On June 5, the world again celebrates the annual “World Environment Day” which is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of the environment. For 2022, Sweden is the host nation for the #OnlyOneEarth campaign, which is in response to climate, biodiversity, and pollution crises across the globe. The #OnlyOneEarth campaign “highlights the need to reset the balance with nature through transformative changes in how we eat, live, work, and move around.”
At Kemira, responsibility for the environment and the society is an integral part of our strategy. It’s fully embedded in our commitments to our internal policies and standards, internationally defined sustainability principles, stakeholder expectations, and an integrated management system.
Also our stakeholders are interested in our environmental performance and thus Kemira is actively reporting to selected external sustainability rating providers. Our most recent ratings achievement is the renewal of our platinum rating by EcoVadis, the leading solution for monitoring sustainability in global supply chains. The EcoVadis methodology framework assesses companies’ policies and actions as well as their published reporting related to the environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.
In 2022, Kemira was awarded a platinum medal for a second consecutive year in recognition of sustainability achievement. To receive this medal, companies must have an overall score of 75-100. Kemira’s overall score was 78, which is the 99th percentile for companies in our industry, size, and geographic location.
In the Environment theme of the assessment, Kemira scored an 80, compared to the average industry score of 50. The assessment identified 56 strengths in the Environment theme, related to our internal policies, quantitative objectives for energy consumption, emissions, materials, and waste, energy efficiency practices, water and wastewater accounting and quality assessments, waste reduction and recycling measures, and advanced reporting practices.
Our Environment score improved 10 points from last year due to a more comprehensive sustainability and EHSQ policy, improvements in our water and wastewater risk assessments and control measures, and the identification of biodiversity aspects and impacts.
“Our carbon management level was scored as “advanced based” on our comprehensive management system, reporting in line with global standards, and third-party data verification”, explains Mark Wenclawiak, Manager for Environmental Safety at Kemira. “ It’s really great being among the top 1% of companies in the world but we don’t want to rest here. We see big value of those external ratings services is the opportunity for improvement that are identified in the reports. These observations allow us to align and prioritize our identified areas for improvement with a “second set of eyes” to maximize our opportunities for positive contributions and to minimize our potential impacts.”
We, at Kemira are very proud of our environmental commitments and performance and have integrated these expectations into our value chain requirements.
We understand that we can not only make excellent products but we can make products that have a true positive impact to our environment throughout the full product lifecycle.
Happy World Environment Day!