Azelis Launches Company-wide Corporate Social Responsibility Program

Azelis launched its CSR program, representing the efforts the company makes throughout the entire supply chain and beyond. This launch follows two years of research, preparation, definition and implementation of the program’s goals and KPIs. Azelis is committed to follow the United Nations Global Compact key pillars of Corporate Social Responsibility: Human Rights, Labor, Environment and Anti-Corruption. The CSR programs ensures each of these commitments, has a framework to measure and monitor performance and develop action plans, as appropriate, to ensure continuous improvement. Furthermore, Azelis is committed to communicate progress and report annually on its CSR program from 2019.

Azelis believes that CSR concerns everyone: employees, customers, principals and other stakeholders including regulatory bodies, governments and local authorities. Being in the center of the equation and providing the company with a strategic position to affect everyone's behavior, Azelis trusts that it is a matter of taking responsibility and acting with respect whenever social, ethical, environmental choices or human rights and laws are concerned.

“The CSR program we have launched is exactly what has been the core of Azelis ethos: showing respect in everything we do, day in day out,” CEO Dr. Hans Joachim Mueller said. “We believe this is the only way of making a true and lasting difference. And of course, the bigger our efforts, the greater our impact will be. At Azelis we are committed to maintaining the highest human, environmental and ethical values through unwavering cooperation with local communities, industry bodies, authorities and regulators. Only together can we reduce the environmental impact of our workplace as much as possible, and improve social values in whatever we do, wherever we can.”

“Responsible Care and Responsible Distribution are already part of our daily work life. They focus on operations and product stewardship while our CSR program complements it and takes it one step further. It will concentrate on the complete picture: company values, ethical behavior, human rights, environment and fair operating practices,” added Maria Almenar, the head of Azelis group Safety, Health and Environment Quality who is leading the implementation of CSR at Azelis.

The CSR program is implemented in all Azelis’ processes and practices, building on the Corporate Social Responsibility Policy and Sustainable Procurement Policy Azelis launched last year when it also signed the UN Global Compact initiative.

“Our commitment to Responsible Care and Responsible Distribution is unchanged,” Almenar said. “While the new CSR program demonstrates the company’s deeper, long-term commitment to sustainability. Many of the activities and KPIs which will now fall under the CSR umbrella are not new to us; we have already had quite a few in place, but now the KPIs we measure will have one common framework and are a part of a bigger picture.”

As a result of the work done by Azelis in 2016, the group’s EcoVadis score improved in only one year from 39 to 60, i.e. from Bronze status to Silver status. This placed Azelis in the top seven percent of all the suppliers evaluated by EcoVadis.

The Azelis CSR Steering Committee was formed in 2016 comprising of representatives from ExCom, Business / Operations and support functions. With support from the leading expert in this field the company has defined the CSR strategy and KPIs. In 2017, CSR and Sustainable Procurement policies were rolled out globally with KPIs and monthly indicators implemented in order to monitor the company’s performance against these policies. In 2018 data collection across all CSR policies has been implemented and Azelis’ first sustainability report is expected to come out in 2019.