As a company with a global reach, we have the ability to influence the sustainability practices in our supply chain and are committed to forming strategic partnerships with our feedstock suppliers, recyclers and sorters. The cornerstone of our supply chain management is our Supplier Code of Conduct. This Code defines not only our minimum expectations and requirements in supplier standards, but also addresses the mandatory EU requirements laid out such as the German Supply Chain Act and the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).  

A circular economy cannot be created without a circular supply chain. Therefore, we are partnering with leading suppliers, waste collectors, sorters, and recycling companies to secure high-quality post-consumer waste for our recycled products.  

ENSURING RESPONSIBLE SOURCING 

Our ECO family of sustainable products includes materials comprising recycled post-consumer plastic waste as well as materials based on renewable feedstock. Our mechanical recycling process focuses on blending our premium material with high-quality recycled post-consumer plastic without compromising on performance. We are also working on a so-called “closed loop”, in which customer sends us their leftover waste materials via a recycler that then processes the waste materials into flakes that we can use to manufacture our ECO products. In addition, we offer the integration of renewable feedstock as a replacement for fossil fuel. This bio-attributed approach uses fewer fossil resources and has a lower greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint when compared to styrene produced by fossil fuel. This allows us to reduce fossil fuel consumption as well as save GHG emissions. Each step of the sourcing and production process of these renewable materials is certified under the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC). 


USING RENEWABLE ENERGY 

Today, a significant part of our electricity consumption is already based on renewable energy. To date, our sites in Belgium and Germany have switched their energy consumption to renewable electricity. We plan to also move our plants in Asia-Pacific and the Americas towards the use of renewable energy. In addition, we limit the negative impact of plastics in the environment due to pellet loss by engaging with our upstream and downstream supply chain partners to have them comply with our efforts to avoid pellet loss. 


ASSESSING OUR SUPPLIERS 

We assess the sustainability performance of our strategic suppliers through our own annual assessments as well as through independent third-party assessors such as, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), EcoVadis, and SEDEX. We have developed a sustainability dashboard, which gives us an overview of our suppliers based on sustainability criteria such as environmental protection, labour practices, ethics and fair business practices, as well as health and safety. Through this process, we ensure a systematic sustainability screening and evaluation of our suppliers. We are also working closely with suppliers to gather scope 3.1 (greenhouse gas emissions from purchased goods and services) emissions data in order to measure the carbon footprints for our own products.