We’re focused on driving continuous energy efficiency and transitioning to 100% renewable electricity across all our sites globally. This will have a significant impact on our ambition of reducing our carbon emissions in our own operations by 50% by 2030.

To underline our commitment in this area, we’ve aligned our own sustainability ambitions with the Paris agreement, which aims to limit global warming and ensure that global temperature rise does not exceed 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels.

Our target is to reduce carbon emissions for the whole value chain by 50% by 2030 (baseline 2018). This will apply to the company’s own operations, as well as its partners, such as customers and suppliers. The targets were officially validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in September 2021. AkzoNobel is the first paints and coatings company to set science-based sustainability targets by announcing carbon reduction targets for the full value chain.

In 2017, we already joined the RE100 initiative. RE100 is a collaborative initiative uniting the world's most influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity – developed by the international non-profit organization The Climate Group in partnership with CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project).

Our ambitions

• 50% reduction of carbon emissions by 2030 for the full value chain*
• 50% reduction of carbon emissions by 2030 for our own operations*
• 30% reduction of our energy consumption by 2030*
• 100% renewable electricity in our own operations by 2030
• Carbon neutral by 2050

Our progress (2023)

• 38% reduction in carbon emissions (own operations)*
• 62% renewable electricity in our own operations 
• 82 locations are using 100% renewable electricity
• 31 sites using solar panels as a supplementary source of energy
• 100% renewable electricity in Europe since January 2022 and North America since January 2023
• 1% reduction in total energy use*

_{*Absolute reduction, compared with the 2018 baseline}

Our approach

Sustainability is in everything we do. We focus on tangible initiatives we can truly influence as a paints and coatings company. How do we do this? Below are some examples of projects that will help us to achieve our ambitions:

Lowering energy consumption

1.    Energy efficiency – improving the energy efficiency of equipment and installations, including LED and compressed air systems.

2.    A strong focus on behavior – by making energy use visible, we create awareness, which leads to actions such as shutdown management and resource efficiency.

Shifting to 100% renewable electricity

1.    Self-generated renewable electricity – by installing solar panels at a number of our locations. We’re in the process of increasing this number significantly as part of a global program.

2.    Source renewable electricity – the electricity generated by our solar panels cover part of our total electricity consumption needs. For the remainder, we’ll continue to purchase renewable electricity with certificates of origin.