[GRI 204-1]
The most important chemicals used – amounting to approximately 85 percent of the overall purchase volume – are caustic soda (NaOH), carbon disulfide (CS2), sulfuric acid (H2SO4), sulfur (S), sulfur dioxide (SO2), softening agents, flame retardants, modifiers, N‑methylmorpholine N‑oxide (NMMO), titanium dioxide (TiO2), and zinc sulfate (ZnSO4). Figures for chemical sourcing are not provided for confidentiality reasons.
The target of assessing 80 percent of the most important suppliers (by purchasing value) was reached in 2019. Additional suppliers continue to be assessed (table below). The new goal for 2023 is to engage suppliers, which cover more than 80 percent of budget spend on procurement, to improve their sustainability performance. As a measure for this target Lenzing has begun to include sustainability clauses in the contractual conditions for its key chemical suppliers. Some of these conditions include setting GHG reduction targets approved by the Science Based Target initiative, to provide information about the product carbon footprint and water scarcity at facilities where Lenzing sources products.
The overall EcoVadis Score achieved by the Lenzing Group’s suppliers (52.3) is higher compared to the average EcoVadis Score (44.8). This indicates that Lenzing’s suppliers have a higher sustainability performance according to EcoVadis standards than the average total suppliers assessed by EcoVadis.
2017 |
82 |
|---|---|
2018 |
93 |
2019 |
102 |
2020 |
152 |
2021 |
163 |
2022 |
387 |
|
Regionally purchased |
Not regionally purchased |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
2020 |
95 % |
5 % |
||
2021 |
94 % |
6 % |
||
2022 |
73 % |
27 % |
||
|
||||
80 percent of all purchased chemicals are sourced from fewer than 60 suppliers. Relationships with these suppliers are highly stable. In 2022 around 73 percent of the chemicals were sourced regionally for the Lenzing Group, meaning that they were sourced from the same country as the production facility or the neighboring country. This was lower than in previous years (table above), due to non-availability of caustic soda in the European market. Therefore a record level of caustic soda was imported from other regions.