AkzoNobel tops SAM Index

AkzoNobel - owner of the world famous paint brand Dulux - has won the first place and named 'Super Sector Leader' in the latest SAM Sustainability Assessment. It is the sixth consecutive year that AkzoNobel has been in the SAM top three.

AkzoNobel, a major producer of speciality chemicals, has topped the list and achieved first position in all three categories - economic, environmental and social criteria.

"The number one ranking in the SAM index is a real achievement for our company," said AkzoNobel's Corporate Director of Sustainability and Health, Safety and Environment, André Veneman.

"It demonstrates how we have integrated sustainability practices into our day-to-day processes. It is a reward for the hard work put in by many of our businesses and functions, who have driven further improvements in several departments this year."

Veneman said, "We are very proud to come first in all. We have especially succeeded in improving on Operational Eco-Efficiency, Product Safety and Talent Attraction and Retention. This shows that sustainability is strongly embedded in our strategy. The SAM ranking is also an excellent tool to measure our progress by benchmarking our performance with our peers."

He said that the excellent score is the result of the contribution of 55.000 people being engaged in among others improving our product safety and the reduction of waste and energy at all our sites.

"It's great to see that we have made significant improvement in training and talent development programs. We encourage all employees to keep working on sustainability in the years to come," Veneman said.

The influential ranking - which is used by Dow Jones to create their Sustainability Index - assesses 90 companies in the chemical and coatings industries and ranks the leaders in sustainability based on economic, social and environmental categories.