Sustainability

Our commitments to the wider community

There are many ways to be worldly-minded. But whenever it concerns social, ethical, environmental choices, or human rights and laws, it is always a matter of taking responsibility and acting with respect. That is exactly what Azelis does - showing respect in everything we do. That makes a difference. And of course, the bigger our efforts, the greater our impact will be.

At Azelis we are committed to maintaining high human, environmental and ethical values. That is only possible thanks to the cooperation with local communities, with industry bodies, authorities, and/or regulators and with you.

Responsible Care®/Responsible Distribution

Azelis supports the participation of its operating companies in the Responsible Care or Responsible Distribution programs of the International Chemical Trade Association (ICTA) through national associations.

Participation in Responsible Care or Responsible Distribution programs are voluntary initiatives from the chemical industry for the continuous improvement of health, safety and environmental standards. Member companies are committed to supporting a continuing effort to improve the industry's responsible management of chemicals.

As a participating company, we have signed the Responsible Care guiding principles as a symbol of our commitment to continuous health, safety and environmental performance improvement:

Adopt global Responsible Care (ICCA) core principles
Implement fundamental features of national Responsible Care programs
Commit to advancing sustainable development
Continuously improve and report performance
Enhance the management of chemical products worldwide - product stewardship
Champion and facilitate the extension of Responsible Care along the chemical industry's value chain
Actively support national and global Responsible Care governance processes
Address stakeholder expectations about chemical industry activities and products
Provide appropriate resources to effectively implement Responsible Care

ICCA's Responsible Care global charter

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Responsible Distribution Code

The Responsible Distribution Code is a code of management practice that has become the standard that members of the Alliance For Chemical Distribution (ACD) in the United States must uphold. Azelis Americas has been successfully verified and audited by various 3^rd-party companies and has shown to be in full compliance with all of the aspects the ACD RD program.

This strict adherence encourages a safer and more responsible industry regarding the health, safety, and security of our customers, our employees, our community and the environment. For more information, please see the ACD website about Responsible Distribution.

Our commitment to health, safety and security

At Azelis, we are resolutely committed to performing as a responsible organization through continuous improvement in the areas of:

Employee Health, Safety and Security
Product Stewardship
Waste Management
Emergency Response

This commitment is evidenced not only by our incredible safety record but also by the efforts our senior management and employees put into managing risk, reducing exposure and eliminating accidents through training and best practice development.

Our program

Azelis has long been committed to Responsible Care® (RC) or Responsible Distribution® (RD) programs. These are voluntary initiatives from the chemical industry for the continuous improvement of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) standards. However, being a global distributor, we needed a broader program to assist us with the increasing challenges in the entire supply chain. We started to work on our CSR program in 2015, following the ambitious and binding Paris Agreement of 2015. RC and RD focus on operational aspects of HSE, while the principles of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) take additional social aspects into account. The combination of CSR, RC and RD therefore provides a comprehensive framework for Azelis to address sustainability:

Our program is built on 25 KPIs within four main pillars

Being a member of the United Nations Global Compact initiative since December 2016, we have based our program on the 10 principles of the United Nations Global Compact regarding human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption, and the principles of ISO 26000 and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The success of our CSR program is supported by the implementation of our core ISO 9001:2015 certified processes. These include risk assessment, legal and regulatory watch, documentation, competencies, audit, non-conformities management, management reviews, innovation, supplier evaluation and quality control, and operational sales and logistics processes.

Our commitments to EcoVadis and Together for Sustainability

The EcoVadis overall score (0-100) reflects the quality of the company’s CSR performance at the time of the assessment. In 2020 Azelis achieved 70 points, a two-point increase compared to its previous result, ensuring we achieved a second consecutive Gold rating. With this high score, we are ranked in the top 1% of distributors assessed by EcoVadis and the top 2% of the 60,000 suppliers assessed by EcoVadis in all categories – an achievement we are very proud of.

Azelis’ membership to Together for Sustainability (TfS) complements both our membership to UN Global Compact and our Gold rating from EcoVadis, making Azelis part of the global network of 26 TfS member companies, representing a combined turnover in the chemical industry of €424 billion and a global spend of €282 billion. It’s an honor for Azelis to belong to this elite group of forward-thinking and future-facing companies; we all share the vision and determination to drive the much-needed change towards a sustainable way of doing business.