Our sustainability approach

Do the right things and do things right. That is what our sustainability strategy is all about. Sustainability for us is more than reducing climate impact. It’s also about all the human aspects, e. g. human rights, health and safety. We’ve structured our sustainability approach in three main areas: Ambition Finite Material Neutral, Sustainable Innovation and Responsible Business. Our overall ambition is to become Finite Material Neutral. By that we mean that all energy, raw material and other resources that are used in, or flows through, our business are part of closed systems. That would mean that no resources are used at a rate greater than nature can replenish. We need to switch to renewable raw materials and help close the loops of finite materials, e.g. through recycling and reuse. We produce our renewable products based on a mass balance concept that is third party certified by ISCC PLUS, International Sustainability and Carbon Certificate. This is what we mean by doing the right things.

By doing the right things we also mean contributing to the achievement of the global goals for sustainable development, through our products and services. Here is where our Sustainable Innovation comes in. Here we link to key global challenges that our products can help address. We believe that partnerships make us stronger and/or speeds up the shift towards Finite Material Neutral.

As we strive towards our ambition to become Finite Material Neutral – we must always consider the impact our business has on people and the environment. Responsibility is one of our core values and we always strive to act in a responsible way. Responsible Business is our entry ticket to doing business as a chemical company. All the things that need to be in place for Perstorp to be trustworthy as company driving a sustainability agenda. As a caring company we strive to act as a role model within our industry, this is Responsible Business to us. As we develop our products and the processes at our sites, we work with continuous improvements. We work relentlessly with the occupational health and safety of our operations as well as to minimize the toxicity and other risks of causing harm of our products. When we conduct business, we do it with high ethical standards, combating corruption in all its forms. We also work to address the social risks in the supply chain and we commit to society and support initiatives that are close to our heart. This is what we mean by doing things right.

Governance

As of January 2019 Perstorp’s VP Group Communications and Sustainability has a position in the Executive Leadership Team and leads the company’s corporate change program for Sustainability. Since 2018, we have a cross-functional team that drives our overall sustainability ambitions and builds internal processes and capacity. The team includes representatives from procurement, operations, marketing, supply chain, responsible care, innovation, business development and communications as well as those responsible for each focus area in our “Finite Material Neutral” ambition.

Our foundation of acting in a responsible way ties to three main initiatives, to which Perstorp has committed: UN Global Compact, Responsible Care and UN Sustainable Development Goals. We are a signatory of UN Global Compact and of Responsible Care, meaning we follow the set principles and act in a responsible way. UN Global Compact’s principles covers human rights, labor conditions, environment and anti-corruption. Responsible Care is the global chemical industry’s unique initiative to improve health, environmental performance, enhance security, and to communicate with stakeholders about products and processes. This is our foundation, guiding us in how we act.

Our response to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, all United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals. Later the same year at the Paris climate conference (COP21) the Paris Agreement on Climate Change came into place. This is the first-ever universal and legally binding global climate deal adopted by 195 countries. The key element for this agreement is to have a global action plan to avoid disastrous changes to our climate, by limiting global warming to 2˚C and continue with efforts to limit it to 1.5˚C.
The United Nation Sustainable Development Goals are very ambitious and so is the Sustainability ambition for Perstorp to become “Finite Material Neutral”. There are 17 Goals and all of them are equally important as they as a whole embrace the concept of sustainable development, and will ultimately drive the world in a more sustainable direction. Perstorp has selected a few, where we believe we can make the greatest difference and to which we have aligned our overall sustainability ambition.

UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainability is the biggest driver for our innovation. More than 80% of our R&D resources are focusing on developing improved and more sustainable solutions. In 2017 we mapped out our current business areas against the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) and identified five SDG’s to focus on based on where we could make the biggest difference:

• 2. Zero Hunger

• 11. Sustainable Cities & Communities

• 12. Responsible consumption & production

• 13. Climate action

• 15. Life on land

When working on achieving our sustainability ambition we address this from many directions with a holistic mindset considering production technologies, products, raw materials, applications as well as customer needs and global megatrends such as urbanization, growing population etc. Here you can read more about the Sustainability areas highlighted by Perstorp, and how we currently respond (and this work, like most of the other sustainability initiatives, is evolving over time):

SDG 2 - Zero hunger

Agriculture is the world’s largest employer occupying 40% of the population, still extreme hunger and malnutrition is still a barrier to development in many countries and often as a direct consequence of environmental degradation, drought and loss of biodiversity. Since the 1900s about 75% of crop diversity has been lost from farmers’ fields. By supporting and promoting sustainable agricultural practices and by investing in infrastructure and technology the development can be improved.
Perstorp currently responds to this by:

• •

  Developing safe and efficient silage and preservation products

• •

  Offering fertilizing solutions to reduce salt stress in arid regions and improve crop yields

• •

  Contributing with safe solutions for packaging to protect food and prevent food waste

• •

  Partnering with the Hunger Project in Ghana. The Hunger Project’s aims are to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

SDG 11 - Sustainable cities and communities

More than half of the world’s population are living in cities. By 2050 this number is expected to be 6.5 billion which corresponds to two-thirds of all humanity. This means that we will have to transform the way we build and manage our urban spaces. To make these cities safe and sustainable we need to invest in public transport, ensure access to safe and affordable homes, plan for green public spaces and upgrade slum areas.
Perstorp currently responds to this by:

• •

  offering safe and bio based raw materials for coatings, resins and synthetic lubricants

• •

  developing safe and sustainable alternatives for intumescent coatings and flame retardants

• •

  supplying safe and phthalate free plasticizers for PVC applications

• •

  offering products for more durable coatings applications

SDG 12 - Responsible consumption and production

We need to consider how we consume goods and resources to reduce our ecological footprint. This requires an efficient management of our shared natural resources and we need to start thinking circular to find new raw materials but also to reduce our waste. Food is wasted in one place, while people are left hungry in another. Drinkable water is already a scarcity for many and becoming scarce for many more.
Perstorp currently responds to this by:

• •

  Aiming to minimize our water footprint

• •

  Not competing with water usage for essential needs

• •

  Focus on increasing recycling rates of our production waste, as well as utilizing waste streams as raw materials

• •

  Developing solutions that are using less resources and enabling recyclability or biodegradability as an end of life feature supporting our customers to become more sustainable

• •

  Developing solutions that can protect, preserve or prevent food and feed from being contaminated, becoming spoiled or destroyed during production

• •

  Aiming to eliminate waste from our own production processes

SDG 13 - Climate action

All over the world we are experiencing the effects if the climate change, as it results in both financial and personal losses - floods, droughts, tsunamis and major storms, just to name some of the effects. Global sea levels are on the rise threatening islands and coastal lines. If we do not mitigate climate change, we may face irreversible consequences.
Perstorp currently responds to this by stepping up with our sustainability ambition and striving to become Finite Material Neutral:

• •

  Making a transition from fossil based raw materials to bio based alternatives and energy from waste

• •

  Switching to bio based energy sources in our plants

• •

  Switching to renewable electricity

• •

  Continuously improving and optimizing our production processes, with the target to assess and upgrade our technologies over time to even more sustainable alternatives

SDG 15 - Life on land

Agriculture and plant life provide the majority of our human diet. 30% of the surface on earth are forests. Drought and desertification are increasing, land is degrading and species are getting extinct – we are losing natural habitats and biodiversity. We need to conserve and restore forests, wetlands and drylands to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Perstorp currently responds to this by:

• •

  Making a transition from fossil based raw materials to bio based in a sustainable and responsible way

• •

  Developing products and solutions to support sustainable agricultural development and enable efficient land use

• •

  Offering feed additives for animals to make them healthy and resistant to infections to reduce the use of antibiotics

Source: https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html

A continuous dialogue with our stakeholders regarding sustainability is key for us to be able to ensure we are aware of expectations and is considered important, it guides us in making the right sustainable decisions and finding the right solutions.

Stakeholder dialogue should be:

• •

  An integral part of our decision making process within Sustainability

• •

  More of pro-active engagement in topics that are of strategic importance to Perstorp

• •

  Use of proven methodologies (LCA, mass balance-concept)

• •

  Participate in selected forums to drive our sustainability agenda (CEFIC, IKEM etc)

Owners

To our owners PAI Partners, it is of importance that we invest in the future, in focused innovation and improved processes that meets the needs of our customers and creates future value. Sustainability is not just one of the strongest global macro trends, for a specialty chemical company it is imperative to embed sustainability into the DNA in order to be relevant in the future, also for the owners.

We have an ongoing dialogue with our owners and through their Sustainability Club we meet two times per year to share experiences with other businesses in their fund portfolio. We report our progress on all material sustainability items directly to PAI through a digital platform in four different dimensions; Environment, Social, Governance and External Stakeholders. We are acting according to our road maps for the transition to renewables as well as working towards more long term targets for other areas, including occupational health and safety and product stewardship.

Employees

The wellbeing and safety of all employees working at our sites and offices is our highest priority. Not only during working hours but 365 days per year. We call it Care 365. From an employer branding perspective, it is increasingly important that we take responsibility and show leadership in all relevant aspects of sustainability, but ultimately this is important to us because we care. Our employee survey is sent out twice per year and is a way for Perstorp and its leaders to get relevant feedback from the organization. The annual process for performance review is a another very important forum for each individual to discuss performance as well as behaviors connected to our core values. This is done twice a year, a main annual session and a mid-year review. Priority to us is our Care 365 program where health and safety is core and late in 2018 a survey was sent out companywide confirming that Care 365 is perceived as meaningful in the everyday of a majority of the Perstorp employees. 71% fully or partly agreed to that Care 365 influences decisions at Perstorp and 66% fully or partly agreed that Care 365 influences decisions in my own everyday life.
When it comes to engagement, we encourage our employees to engage is matters close to their hearts, we also support several local initiatives around our different sites. As one example, Perstorp participated actively in World CleanUp Day in September 2018, when people in 150 countries took action against the global trash problem and cleaned up waste around the world, making it the biggest positive civic action the world has seen.

Suppliers

Our suppliers are essential in providing us with raw material for our production. At Perstorp we strive to always act in a responsible way and we ask of our suppliers to do the same. We also have the ambition to become Finite Material Neutral where our suppliers are key in providing us with renewable raw materials.
All our suppliers must agree to and sign our Vendor Policy to ensure they apply to our standards and values in terms of Anti-Corruption, Human Rights, Labor Conditions and Competition Law.

Customers and customers’ customers

We see a growing consumer awareness and a rapidly increasing demand for non-fossil products and production. There is also an increasing focus on our overall work with, ranging from supply chain responsibility, product stewardship to the wellbeing of our own employees. We are interacting with our customers in several different ways with an increased focus on one-on-one dialogue. We strive to always understand their expectations but also focus on innovation efforts and finding areas of collaboration. Our approach in terms of customer surveys has changed from doing a major one to spreading the focus in different topics. We have a continuous dialog with our customers regarding how we are managing incoming orders and complaints but also in terms of improvement areas. During 2018 we added a section about sustainability into our customer survey which showed that sustainability within the coming five years (environmental and social impacts of the materials/products from a life cycle perspective) was of great importance and 86% responded very or quite important. On the question regarding the importance of Sustainability (environmental and social impacts of the materials/products from a life cycle perspective) when choosing a raw material/product supplier, almost 70% responded very or quite important.
By understanding our customers' needs and knowing how satisfied they are with us as a partner and supplier, we know where to focus and what needs to improve. In 2018 our dialogue with customers has for example resulted in increased demand for our renewable Pro-Environment Products and new innovation projects with customers and within the industry.

Authorities

All our production sites are operating in strict adherence to permits provided by authorities. Such permits are crucial for the continuing operations and are also setting the minimum levels for our environmental performance on site level.
Our interactions with authorities take place at our individual sites, where there are designated people handling the contacts. Because each country has its own laws and regulatory framework, the way we handle it varies across those sites. However we benefit from a globally managed plant network and share best practice across all our sites, including regulatory requirements, hence we see the legal framework as the minimum levels to achieve. In general, we work to anticipate changes in the regulatory landscape, to ensure that we always protect our environment, employees, contractors, neighbors and customers from harm.

Innovation and collaboration partners and member organizations, some examples

• •

  CEFIC, the European Chemical Industry Council, is a non-for-profit making organization which represents chemical companies across Europe where we are an active member. Our CEO Jan Secher is a member of the board. In addition to this we are also engaged in several sector groups and working groups based on our product portfolio.

• •

  IKEM – The Innovation and Chemical Industries in Sweden where Perstorp is a member, where our CEO Jan Secher is a member of the board and where we also are a part of their National Communications Committee.

• •

  Sustainable Chemistry 2030 (Hållbar Kemi 2030) – Chemical Cluster with center in Stenungsund, Sweden with the aim to be the center of sustainable production within the chemical industry.

• •

  Västsvenska kemi och materialklustret – Aiming to develop a fossil independent west of Sweden as well as aiming to reduce carbon emissions.

• •

  RISE and Swerim develops a new testbed for electrolysis and hydrogen applications in industry. Perstorp is one of the participating companies from the industry.

• •

  Perstorp Group is ISO 9001 certified >>

• •

  Perstorp Group is ISO 14001 certified >>

External collaborations during 2018

Perstorp is participating in a number of consortia working with sustainable innovation. During 2018 we participated in 17 external projects with 90 external partners, and 9 PhD students at different universities. Here follows three examples that started with support from EU Horizon 2020 during 2018:

Turning Lignin into Valuable Products for a European Circular Economy Model

LIBERATE, a European project carried out by an international consortium, received a grant from European Union’s Horizon 2020 program to deliver a pilot scale electrochemical plant to demonstrate the commercial opportunities of converting low cost lignin feedstock in high value bio-sustainable chemicals.

The European Union has awarded a grant of 10 million Euro to LIBERATE, a Horizon 2020 collaborative project carried out by an international consortium led by Leitat. The project partners are research centers and universities such as the Fraunhofer IGB and CBP , TNO, SINTEF, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, University of Alicante, large enterprises like Evonik, Perstorp, and Oxiris, and SME’s including CHIMAR, Megara, NX Filtration, Condias, ENSO, Idener, and Gate2Growth.

LIBERATE will deliver a pilot scale electrochemical plant to demonstrate the commercial opportunities of converting low cost lignin, extracted from biomass such as wood, in high value bio-sustainable chemicals. Currently, lignin is being burnt for energy purposes, but LIBERATE aims to change that. The project will extract basic chemicals for the European industry to produce valuable products such as polymers or antioxidants, currently coming from petrochemical industry.

“With LIBERATE, Europe goes a step further towards a circular economy model. It will make the industry less dependent from imported oil and reduce the impact of industries on the environment by reducing CO2 emissions and increase energy efficiency,” says Angel Valdivielso, Project Technical Manager at Leitat.

European technology behind the improvement of electrification for the chemical industry

A European consortium will be responsible for the implementation of the PERFORM project, an innovation action within the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme, aiming to develop highly efficient and integrated electrochemical systems which will substantially improve oxidative chemical transformations based on bio-based feedstocks. A grant of 7.4M€ has been awarded by the European Union for the project.

This consortium led by TNO (The Netherlands) and formed by VITO (Italy), AVT (The Netherlands), Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per la Scienza e Tecnología dei Materiali (Italy), Gensoric (Germany), Hysytech (Italy), Sustainable Innovations (Spain), Perstorp (Sweden), Radici Chimica (Italy), AVA Biochem (Switzerland) and Novamont (Italy) will work for 48 months in order to achieve a single electrochemical cell, that will allow to avoid multi-step chemical conversions.

For this purpose, a flexible PowerPlatform pilot plant will be constructed in order to prove technologies and innovations, that will lead to the implementation of electrochemical production methods for a more efficient and sustainable production. This PowerPlatform pilot plant will continue its service after the project finalisation, to allow future test onsite.

PERFORM is expected to reduce the environmental impact of society by lowering CO2 emissions thanks to the advanced use of bio-based products. It will also be key to the future of sustainable society using local resources.

Likewise, PERFORM and the future development of its technologies will have a deep impact on the European economy thanks to the based production facilities that will create high-end jobs and associated positive downstream effects in the communities they are based at.

Development of Bifunctional Zeolite based Catalysts and Innovative process for Sustainable Hydrocarbon Transformation

BIZEOLCAT, a European project carried out by an international consortium, received a grant from European Union’s Horizon 2020 program to deliver catalysts, novel reactor design and processing, demonstrating their improvement in sustainability and economic scalability in existing industrial processes in production of light olefins and aromatics.

The European Union has awarded a grant of 6,5 million Euro to BIZEOLCAT, a Horizon 2020 collaborative project carried out by an international consortium comprises 14 partners: 2 technology centers, 2 research institutes, 3 universities, 1 Standardization body, 1 international association and finally 4 large industry and 1 small and medium sized enterprises from 10 countries (7 EU members, 2 associated countries to H2020, 1 third country).

BIZEOLCAT addresses the need for lowering the carbon footprint of refining industry, contributing to an evolving scenario of sustainable economy in such field.

BIZEOLCAT's main objective is to obtain light olefins and aromatics using light hydrocarbons (C1, C3 and C4) by implementing new procedures, involving innovative catalysts synthesis methodologies and novel reactor design and processing, demonstrating their improvement in sustainability and economic scalability in existing industrial processes. A refining company, TUPRAS, will run the pilot unit experiments. Two companies, CEPSA and Perstorp, will validate propylene and benzene, as part of TR5 validation.

Finite Material Neutral

Taking a bold pro-environmental step forward

Sustainability has always been close to our hearts at Perstorp. It’s with us in the strategic decisions we take and in the small everyday tasks. Our direction is clear. We have the ambition to become Finite Material Neutral. It will not happen overnight, and we are humble about our target, but it needs to be done. Because we’ve only got one planet.

Finite materials are resources that cannot be created or produced, once the original stores are depleted, or those that are used up at a faster rate than nature can replenish them. Becoming Finite Material Neutral means switching to alternative resources that are abundant and/or renewable, or to close the loops in order to recycle those that are finite. It’s a challenging but exciting journey we have ahead of us. To reach our ambition, we need to partner up with likeminded people in our value chains and around us; we see partnerships as a key enabler.

To reach our ambition we have identified a number of areas that we will focus on; Raw materials and Energy, Waste, Water and Catalysts. We see that we are Finite Material Neutral when:

• •

  We use renewable/recycled or reclaimed raw materials and energy

• •

  We have no waste from our own processes or products

• •

  We continuously are lowering our water footprint

• •

  Our catalysts are only using recycled/reclaimed/not of any endangered sorts metals and minerals

The past year we have focused on the areas of raw materials and energy where we have put roadmaps in place, with clear plans of how to make the shift towards renewables and Finite Material Neutral. We have now a portfolio of renewable and ISCC PLUS certified products, and we are as well working with a certified mass balance concept.

A great example of how we have set our minds and work in line with our ambition, is that we now produce our renewable products based on a mass balance concept, which is independently certified by ISCC PLUS, International Sustainability Carbon Certificate, which gives full transparency and traceability of the renewable raw material. Not just the Pro-Environment Products but the entire mass balance processing system is certified with full traceability and transparency.

Raw materials

Today, our raw materials are predominantly derived from fossil sources such as petroleum and natural gas. We have been looking at developing renewable raw materials both internally and in collaborations for many years, and we are now identifying and sourcing an increasing amount of renewable materials. Metal Catalysts are being reclaimed, and new processes that use more plentiful metals or even no catalysts will be employed in the future.

Energy management

We are in the process of shifting our energy sources to cleaner, more renewable ones. Today, we produce steam at some of our plants, which helps heat the local community. In the future, we aim to become fossil-energy neutral, and possibly green-energy positive, offering our excess energy to people who live in the areas where we operate.

Waste management

We are committed to eliminating or reducing waste in all phases of the value chain. This includes solids, liquids and vapors from our suppliers’ manufacturing, losses in transportation and storage, our own internally generated wastes, and those of our customers and their customers – all the way to our products' end-of-life. We firmly believe that waste is a failure of imagination. Waste is simply a product that has not found its market.

Water management

The use and discharge of water is of growing concern around the globe, and Perstorp is already taking steps to conserve and re-use water in all our manufacturing plants. As we design new products, we strive to always take the use and re-use of water into account.

Partnerships

As Perstorp matures regarding sustainability, we continually build our knowledge base and make new connections and partnerships. We cannot achieve our ambition to become Finite Material Neutral without collaborating along the value chain in new ways. We ally ourselves with like-minded companies, trade groups, institutes and individuals to push technology forward. A deeper understanding of our stakeholders' needs and priorities is at the heart of our journey

Making Finite Material Neutral a reality

We have identified six strategic initiatives to move us along the Finite Material Neutral path:

• •

  Sourcing of future raw materials from waste and renewables

• •

  Inventing new Pro-Environment Products such as Evyron™, Neeture™ and Voxtar™

• •

  Mass balance concept with third-party certification by ISCC

• •

  Closing the loops and reducing product end-of-life environmental impact

• •

  Actively supporting companies and customers engaged in sustainable development

• •

  Engaging in partnerships when relevant to our Finite Material Neutral goal

These strategic initiatives not only contribute to significantly lowering environmental impact, but also give our customers a competitive edge going forward in meeting the global need for greater sustainability and lower emissions.

It’s about focusing on and delivering sustainable success

At Perstorp, we believe sustainable innovation should be about breaking boundaries and setting new environmental standards of excellence that progressively minimize our impact on the planet. It means questioning everything we do, seeking better environmental results and achieving sustainable solutions that benefit society, business and the planet.

80% of our R&D focus is on developing new sustainable and innovative products. A better choice by being resource efficient and a better choice by reducing the environmental impact of a product through its entire life cycle.
Focused innovation is one of our core values, which we will apply to achieve Finite Material Neutral, but we are also shaping our innovation around several of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The UN has 17 Development Goals which unite us globally in contributing to a more sustainable world by 2030. We have selected six of them to focus on where we can make the most difference.

Maximizing our environmental contribution

The six SDG’s we are committed to and where we focus our innovation activities are grouped into three main areas:

• •

  Sustainably feed the growing population

• •

  Smarter and more livable societies

• •

  A climate neutral world

We live in an eco-system where we are dependent on each other. Partnering is a key enabler for more sustainable living and we are looking for like-minded suppliers, customers and industry peers to cooperate with to achieve our ambition for a better world. This is an exciting journey of discovery we think is best done together.

On our journey towards our ambition to become Finite Material Neutral, it is a pre-requisite to act in a responsible way. To be a serious player in the industry we see that the basics must be in place. We always follow set regulations, but we also strive to be ahead, beyond what’s expected. Our systematic approach to social and environmental issues as well as our work to keep high ethical standards, with the whole value chain in mind, is what we include in Responsible Business. This includes:

Caring for people

Our clear goal is that Perstorp shall be the industry leading top quartile company in Health & Safety. We also strive to always improve equality, diversity, performance and employee satisfaction. Our Care 365 program is there to ensure that we act as a caring company, where all employees and others working at our sites are given the opportunity to perform at their full potential in a healthy and safe environment. And we are to make no compromises on health or safety as we increase business performance. Read more about this in the following chapter: Valuing our People.

Anti-corruption and high ethical standards

Besides our Code of Conduct, we also have a number of more specific policies addressing anti-corruption, anti-bribery, conflicts of interest and anti-competitive behavior. In case of any suspicions of illegal conduct or other breaches of our own ethical principles, there is a whistleblowing procedure. In 2018 we have focused on updating and adding e-learning modules. This will enable us to better track the implementation of trainings, and also systematically ensure that such trainings are repeated in appropriate intervals, or in case of any updates of policies.

Responsible sourcing of materials and services

To map and address sustainability risks in our supply chain is an important part of our work with security of supply. We have a specific Vendor Policy, which we require our suppliers to act in accordance with, that covers issues such as child labor, bonded labor, occupational health and safety and freedom of association. In 2018 we have updated our digital assessment platform with more questions, and thereafter sent out updated surveys to our suppliers.

Product Stewardship is about making every part in the value chain focus on safe sourcing, production and disposal of chemical products, sharing all necessary information. Our Product Stewardship team has a high level of expertise and specialism. They support Perstorp in the work associated with relevant rules and regulations ensuring Perstorp being legally compliant within the area of Product Safety.  Apart from working continuously with improving our own processes, Perstorp also participates in different external forums and working groups.

For more information about our policies and activities, read our statutory sustainability report found here.

Our commitments to society

No business is an island. We need to understand how we are all connected and show that we are committed to the societies where we operate and those where we can make a difference. Here are some examples of our commitments:

The Hunger Project

The Hunger Project aims are to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. We are proud to be their partner.

Hunger is the leading cause of death in the world. Our planet has provided us with tremendous resources, but unequal access and inefficient handling of them leaves millions of people malnourished. If we promote sustainable agriculture with modern technologies and fair distribution systems, we can sustain the whole world’s population and make sure that nobody would need to suffer from hunger.

Our focus is on Ghana where The Hunger Project has been working since 1995, empowering community partners to end their own hunger and poverty. Through our 3-year partnership with The Hunger Project, we are one of six companies specifically supporting the epicenter Mem-Chemfre in Ghana towards self-reliance.

The Hunger Project has developed strategies to eliminate hunger and poverty once and for all. There are three basic components identified, that enable societies to permanently eliminate hunger and poverty:

• •

  Start with women

• •

  Mobilize communities

• •

  Forging local partnerships

The Hunger Project has a vision: A world where every woman, man and child lead a healthy, fulfilling life of self-reliance and dignity. So far 380 000 women have been trained in their leadership programs since 2008.

Perstorp Technical Gymnasium

Motivating the next generation of engineers

Perstorp village is in the south of Sweden, and we are the primary sponsor for the Perstorp Technical Gymnasium (high school). The high school offers a three-year program in industrial technology, focusing on chemical processing. The Perstorp Technical Gymnasium trains and educates 16-18-year old’s and equips them for a technical or vocational career.

The education program divides into two main disciplines - Industrial Technicians and Electrical & Automation Technicians. During their education, students get 15 weeks of industry work experience, where several of the students choose Perstorp as place for the internship. Many of them continue working with us after their graduations, while others move on to University studies, and some even come back after that! The Perstorp Technical Gymnasium is an important source for securing future competence at site Perstorp. 10% of current workforce are former students from Perstorp Technical Gymnasium.

Perstorp High School won the "Framtidspriset 2018” (“Award for the future”) (at Automationsdagarne 6-7 February, hosted by ITF Automation)

Part of the motivation: “A school with ambitions to be in the lead and with a close collaboration with the industry, not only Perstorp AB but also with a number of businesses in the region, with focus on automation. The gender mix between both students and teachers is extraordinary as well as an extremely high percentage of students graduating.”

2018 was the year when we further emphasized the importance of our Care 365 initiative with a number of various projects and activities. One of them was a project supported by DuPont Sustainable Solutions, where the link between health and a safety was confirmed. You cannot have a safe workplace unless you have a healthy workplace. Ultimately, leadership plays a critical role and to build a lasting company, we need people that last. It is as simple as that.

Safety focus has paid off

As a very important step to raise awareness about health and safety, the companywide initiative Care 365 was launched in 2017. Work has paid off and there is now a profound and sustainable change in terms of safety. In the second half of 2018, performance was better than target every month and we are convinced that every injury at work is preventable, and our focus is continuously on prevention.

Care 365 is one of the most important future growth drivers for Perstorp, and it is defined as follows:

• •

  Perstorp is a caring company where all employees are given the opportunity to perform at their full potential in a healthy and safe environment

• •

  Capability to lead health and safety is an entrance ticket to any leading position

• •

  No compromises on health or safety to increase business performance

• •

  Perstorp is a role model for other companies

To truly build a culture where everyone puts their own and others safety first requires commitment from all levels. Even if we all know that the well-being of ourselves is necessary to build a business that performs well in the long run. We are placing emphasis on visible leadership from top management, a sense of urgency when it comes to incidents and accidents, clear standards and compliance management. Now, looking back at 2018 we are very proud to see that through raised awareness, improved identification of potential hazards, employee trainings and an emphasis on risk reduction we have a drop in OSHA-recordable accidents to 9 (16) and the injury rate, OSHAR was lowered to 0.49 (1.0).

Beyond hard numbers, we are defining Care with a strong focus on leadership and how we support our employees in the ever changing and challenging work environment; the Perstorp Careway, based on industry best-practice. The Careway defines the maturity level of an organization in terms of behavior, and our clear goal is to move the whole company to Level 3, Motivated/Independent, before end of 2020.

To further increase and accelerate our work with safety we partnered up with DuPont Sustainable Solutions. After a lot of activities, engagement and workshops, a global integrated roadmap was developed covering eight global focus areas such as Process Safety, Health and Leadership. In addition, internal capabilities have been developed and Careway Champions have been appointed and trained to carry out detailed safety assessments, develop future safety activities and support their own organizations to implement identified actions.

Health and safety are two of the most important priorities at Perstorp. To be able to track progress we have implemented the tool, “the Careway Protocol” in collaboration with DuPont Sustainable Solutions.

Leadership for health

In 2018 we decided to further emphasize health as a part of our tool, “the Careway Protocol”. A cross-functional team set up a plan where our core values are linked to expected behaviors on three levels:

• •

  Companyship: bringing forward how the company can support with expectations on availability, health-checks, workplace environments etc.

• •

  Leadership: providing managers with tools and support and challenge employees in thinking about stress and workloads

• •

  Employeeship: making each individual take responsibility, take own initiatives and care  

With a clear goal that everyone at Perstorp comes to work and goes home healthy and safe every day, our work with Care 365 was intensified in 2018.

To further demonstrate focus and importance of health, safety and care all across Perstorp, in August 2018, the very first “Let’s talk Care 365” was arranged in all geographical locations, sites as well as offices. All employees were invited to an event in their respective location, and there was a variety of topics on the agendas, everything from hands-on safety training to office yoga. The level of engagement was high and the conclusion was that this day should become a yearly event.

Our Careway forward

We are convinced that every accident at work is preventable, and our focus is continuously on prevention. Real change is driven by people, purpose and values, and together with a strengthened leadership, this is how Perstorp will bring Care to the next level.
From 2019 we will start measuring our health performance more clearly and it will also be followed up on an individual level as it will be included in annual review process. Already in the year-end employee survey, we have seen somewhat improved results related to health factors.

Growing with Perstorp

“Perstorp has a well renowned culture based on Care, Joy and Excellence and our Values; Responsibility (Do right), Reliability (Keep the promise), and Focused Innovation (Make it better) encompass everything we do. In the last years transformation of Perstorp we have delivered a true turn around, not only regarding our financial figures, but also been able to further build on our high performance and caring culture. We have implemented a company-wide culture program “Leading Change” for a fully empowered Perstorp. Our clear goal is that Perstorp shall be the industry leading top quartile company in Health & Safety, Equality, Diversity, Performance, Sustainability and Employee satisfaction.

It is people that innovate. It is people that make improvements. It is people that enables growth. It is people that takes good care of our customers. It is people within the Perstorp family that does magic together! As a company this is what we need to support and facilitate, every day. We do that by focusing on leadership and by providing people different pathways to grow, in their knowledge, skills and as individuals. All Perstorp employees shall be given the opportunity to perform at their full potential, every day!”

Mikael Gedin, Executive Vice President, People & Culture and CEO Office

The annual performance review process 

Our core values of Responsibility, Reliability and Focused Innovation are what guides us as a company.  They form a central part also in our annual Performance Review Process (PMD). The values are then divided into 10 behaviors, which are used to create a dialogue between managers and employees, about how they and we as a company live these values. The PMD also focuses on providing each employee with feedback on their results and areas of improvement. The process also includes development activities, short- and long-term career planning and objectives setting for the upcoming year.

The annual performance review process is aligned with both the Talent Management Process and the Succession Planning Process. 

Diversity

With sites located from Toledo in the West, to Zibo in the East and with our roots in the village of Perstorp, Sweden, we are by default a company built on diversity. With English as our corporate language, many positions can be attractive for people of diverse backgrounds. Over time, we have come to realize that it would be beneficial for all, if we work more pro-actively with different aspects of diversity. By being diverse, we also enhance different perspectives on solutions, supporting better decisions and stimulating higher creativity.

Perstorp has a diversity policy in place for the Group and in 2018 we set a target that:

• •

  50 % of all appointed managers should be women – we reached 29% women

• •

  50 % of all new senior managers (members of the Perstorp Leadership Team) should be women – we reached 33 %

• •

  50 % of all new senior managers should be non-Swedes – we reached 55 %

In Perstorp Leadership Team (PLT) we have 26 non Swedish citizen 50 Swedish citizen. PLT is a management forum with employees reporting to ELT or being members in one of the Functional Leadership Teams.

Managing talents

With the purpose of offering employees to grow in our organization and with the purpose to contribute to our succession planning, Perstorp Group has a Talent Management Program. The program is a bi-annual activity to identify, assess and train the next generation of managers. We first ran the process in 2015, and in 2017 we had the second group in place. The years in between the two groups are considered to be training and preparation in order to take the next step. Our next batch of talents will be starting the program in 2019. The talents are identified through the annual performance processes and then further discussed between the Executive Management Team and the Global HR organization before an individual is offered a place in the program.

Throughout our program, the talents are also benchmarked with talents from peers in our industry and we can see that our future leaders come out well in comparison. Leaving the program the talents are equipped with new knowledge and insights, and an individual development plan.

During the Talent Management program 2015 we had 32 participants. At the end of 2017, 18 of those (56%) had new positions within Perstorp.

During the Talent Management program 2017 we had 21 participants. Since then, 6 of those (29%) has got new positions within Perstorp

Leading change towards a “Fully Empowered Perstorp”

In 2018 we continued to roll-out our Leading Change methodology and also trained some 100 people in coaching. A new leadership program for key leaders was launched and a new group will participate in the one year-program during 2019, where focus is on leading self, others and change. The certified Leadership program, compulsory for all new middle managers will also continue. In 2019 leading change support, training and coaching, will be given to all managers leading teams in the most prioritized change projects. In line with our ambition to create a “Fully Empowered Perstorp”, and an open and collaborative climate, it is imperative to encourage people to rise above the necessary results and choose to go for the possible. Creating psychological safety and building collaborative relations are therefore key areas in our leadership programs.