Interview with Jeroen de Jong, Manager Risk & Compliance
2023 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report – Veenendaal, The Netherlands
Jeroen de Jong, CARBOGEN AMCIS’ Manager Risk & Compliance, reflects on the organization’s progress and sustainability aspirations for our Veenendal site in the Netherlands.
The CSR report extract can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.
What are CARBOGEN AMCIS’ key sustainability aspirations, as set out within the Veenendaal site’s CSR Strategy?
Our ambitions regarding sustainability were defined in 2017, together with a Dutch coalition of chemical, SME-sized companies. Key sustainability themes were identified, and our ambitions were formulated, which mainly relate to sustainable employment, supply chain and energy use. These themes are worth mentioning, as often, sustainability is still associated with internal environmental issues.
Tell us more about the Strategy’s key themes.
Sustainability covers many aspects, like people and planet but also governance; the key is to focus on the aspects which are the most relevant and where we can have the biggest impact. The key themes have been determined through an in-depth materiality analysis and are focused not only on external effects (such as the greenhouse effect or soil pollution), but also on the risks for business operations into the future. These themes include:
- Emission of non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC’s)
- Discharge of sulphate to wastewater
- Use of groundwater
- Energy efficiency
- Process innovation
- Sustainable raw materials
- Animal welfare
- Life-time employment
- Stimulating chemistry in education
- Soil sanitation
- Communication and local involvement
Improvements on these issues are of great importance for CARBOGEN AMCIS's future business and will have a positive sustainability impact.
The themes were also linked to the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 goals to make the world a better place by 2030, and defined in 2015. They are an urgent call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. We can show which SDGs we contribute to as CARBOGEN AMCIS.
Share with us CARBOGEN AMCIS Veenendaal site’ environmental achievements and progress, so far? What are you most proud of?
Environmental management has been 'in CARBOGEN AMCIS’s genes' for 25 years. We were one of the first companies in the Netherlands to obtain ISO 14001 certification. So, there has been a huge focus on emissions and environmental risks.
Compared to 2015, the environmental impact of activities developed
as follows:
- 31% reduction of solvent (NMVOC) emission
- 34% reduction of CO2 emission (total of scope 1 and 2)
- 2% increase of use of groundwater
In particular, discharges to water, NMVOC emissions and soil risks have been reduced very sharply. Our safety situation has also improved significantly.
Most important, of course, is the positive effect on the environment, but it has also given us a 'licence to operate' from neighbours and the government. There is a lot of confidence in our operations and their safety. For a company like CARBOGEN AMCIS with some of our sites located between residential areas and shopping malls, that is invaluable.
What could have been improved and how are you going to make progress on these areas moving forward?
Major environmental improvements were made because there was also low-hanging fruit. Further measures now lead to a more difficult trade-off: there are bigger costs for smaller improvements.
It is also still proving difficult to maintain that good environmental performance. The focus is therefore now often on better embedding of measures and practices.
The focus has always been on the environment and safety. As far as I am concerned, sustainable employment should receive even more attention. The current times call for this when you look at issues such as diversity, differences between generations and work-life balance. These topics are now on the agenda.
How does CARBOGEN AMCIS Veenendaal site’ ongoing commitment to sustainability benefit your customers?
Customers, just like us, increasingly have to account for what the footprint of their product is. Not only to the government, but also to their own customers.
We therefore increasingly receive requests to provide information. That is why we are now working on Life Cycle Assessment for one of our largest products.
In addition, many questions are asked about our CSR practices through surveys. We are then happy to refer them to EcoVadis. EcoVadis gives a rating to a company's CSR performance based on a comprehensive survey. CARBOGEN AMCIS currently has a 'Gold status'.
