Actega lists strategic sustainability commitments

The company is developing and adhering to exacting strategies, investing in its facilities and R&D, and working together on a global scale to achieve this goal. The latest progress made as a result has been to implement numerous, successful local initiatives, achieve new environmental certifications and employ a set of new tactics that will support a circular economy.

‘The industry is and must move towards more sustainable raw materials if it is to combat climate change,’ said Benjamin Lux, chief technology officer at Actega. ‘We need to transform every element of our global economies’ “take-make-waste” system and ask ourselves how we want to manage resources, make and use products, and what we intend to do with the materials afterwards. With this in mind we have detailed and implemented five strong tactics to move the company and its products towards a circular economy model.’

Actega’s five tactics to achieving circular economy model are recycle, reduce, displace, replace and degrade. Closely linked to tactics one, two and five, an initial raw materials investigation into the carbon footprint of Actega’s products concentrated on selected paper and board coatings. These first findings concluded that reducing the carbon footprint of binders within Actega’s water-based products can significantly reduce the products’ overall carbon footprint. This could be achieved by incorporating either exclusively bio-based materials or biomass balanced raw materials (using both the original components and a certain amount of certified renewable feedstock within existing chemical pathways).

‘Obtaining this information is just the first step,’ added Lux. ‘Actega is now exploring exactly how we change the composition of these products, without compromising their renowned high quality or functionality, to reduce their carbon footprint. It’s an ongoing process and one we are fully committed to.’

Individual Actega facilities are also developing and implementing numerous projects, designed to boost each sites’ environmental credentials. As part of the Let’s Act campaign within the business, teams are working together to minimize their local environmental impact. Such initiatives range from significant investments, like the installation of solar panels at Actega in Vigo, Spain, to utilizing specialized skills within the Lehrte, Germany, team to promote biodiversity and nature at the site, including successfully nurturing six bee colonies.

‘The collective passion at Actega to deliver on our environmental promises is evident when you hear local success stories like these and it makes us, as a management team, extremely proud to be working with such dedicated colleagues,’ said Thorsten Kröller, president, Division Actega. ‘Combine the drive within the teams with the clear vision from Actega’s leadership, and I am confident that we will achieve our business’ sustainability goals. It is crucial that we continually evaluate our processes, products and operations and then implement new strategies to improve sustainability across all of these aspects. For us, it is also important that we are transparent about our journey towards the targets set to demonstrate our commitment to these objectives but also, help our customers and industry peers embark on similar projects and work towards a more sustainable future for all.’