It is our ambition to have a fully sustainable supply chain with material inputs that are 100% renewable, recyclable, or reusable by 2030.
In October 2021, we took the initial steps on this ambitious journey, by reaching out to 77 of our key suppliers stating:
“It is our responsibility to actively use our position and role in the energy business to develop innovative and sustainable solutions that will advance the green energy transition – and we encourage our business partners to do the same.”
The 77 selected suppliers also received a questionnaire enquiring where they are in relation to their own sustainability journey. Our goal was to get an understanding of the position of our suppliers in order to create a baseline and define ambitious shared targets. Setting this shared target will be the focus of our supplier engagement efforts in 2022. At the same time, we will continue to spread the word of our sustainability strategy, focus areas, and targets, so that all our suppliers are aware of these by the end of 2022 and understand their own role in reaching our goals.
As well as informing our suppliers about our sustainability strategy, we also aim to closely engage with a few chosen suppliers to collaborate on reducing our common use of resources, for instance the use of packaging, as well as carbon emission reductions. This will include initiatives targeting not only an elimination of waste but also a larger share of packaging that is reusable or comes from renewable or recyclable sources.
While we are beginning our own sustainability journey, many of our suppliers are already working with sustainability principles, such as carbon emission reductions, resource efficiency and sustainable offerings. One of them is Lemvigh-Müller:
Lemvigh-Müller, a distributor of steel and technical equipment and one of Semco Maritime’s key suppliers, is changing from fossil fuel to a climate-friendly alternative - HVO100 Biodiesel, for transport. Semco Maritime is very pleased with the use of HVO100 Biodiesel for Lemvigh-Müller’s delivery trucks as this type of fuel significantly reduces carbon emissions and thereby supports our efforts to create a more sustainable supply chain for our customers.
In 2022, Semco Maritime will start to implement sustainability as a requirement for our suppliers; sustainability performance will be a part of the evaluation for awarding contracts, and we expect our suppliers to be aligned. We continue the focus on increasing local sourcing efforts to ensure a sustainable supply chain, reducing transportation and carbon emissions. In the coming year, we will continue to focus on ways to minimise carbon emissions in our transportation of goods, not only focusing on local sourcing, but also on greener transportation solutions. The energy sector is moving towards a greener future, and we need everyone, including our suppliers, to be onboard.
“Our data has shown, that like most companies, our supply chain is responsible for the majority of our environmental impact. From the production of goods to transporting them from factories to worksites, our supply chain is energy intensive, with a high carbon footprint and other undesirable impacts. If we are to reduce, and eventually eliminate, these impacts focusing on our supply chain rather than our own operations will yield greater results.”
Richard Bowen
Head of Procurement
We have set the long-term ambition to create a sustainable supply chain by 2030, and we will work to ensure that the technology needed is available. To start this journey towards a sustainable supply chain, we initiated a supplier survey in 2021. We will continue to research our suppliers to create a baseline to start with along with continue informing our suppliers about our sustainability strategy and priorities.