Azelis joins Together for Sustainability, a global initiative for sustainable supply chains

Azelis, a leading global distributor of speciality chemicals and food ingredients, has joined Together for Sustainability (TfS), a global initiative for sustainable supply chains.

This follows on Azelis’ membership to the UN Global Compact and Gold rating from EcoVadis, testifying to company’s course of action to be a catalyst of change when it comes to sustainable business models and become a benchmark for the industry.

Azelis is now part of the global network of 25 TfS member companies who represent a turnover in the chemical industry of €422bn and a global spend of €281bn.

Highlights & rationale

• Operating as a unique, member-driven organisation and peer-to-peer network, TfS member companies aim to shape the future of the chemical industry together.
• Azelis’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme is built around four pillars: resources and environment, labour and human rights, fair business practices and sustainable procurement, all directly contributing to 10 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Azelis holds a Gold rating by EcoVadis, a prerequisite to join the TfS initiative, which places the company in the top 1% of distributors assessed by EcoVadis.
• This latest membership is in line with Azelis’ strategic course of becoming an industry benchmark when it comes to sustainable business practices.

TfS delivers the de facto global standard for environmental, social and governance performance of chemical supply chains.

The TfS programme is based on the UN Global Compact and Responsible Care® principles.

TfS is growing into a global organisation with regional representation and strategic partnerships in Asia, North America and South America.

The TfS framework – TfS Assessments and TfS Audits – allows TfS member companies to assess the environmental, labour & human rights, ethical and sustainable procurement performance of their suppliers and drive tangible, measurable improvements of their suppliers’, as well as their own sustainability performance.

TfS introduced this globally applicable framework and tools to create transparency of the sustainability performance of chemical companies and their suppliers and to collaborate to continuously improve performance.

Unique to the TfS concept is that the results of TfS Assessments and TfS Audits are shared with all member companies, following the consent of the supplier.

Dr Hans Joachim Müller, Azelis CEO, comments:

"Our dedication to CSR and sustainable business models has been at the core of our business decisions for a while now.

"That dedication has been recognised twice by EcoVadis’ Gold rating so joining TfS was a next logical step for us.

"The TfS concept benefits both TfS member companies and suppliers, taking away bureaucratic burden from us so that time and energy can be spent on the improvement of sustainability performance.

"As a global business, with operations across EMEA, the Americas and Asia Pacific, Azelis takes its responsibilities very seriously, always looking for new ways to make a positive impact on society and minimise its footprint, whilst delivering the best possible products and services.”

TfS works with three of its own KPIs that take TfS to a new sustainability level and greatly increases its impact.

Each individual TfS member company defines its own targets based on the company sustainability strategy, which is shared within TfS.

The TfS KPIs are the aggregate of the individual numbers of the TfS member companies and form the basis for TfS to increase sustainability impact in the chemical supply chain.

Maria Almenar, Group SHEQ Director at Azelis and CSR program leader, adds:

"We have put a lot of effort, expertise and passion in our CSR programme for the past four years but now is the time to take it all one step further.

"In line with UN SDG 17 (Partnerships for the goals), Azelis is ready to build strong partnerships and join global chemical industry initiatives that contribute to sustainability.

"We see many benefits in joining TfS: EcoVadis assessment & methodology, third party evaluation, possibility of developing action plans with suppliers, onsite audits, access to results through sharing principle of TfS, active participation in TfS activities and best practice sharing, improved management of risks, to name only some.

"In one word, this was the right and logical next step and we are very excited about what lies ahead.”

Bertrand Conquéret, TfS President, says:

"My colleagues and I warmly welcome Azelis to the Together for Sustainability Initiative.

"The arrival of Azelis marks an important step for TfS as it will enable the Initiative to further deliver on its mission and core strategy to drive and improve the sustainability impact of global chemical supply chains.

"By joining TfS, Azelis will fully benefit from the TfS innovative framework, collaborative mindset and robust tools to assess and improve the sustainability performance of its supplying companies, while increasing its own responsible sourcing programme.

"As TfS operates as a unique member-driven organisation, Azelis together with the other 24 TfS member companies will contribute to shaping the future of the chemical industry.”

Azelis deployed its CSR strategy worldwide in December 2016.

It is based on ISO 26000 and linked with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Responsible Care & Responsible Distribution, as well as membership to the UN’s Global Compact Initiative.

The company has internally defined 26 KPIs that measure the progress of its CSR programme.