back to mill origin. In parallel, qualitative risk assessments had been completed for all suppliers, geospatial assessments had been completed for all high-risk supplier mills, and on-site verification audits and a supplier engagement workshop had been carried out.

In addition, AAK reported on its women’s groups program in West Africa. During the season 2015/2016, AAK has been reaching out to more than 90,000 women, exceeding its expectations by more than 20,000. The model with interest-free “micro credits” to the individual women works very satisfactorily, the company said.

Throughout the report, AAK employees share stories about some of the company’s many CSR initiatives and managers share their thoughts and insights in their specific areas of responsibility. The report also includes external testimonials to highlight AAK’s work from an outside perspective.