Bunker Holding Highlights Sustainable Initiatives in First ESG Report
Bunker Holding, a global organisation with one aim only: to fuel the shipping industry, has recently released its first-ever ESG report. The company's commitments, ambitions, and challenges in supporting and driving socially and environmentally conscious practices are highlighted in the report.
Bunker Holding has stepped up its ESG efforts in the last year, pledging to consistently enhance performance in areas that fall within the scopes of environment, social, and governance.
Bunker Holding has built a clear ESG framework to push and direct future sustainability activities, allowing the Group to take solid action towards decreasing its environmental footprint and work towards achieving a positive social impact.
Bunker Holding's primary sustainability aims include accelerating the decarbonisation of the maritime sector, promoting gender equality in a largely male-dominated industry, and advocating for greater transparency.
Keld R. Demant, CEO of Bunker Holding, said:
"We’re immensely proud to now have launched our first ever ESG report. Not only is it the result of dedicated efforts from our entire organisation, but it is also our promise to our stakeholders that we will follow through on our commitments. We really feel we have reached an important milestone. At the same time, we acknowledge that the journey ahead will be a challenging one."
Bunker Holding launched an ambitious five-year plan, Fueling the Future, earlier this year, with one of the key drivers being moving responsibly with suppliers and clients. The strategy's foundation is to guide the Group through the coming years of radical change in the industry, including the transition to more sustainable fuels.
Bunker Holding’s new commercial five-year strategy is closely linked to the new sustainability strategy, and both are founded on the core values of decency, leadership, and business acumen that have guided the Group since it was founded more than 40 years ago.
“Bunker Holding is guided by strong values that are foundational to our success. In close alignment with these values, we have always striven to act appropriately, to treat our employees with the utmost respect, and to ensure we are compliant and a good corporate citizen,” says Keld R. Demant.
As part of its strategy for sustainability, Bunker Holding has set up an ESG Council to act as the formal steering body for ESG. The main goal of the ESG Council is to help Executive Management track and drive progress in ESG by aligning efforts and supporting them in doing so. Also, Bunker Holding recently hired a new Head of Green Fuels and a Head of ESG to help steer and influence change across the organisation.
Although Bunker Holding has been working with ESG for some time, it has recently increased its efforts by structuring procedures and defining strategically prioritised actions, a process that took nearly a year of due diligence and began with a comprehensive materiality assessment in collaboration with Deloitte.
The review identified 14 key ESG topics on which the organisation would increase its efforts. To mention a few, the topics include diversity, equality, inclusion, compliance, corporate governance, climate impacts from own activities, and climate impacts from supplied fuel. Focusing efforts on topics material to Bunker Holding will enable it to best drive positive change while preventing harmful impacts.
“Over 99% of our global carbon emissions come from the fuel that we sell to our customers. As one of the world’s leading bunker suppliers, we are in a unique position to help not only our clients but the entire industry in the shift to sustainable energy sources. Currently, the required technological solutions, market, and infrastructure are not yet there for widespread adoption, but we are frontrunners, we are investing, and we have geared up for the green transition.
“The ambition to help change and guide the industry towards a green transition, however, does not exempt us from keeping a keen focus on our Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and we know change starts with oneself. That is why we are committing ourselves to report and staying transparent on our work with ESG going forward," said Keld R. Demant.
Source: Bunker Holding Group
