Scope and materiality
This is the tenth AAK Sustainability Report. The first
was published in October 2010 and our aim is still to
continue reporting on an annual basis. Due to Swedish
legislation, future reports will be published together with
the AAK Annual Report in the second quarter.
Since commencing structured reporting in 2008,
we have been inspired by Global Reporting Initiative’s
(GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, now following
the current GRI Standards version. We have used
GRI standard disclosures and sector disclosures for
food processing with special focus on core indicators.
Indicator numbers and titles in the GRI index are in
accordance with the GRI Standards version.
Because GRI is an all-encompassing format, it is
not relevant for us to report on all criteria. In 2010,
we initiated an internal process to identify the issues
relevant to our business and our stakeholders. This
involved discussions with staff at all sites and feedback
from other stakeholder groups. In 2013, we began using
the materiality analysis tool to map our own priorities
against our stakeholder priorities. Since 2016, we have
been conducting materiality analysis workshops with
the local CSR teams at all AAK sites. The exercise is
coached by the global CSR Manager and the objective
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is to identify economic, social and environmental issues
important to the business success of the local sites.
To facilitate the process, 30 cards with one specific
CSR issue on each are created. All CSR teams have to
discuss whether the different CSR issues are important
to the site or not. Those without importance are
removed from the stack of cards. The CSR teams then
have to pick ten cards with CSR issues most important
to their business. Finally, they have to rank these ten
cards according to importance.
By means of a simple scoring system, data from
all the sites are then compiled into the x-axis of the
materiality matrix. The second dimension of the
matrix, the y-axis, is established based on stakeholder
requirements and priorities. The materiality matrix then
helps AAK to prioritize its resources and identify gaps
between AAK and stakeholder priorities. We find it a
very useful tool in identifying important focus areas. Our
ambition is always to focus on reporting the information
requested by stakeholders, or that of internal value.
This Sustainability Report is a supplement to the
AAK Annual Report 2018 and, therefore, only contains
a summary of financial performance figures and
references to the AAK Annual Report. Both reports are
available at AAK’s website.
Reporting criteria
In general, the data in this report covers our activities
from January 1 to December 31, 2018. Updated
information for some 2019 events is included, since
they are considered to be of material importance to our
stakeholders.
Environmental data (GRI abbreviation: EN) relate to
the fifteen AAK production sites that were fully operational
in 2018 including the AAK products produced
by our toll production partner Cousa in Montevideo,
Uruguay. Other core data also include purchasing sites
and sales offices. In 2018, we have introduced two new
energy sources, steam at our production site in China
and coal at our production site in India. Furthermore,
site Karlshamn in Sweden is now selling solar electricity
to the grid.
Data and calculations
We release a GRI Report internally in the first quarter of
every year. The report is based on information received
from all sites, and contains both local and compiled
global data. A section showing trends from the previous
years is also included. Data and information from the
GRI Report form the basis of our Sustainability Report,
which is published externally.