In August 2016, we formally launched our efforts working strategically toward achieving nine of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and added a tenth goal – Partnerships – this year. Most of our 2016 performance thus reflects actions initiated before then. Nevertheless, we reduced our CO2 emissions and the amount of production waste sent to landfill; and had zero fatalities in 2016. Less positively, we experienced a negative trend in terms of water efficiency, which we’ll be working on to improve.
Commenting on ROCKWOOL’s approach to sustainability, CEO Jens Birgersson says, “Sustainability means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future. This is also true of the ROCKWOOL Purpose. We take a massively abundant natural resource and transform it into products that match the needs of our customers today and make the world a better place for future generations”.
The Group’s 2016 report focuses on three major themes – the circular economy; resource efficiency; and health, safety, and wellbeing – all of which are closely related to the Group commercial strategy. Emphasising this point, Birgersson notes, “Our sustainability and commercial strategy are one in the same. We are in the privileged position of creating a more positive impact on the planet by selling more of our product. That said, we need to continue working hard to produce even better products and leaving a smaller footprint in the process. This means that it is not sufficient to think sustainability into our products and our research and development, we also need to work on our operations and internal processes”.
At ROCKWOOL, we want the benefits of our products to significantly outweigh any impacts associated with our operations. In the full report, you can see how we perform against the UN Sustainable Development Goals as well as our own sustainability goals.
