Telko’s Sustainability Report for 2022 has been published today. The report opens our goals and actions for driving sustainability forward. It also explains our own environmental impacts and how our actions affect our employees and the people around us.
“We operate in an industry that is facing strong pressure and demand for change. Many of our partners invest heavily in developing their operations towards more sustainable business model. Telko’s strategy has always based on creating value to our customers and principals by enabling them to reach their goals. Sustainability goals are no exception”, says Telko’s CEO Mikko Pasanen.
Driving sustainable innovation
Telko is committed to driving sustainable innovation to grow its carbon handprint throughout the entire value chain. While we are still studying and increasing our understanding on how to measure our handprint in sustainability, we have already initiated numerous projects in sales to promote more sustainable solutions.
These solutions can be for example biodegradable and biobased materials, products that minimize the use and generation of hazardous substances, products that enable significant lowering of process temperatures and long-lasting products which also prolong the lifecycle of the machinery.
In 2022, we started collecting some sales data of the more sustainable product options in our Plastics and Lubricants segments. The data shows that we are moving in the right direction. Although the share of sustainable plastics sales is yet small, their sales increased by 45% from 2021. In the automotive business line, 63% of the total sales were Castrol’s Path 360 Carbon Neutral products.
Lowering our own emissions
The largest environmental impact of our business comes from elsewhere in the supply chain. Mitigating these emissions means for example planning logistics flows effectively and ensuring the quality of products. In 2022, we created a specific roadmap for lowering carbon intensity in transports. Within the next few years, we aim to understand the environmental impact of our entire supply chain even better so that we can define and set the targets for longer-term development.
Creating a safe, engaging, and inclusive high-performance culture
Telko’s social sustainability focuses on creating a safe, engaging, and inclusive high-performance culture by encouraging our employees to act according to our values. In 2022, we received very good feedback from our employees in our yearly employee engagement survey. During the year, our values were also measured and verified in real life as we have been supporting our people and their closest ones in Ukraine with significant efforts and concrete actions. “People have stretched to help in many great ways.”, says Telko’s HR director Eveliina Myllyluoma.
Measuring our performance
We use the EcoVadis sustainability assessment as a primary tool to measure our development. In 2022, Telko reached EcoVadis Gold level in the ranking which means that we now belong to the top 4 % in our industry.
Read more about our efforts and impacts in the report.