Our approach to sustainability
For AkzoNobel, sustainability means creating shared value for all our stakeholders. It underpins our core principles and our employee value proposition, and is our driver for growth, innovation and productivity.
Our high performance aerospace coatings have been used to help deliver a global message to save the world’s coral reefs. We supplied products for a Mirpuri Foundation initiative which involved painting a Hi Fly aircraft with striking coral-themed livery. One side represents a pristine ocean with healthy marine life, the other shows a destroyed coral environment. We created 19 custom-made colors for the design, which helps drive home the global message that our coral ecosystems will disappear by 2050 if no action is taken.
We continue to develop business opportunities in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals that are most relevant for us. We’re focused on creating more shared value from fewer resources and turning societal concerns and environmental challenges into product innovations for our customers.
The separation of Specialty Chemicals has allowed us to create a clearer sustainability agenda for a focused paints and coatings company. We reviewed our sustainability agenda to assess where we can have the biggest impact on accelerating our strategy while delivering the biggest social and environmental benefits. All data reported excludes Specialty Chemicals, unless otherwise stated.
We equip our employees to ensure they can contribute to making us more sustainable. This responsibility is included in the personal objectives and incentives of all employees, and is linked to our business imperatives:
- Value selling – we’re innovating to give our customers choice and competitive advantage through product portfolios designed to bring tangible benefits and deliver positive social and environmental impact
- Resource productivity – we’re creating a culture of care for all materials used, eliminating waste and reducing variable cost. Increased resource productivity in our operations and supply chain makes us more competitive and sustainable
Delivery priorities have been set for 2020, with explicit value objectives:
Resource productivity |
> €100 million |
Value selling |
20% |
We aim to maintain eco-premium solutions at a sustainable 20% of revenue through 2020 by constantly innovating. Looking beyond 2020, we are creating long-term value with our startup challenge, known as Paint the Future. It’s focused on finding new solutions that will help to make our operations, products and entire value chain even more sustainable.