AAK continues to make strong sustainability progress

There are three areas of focus within our sustainability framework – Better Sourcing, Better Operations and Better Solutions – and the new report outlines our ambitions, activities and progress within each.

“It is with great pleasure we share our continued strong sustainability progress, contributing to the transformation to a more sustainable food system”, says Johan Westman, President and CEO, AAK Group. “We have made significant improvements, both within the sourcing of our raw materials and with regards to resource efficiency in our global operations. Furthermore, we have continued to create better solutions that are good for both people and planet.”

Major sourcing achievements during 2021 include a 34% increase in verified deforestation-free palm and 16% percent increase in traceability to plantation. This means that 67% of AAK’s total palm oil volumes are deforestation-free, and 81% are traceable to plantation.

Progress has also been made within Kolo Nafaso our shea sourcing program – working with women and families in West Africa. During the past four years, the programme has continued to make a positive impact on the lives of those involved with the programme, and the number of women enrolled has grown from 100,000 to 353,000.

Moving on to our own environmental impact – our annual sourcing of renewable electricity has increased by 50 percentage points compared to 2020, and waste intensity and water consumption per processed unit has decreased by 18.6 and 20.9 percent, respectively.

We acknowledge the importance of respecting human rights across the entire supply chain. With this in mind we have risk assessed 100% of our raw materials’ countries of origin and all of its production sites, in order to identify the most salient human rights issues and subsequently create action plans.

“Another key step has been to continue our work on setting science-based targets, linked to our climate ambitions”, says Anne Mette Olesen, Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer. “This and all other efforts and achievements that we share in the report are results of a truly global and cross-functional team effort, which clearly demonstrates that we embed sustainability in all AAK regions and functions.”