[Digital Business Africa] – SGS, one of the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing, and certification company, has presented its « Sustainability Ambitions 2030 (SA2030)» on May, 12 2021. With that « Sustainability ambitions 2030 », SGS is committed to adding Value to Society through its operations, culture and behaviour to enable a better, safer and more interconnected world for all its stakeholders.
Its new corporate sustainability strategy enhances the value that SGS creates for shareholders, employees, customers and society by increasing the Group’s contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and by addressing stakeholders’ concerns as well as non-financial risks.
« Our SA2030 goals span our whole value chain and are comprehensive, tangible and easy to understand across our global network. They have clear action points and ownership for employees at a local level », state the Group.
To achieve this, SGS is focusing on three pillars – a better planet, a better society and better governance:
- Better planet. The new strategy reinforces SGS’s commitment to protecting the planet. « We commit to meeting our Science-based target of reducing by 55% our CO2 emissions per revenue1 by 2030, maintaining our Carbon Neutral status, and fully adopting the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. »
- Better society. As a professional services company, SGS’s people are central to its strategy. « The SA2030 focus on promoting diversity and equal opportunities and prioritizing the health and safety of our employees by diminishing our Total Recordable Incident Rate by 30%2 in 2030. In that timeframe, we also commit to doubling our positive impact on the local communities where we operate through employee volunteering ».
- Better governance. The SA2030 focus on promoting SGS’s operational excellence and efficiency, for example by expanding its World Class Services program across its laboratories. « We also focus on promoting sustainability across our extensive supply chain and developing our human rights due diligence program. By 2030 we aim to cover at least 90% of our spend with suppliers who have agreed with our Code of Conduct Principles. »
SGS is committed to supporting its customers on their journey to sustainability, whatever their level of maturity in this process, through its Sustainability Solutions. On SGS’s website we can read that the company will use its impact valuation methodology to calculate the positive impact these services have on society. « SGS has linked ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) performance to the variable remuneration of its top management. The newly created Governance and Sustainability Committee within the Board of Directors oversees sustainability ».
Frankie Ng, CEO, said, “As TIC industry leader, we are committed to continuously raising the bar on sustainability standards internally, for our industry and beyond. Our Sustainability Ambitions 2030 are completely aligned with our 2023 business strategy. We are convinced that both strategies will make a tangible and long-lasting positive impact on society and represent a great step towards enabling a better, safer and more interconnected world.”
On a YouTube video he adds that « Our Sustainability Ambitions 2030 set a path towards a better planet, netter society and better governance. We have set a long-term targets for 2030, and short-term targets for 2023 which are aligned with our 2023 business strategy. Our Sustainability Ambitions 2030 will generate a positive impact that goes beyond financial return and throughout our entire value chain, enabling a better, safer and more interconnected world for all stakeholders».
SGS is one of the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing, and certification company. SGS is recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than 89,000 employees, SGS operates a network of over 2,600 offices and laboratories around the world.
By DIGITAL Business Africa
