The United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by global leaders in September 2015. Governments, businesses and civil society together with the United Nations are mobilizing efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Agenda by 2030. Universal, inclusive and indivisible, the Agenda calls for action by all countries to improve the lives of people everywhere.
In 2017, the Avril Group signed the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), making us a direct contributor to the SDGs. Oleon has decided to focus on 4 SDG's specifically where we believe we will have the biggest impact. Learn more about our efforts to work towards them:
Oleon supports different projects where various partners join forces to create a positive impact on the life of small palm oil farmers and to protect the environment.
The Landscape project is located in Aceh Tamiang (Sumatra), among others, where the last rainforest housing endangered animal species is located. The project focuses on helping local government with integrated land use, socializing and training smallholders on No Deforestation, no Peat, no Exploitation (NDPE) and supporting local communities in developing sustainable livelihoods.
Oleon is participating, in collaboration with one of its palm oil suppliers, in the Mariposa project in Honduras. The goal of this initiative is to help the palm oil sector in South-America advance towards sustainable practices where both people and nature are better protected. The project finances a 3-year training program for 1.800 local farmers.
Together with the non-profit organization Solidaridad and one of its palm oil suppliers, Oleon is financially supporting the training of 105 smallholders in Guatemala. The goal of this initiative is to bring these smallholders to RSPO certification. Oleon will co-finance this project for 2 years.
Oleon is proud of its natural product portfolio. Our products are a perfect combination of performance and sustainability. We are always looking to increase the renewability and sustainability of our molecules by optimizing our current portfolio and developing new molecules & processes.
An example of Oleon’s green innovation:
INCITE (INnovative Chemoenzymatic InTEgrated processes) is a European project involving eight European partners from Italy, Germany, Belgium and France. Within INCITE, Oleon is working on the solvent-free temperature-sensitive synthesis of the ester isopropyl palmitate using lipases, which will lead to the buildup of a demo plant in Oelegem/Belgium. The main application of this commodity product is an emollient in the cosmetic industry.
Beginning of March 2021, project partners drafted a comprehensive technical and financial report on progress achieved since the project start back in September 2019. This led to the conclusion that the INCITE project has delivered exceptional results with significant immediate or potential impact and that it has achieved most of its objectives and milestones as planned for the first 18 month of the project with relatively minor deviations.
With more than 3000 suppliers worldwide, Oleon wants to understand the environmental and social risks in our supply chain. In 2019, Oleon launched its Supplier Monitoring project which is a collaboration between the Trading, Purchasing and CSR teams.
The program focuses on three main activities:
o Respecting the Group’s Supplier Code of Conduct.
o Evaluating the current state of our suppliers’ sustainability efforts via EcoVadis.
o Guiding our suppliers in improving their sustainability performance.
Thanks to this project, Oleon is building a better view on the risks in our supply chain. We are starting by creating awareness on the importance of sustainability and by guiding our suppliers to better sustainability practices. The suppliers are achieving a better view on their EcoVadis scoring, giving them the opportunity to benchmark themselves to their competitors. Finally, we strive to influence our suppliers to incorporate sustainability in their corporate values and identity.
Oleon supports a continuous effort towards sustainable operations at all our plants. All Oleon sites work according to the ISO 50001 standard and our European sites are regularly audited by independent external auditors. In May 2021, Oleon and its shareholder the Avril Group announced its new Corporate Energy Policy which sets out our energy objectives for 2021-2030. Oleon has set the objective to:
o Reduce our own GHG emissions (scope 1 & 2) by 30% by 2030 (reference year 2019).
o Reduce emissions per ton of products (scope 3) by 30% by 2030 (reference year 2019).
Green Chemistry is the heart of our company. We use bio-based materials to supply our customers with the most environment-friendly and safe products.
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