2022 brought further environmental and social stressors to bear on sustainability efforts, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing global pandemic, raw material shortages, price volatility, disrupted supply chains, and record high energy prices. Yet, we weathered these challenges, achieved continuous progress towards our 2030 goals and strived for further growth even as we confronted these major issues of our time. At Beckers, we look ahead with confidence as we pursue our sustainable path. Especially because the consequences of climate change, including extreme heat, droughts, fires, and floods, focused our and the world’s attention on multiple social and humanitarian catastrophes around the world and intensified the pressure for innovation and smart solutions.
“The consequences of climate change, including extreme heat, droughts, fires, and floods, focused our and the world’s attention on multiple social and humanitarian catastrophes around the world and intensified the pressure for innovation and smart solutions.”
Despite all these uncertainties, we look ahead with confidence at Beckers. In 2022, sustainability fully became the core of our business and we stay true to our purpose: Make coatings a force for good at every touchpoint. Resolutions as they come from United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) or the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) confirm our route. COP27 raised expectations for the political enforcement of global climate action. The participants were able to agree on a financing mechanism for climate-related damage in vulnerable countries, making progress towards greater solidarity with those who experience the effects of human-made climate change. COP15 achieved groundbreaking progress for global action to combat the human-induced decline in nature. They agreed on a clear roadmap aiming for 30 percent of the planet and 30 percent of degraded ecosystems to be under protection by 2030. We at Beckers view this outcome with hope and consider it a call to action for all companies – including ours. Reaching our long-term goal for 70 percent renewable electricity in 2022 was a major milestone for us. We have since reviewed and adapted our goals for 2030 and have added more.
In 2022, the guardrails of multilateral cooperation, which the international community has long relied on to prevent conflicts from spiraling into crises, seemed weakened and ineffective. Additionally, the various humanitarian crises' caused by climate change constantly reveal the deep inequities in our society and threaten peace and security. Businesses like ours must take a stand and take responsibility for human and children’s rights. At Beckers, defending human rights is at the foundation of our actions. By making human rights a ➜ material topic, we highlight their importance and add transparency to our efforts. Complementary to existing measures such as our work with Global Child Forum and looking at the most vulnerable of our stakeholders, we started a strategic collaboration with Save the Children in 2022 to ensure we especially cover all vital aspects of children’s rights.
At Beckers, we are committed to give back more to our planet and society than we take. We innovate and develop new technologies in response to our changing world: ➜ Our Beckers Sustainability Index measures the sustainability of our products, in our Towards renewable carbon program we work with partners to transform our value chain from fossil to renewable carbon, and with the launch of the world’s first ➜ UV/EB coating we help our customers make significant energy and carbon tax savings.
Despite the headwinds we faced, 2022 was a year of tremendous progress towards our 2030 Sustainability Goals for Beckers and we can see the passion for achieving our goals throughout our organization. Our confidence unaltered, we continue to embrace change and to develop the best products for our customers as well as our joint future.
Nicklas Augustsson
Global Sustainability Director
