Our Fundamentals
Our social licence to operate is built on trust and is the foundation of everything we do. We consider all stakeholders in our ecosystem and strive to adopt best practices with regard to the environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. Through our Fundamentals, we will directly contribute towards the following UN SDG targets:
SDG 3.4, SDG 3.9, SDG 4.3, SDG 6.3, SDG 6.4, SDG 8.5, SDG 8.8, SDG 12.2, SDG 12.5, SDG 12.6, SDG 12.7, SDG 14.1
By being a responsible business, we are contributing to a wide range of SDGs, as determined by our specific actions and projects.
Highlights
- All employees temporary and permanent are paid a living wage at the end of 2021, according to Fair Wage Network criteria
- 17% reduction in Process Safety Incident rates compared to 2020
- Awarded Business of the Year at the World Sustainability Awards
- 94% of palm derivative volumes purchased have supply chain transparency achieved to refinery.
Examples of progress
We will protect the natural environment through the responsible management of our water consumption and waste production.
Case study: Waste management
Iberchem, our global fragrance and flavours business based in Spain, has championed waste management best practices through robust policies and employee education programmes. In recognition of its achievements, the company received a Zero Waste Certification from AENOR, the Spanish organisation responsible for the development and distribution of technical standards. Iberchem attained the certification by diverting more than 97% of its waste from landfills and incinerators to recycling and recovery facilities (7% above certification requirements). The evaluation covered 19 categories of waste, including paper, plastic, water and electronics. This represents a significant step in transitioning away from a linear model towards a circular economy.
We will verify and maintain our position as the most sustainable supplier of innovative ingredients within our industry.
Case study: Responsible business
In October we were delighted that our sustainability leadership was recognised as we won Business of the Year at the World Sustainability Awards. World Sustainability Awards is a global platform celebrating excellence in corporate and social sustainability. Organised by Sustainability Leaders, 73 companies were shortlisted across the 12 awards categories. The judges commended not only our ambitious Commitment to 2030 but also our achievements against our 2015-2020 sustainability targets, demonstrating that Croda are leading the way in reducing corporate CO2 emissions and improving human rights. They remarked that our achievements are testament to how fully we have embedded environmental, social and corporate governance into our business model, also commenting that few organisations have embraced the full definition of sustainability as comprehensively as Croda, with our holistic approach to sustainability an example for others to follow.
We will take a leadership role in life cycle assessment of our ingredients and their impact on the life cycle of our customers’ products. This will help the markets in which we operate move towards more circular economies and reduce consumer and employee exposure to chemical hazards.
Case study: Coltide Radiance - sustainability in use
Given the verified downstream benefits of Coltide Radiance – prolonging the lifetime of garments and reducing clothes waste by 10%, 13.45 million m3 water savings and 44,200 tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided in 2020 – we wanted to understand the net environmental footprint of this biopolymer and get a better appreciation of its entire sustainability credentials. The LCA revealed a very low environmental burden associated with the manufacturing stage of Coltide Radiance, the biggest impacts being concentrated around the product in use stage (laundry washing). The climate change and water use impacts for each 1kg of clothes washed are proved to be lower when using fabric conditioners containing Coltide Radiance than those without. This study highlighted an opportunity to collaborate with customers on pursuing environmental savings in the product in use stage, as this action, even if at the expense of higher manufacturing burdens, will yield a more sustainable result overall.
Read more about sustainability being at the heart of what we do:
Croda joins the World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Croda International Plc, the company that uses smart science to create high-performance ingredients and solutions that improve lives, has today joined over 200 of the world’s leading sustainable...
Read more
Sustainability expert Aris Vrettos joins Croda
The new position will see the sustainability expert challenge Croda to stretch its already industry-leading sustainability ambitions and commitments and support Croda’s business sectors in further...
Read more