Smart science to improve lives™
People Positive

Protecting society and improving lives

Developing solutions to improve health and wellbeing for society through our customers, promoting diversity in our business and delivering social impact in communities.

Living our Purpose, Smart science to improve livesTM, Croda relies on individuals, from its employees to external stakeholders and communities, promoting diversity and inclusion to contribute to a world in which, by 2050, more than nine billion people can live well, within planetary boundaries (WBCSD’s Vision 2050: Time to Transform).

As we depend upon each other, from our novel biologic technologies to sunscreens, from meaningful impact projects in our value chains and ecosystems to Croda Foundation, our ability to collaborate and innovate are key enablers to deliver impact at scale. By becoming People Positive we will directly contribute towards the following UN SDG targets: 

SDG 3.3, SDG 3.4, SDG 5.5, SDG 17

Through our Croda Foundation we are supporting a wide range of SDGs, defined by the specific projects involved.

people positive sdgs

People Positive: our world in 2030

Castor plant for crodas sustainability targets

Our targets

We are developing our sustainability strategy to 2030, ensuring our alignment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Sustainable Trees in a forest

Our approach

Sustainability means doing business the right way, adapting and challenging ourselves to meet business needs, today and in the future.

sustainable clouds and trees

Our Commitment

We will be the most sustainable supplier of innovative ingredients, our action plan for the decade is to be Climate, Land and People Positive by 2030.

Our progress

Gender balance and diversity and inclusion

We continue to measure progress against our target of achieving gender balance across our leadership roles by 2030. We are pleased to report that the number of women in leadership positions has increased by 5.7 percentage points since the 2019 baseline figure, with 38.2% of leadership roles now filled by women. The appointment of a new female CFO, Louisa Burdett, on 1 January 2023 moves the gender balance of the Board in 2023 to 55% female representation and our Executive Committee to 33%.

During 2022 we also saw a 48% net increase in the number of female process operators (excluding leavers as part of the PTIC divestment) and participation in our prestigious senior leadership programmes has been gender balanced, important steps in helping us to achieve our 2030 target. We continue to monitor balanced shortlists and, in 2023, will automate the collection of this data, allowing us to identify issues as they arise.

Broadening to diversity & inclusion (D&I)

We continue to progress against our D&I roadmap, published in 2021, identifying actions in key areas to ensure we become a more diverse and inclusive organisation: diversity data gathering; improving D&I awareness; developing our D&I brand; measuring and setting KPIs; and alignment to reward and recognition.

Following on from our Global Diversity Representation Survey, we have established region-specific objectives to address targeted issues. For example, our South Asia region established three sub-groups to address issues of communication and awareness, nurturing a D&I culture and reviewing recruitment. Our programme to build D&I awareness across Croda includes running masterclasses from thought leaders in the field, including a series of sessions on Cultural Awareness with a focus on Asia that was delivered to senior leaders. Our regional teams have also established new D&I subcommittees and affiliation groups to complement our Global D&I Committee. These have been instrumental in advising regional management on a range of topics to help deliver real change in our employee experience.

Read more about sustainability being at the heart of what we do:

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...

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Laboratory work

UK Government to support expansion of Croda's lipid systems manufacturing facility

31 March 2022: This investment will significantly enhance the development of high-purity lipid systems, essential delivery systems for next generation nucleic acid drugs such as mRNA vaccines.

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