At Solenis, we follow a clearly defined path to achieve our sustainability goals.
Our ambition for the future is to create more value for all our stakeholders while consuming less, thereby minimizing our impact on the environment and society.
Supporting our customers in their sustainability journeys will always be central to our business. Going forward we will intensify our look inwards, with a focus on consumption reduction and on product development with sustainability at its core.
We now have a prioritized set of actions to help us achieve that ambition. We will work towards meeting our current targets and will update routinely in line with business developments and expectations from our stakeholders. We will continue to monitor sustainability trends, risks and opportunities facing our business, as well as changes in legislation, ensuring we will be prepared to adapt to the ever-evolving sustainability landscape and business environment.
As we work towards our targets, we’ll keep looking for more ways to run our business in a sustainable way, enhancing growth while decreasing our environmental impact. Our global team of experts are ready to help us get there, and we look forward to the next chapter.
In 2022, Solenis conducted a new materiality assessment to identify and prioritize the key material issues, topics and factors that have the potential to impact the long-term viability of the company and are of importance to our internal and external stakeholders. These issues, topics and factors help us organize our priorities, actions and commitments. By monitoring the evolving sustainability risks and opportunities that will influence Solenis’ business position, we are able to develop a better understanding of the importance of key sustainability priorities to the business from reputational, operational and financial perspectives.
Solenis intends to update our materiality assessment on a regular basis to capture changes in our industry and the broader external business environment in which we operate, not to mention the changes that arise from new acquired companies and business to our business portfolio. The next materiality assessment will be conducted in 2024 and include the newly acquired companies, particularly Diversey. It will also include a double materiality assessment to analyze the financial impact on the material issues as well.
Solenis utilized the Datamaran platform throughout a three-phase process to provide a materiality assessment from which it could better understand and respond to stakeholder interests and concerns:
1. Internal stakeholder engagement
As part of our materiality assessment process, we began by seeking to understand Solenis’ own priorities as seen through the eyes of its leaders and employees. This was done through an artificial intelligence-based analysis of its most recent sustainability report via the Datamaran platform. The 20 most prominent issues were identified as being relevant to the materiality assessment.
2. External stakeholder analysis
The external stakeholder perspectives were determined by a tailored and comprehensive analysis, again relying on the Datamaran data set. Eight different stakeholder groups were identified: Customers, Suppliers, Peers, Policymakers, Regulators, Media, Investors and Lenders. Solenis handpicked a slate of 118 global peer companies (customers, suppliers, peers, investors and lenders) whose most important sustainability priorities were identified through analyses of publicly available reports and documents. Perspectives from a global set of policymakers and regulators were incorporated. For the media input, Datamaran leveraged Aylien, an online news curator; irrelevant news topics were filtered out.
3. Ranking and prioritizing
The stakeholders were then weighted based on a high, medium or low priority, with customers being the most important and the media being the least. The data from both sides was then combined based on weighting and prioritization to arrive at a singular set of material issues, topics and factors.
Our 2022 materiality assessment identified and highlighted the most important material priorities around which we should focus our commitments and strategic sustainability efforts. These were further refined to reflect the top 20 issues out of a possible 33. In general, these were in close alignment with the framework of Solenis’ sustainability program.
In response to the results of the assessment – as well as to align with our new business portfolio and structure – Solenis’ four sustainability pillars are:
Our Strategic Framework visually depicts how our three business lenses, our four sustainability pillars, the SDGs and our material issues are interrelated. This framework helps all stakeholders to quickly understand how we approach these key areas.
Through the action and commitment to the four sustainability pillars defined, Solenis aims to create value for our stakeholders, while responding to sustainability and societal challenges, including contributing to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Solenis has prioritized the SDGs where we believe we can have the biggest impact through our customers, employees, products, processes, and partnerships:
How we support
People – A diverse workforce is critical to delivering on our strategy. In its commitment to gender equality, Solenis tracks annual progress in global gender diversity within leadership and the overall workforce. In addition, we perform regular pay equity reviews to close any genderpay gaps.
KPI
By 2030, double the diverse population of leadership and total workforce
Target
Create a diverse and inclusive culture
Performance
How we support
Clean water & sanitation – Solenis has a long history of providing process water treatment solutions for our customers. In addition, we also focus on reducing our own water withdrawal, reducing our impact on the water supply in the areas in which we operate. We track our impact on water stressed areas using the World Resouces Institute guidance.
KPI
By 2030, reduce water consumption by 5%
Target
Operate with zero environmental harm and reduce our footprint
Performance
How we support
Safety – Our legacy of continuous improvement in the health and safety of our people will remain a key focus. Our long-term commitment to operate with zero harm is steadfast.
KPI
Reduce injury rate by 10% year over year
Target
Continuously strive toward zero injury culture
Performance
How we support
Circularity – The growing customer demand for sustainable products and the scarcity of critical resources provide us with the opportunity to develop innovative and sustainable solutions that enable our customers to conserve natural resources and minimize waste in their operations.
KPI
>90% innovation programs in pipeline with sustainability or circularity focus
Target
Support circular economy principles and focus on innovation that brings a positive environmental handprint (the positive climate impacts of a product provided to customers)
Performance
How we support
Planet & Climate – Change in regulations and increased climate change awareness has focused industry to improve processes to reduce GHG emissions. We enable our customers to manage resources and manufacturing processes more efficiently.
KPI
By 2030, 90% revenue generation will result through support of customers sustainability goals
Target
Enable our customers to manage resources and manufacturing processes more efficiently
Performance
How we support
Customers – Our close partnerships with our customers help improve their carbon handprint, support their sustainability goals and provide Solenis with our biggest contribution to succeed in SDGs 6, 12 and 13.
KPI
Deliver 5% return on investment for every customer
Target
Drive value for our customers
Performance
We have robust sustainability governance structures in place to ensure that material topics are managed at the highest level and that we continue to evolve our approach to sustainability.
We have robust sustainability governance structures in place to ensure that material topics are managed at the highest level and that we continue to evolve our approach to sustainability.