05 | ESG strategy
Long-term thinking to deliver the industry of tomorrow
A sustainable business is one that thinks and acts with a long-term focus, allowing it to live within the paradigm of a sustainable world. Businesses typically operate in accordance with the standards set by governance systems. Today, these systems are often designed to meet limits set by local and international regulations. However, these limits are not sufficiently restrictive enough to control our cumulative impacts, such that we remain within the planet’s safe operating limits. In areas such as the production of greenhouse gases (GHG), notably carbon dioxide (CO2), biodiversity management, nitrogen use, water management, land use, safety and health management, businesses have to introduce greater levels of management control. By doing so, they will increase and standardise performance in these areas. In many cases, reduction will not suffice, and a complete transformation to new technologies or new methods will be required. This is especially true of the energy matrix, where reduction in the use of energy can only go so far towards reducing CO2, before new fossil fuel-free sources of energy must be introduced to our energy mix.
A sustainable business is also dependent on social aspects. For Hafnia, our social strategy relates to our people employed both at sea and ashore. First and foremost, we strive to offer a physically and psychologically safe working environment. This means a work environment where our employees can be themselves and speak up. On top of this, we also aim to foster an environment where our employees can develop, learn and strive to become better versions of themself.
We have three main areas of focus to deal with climate change while continuing with our core business operations:
The first step is to focus on managing our present actions by building and adhering to a framework of an amalgamation of policy, technical and management standards defined by the IMO and relevant leading international reporting standards (GRI, SASB and TCFD). Hafnia has strict and clear policies to always remain within regulatory compliance. By introducing these additional standards into our systems, we enhance our reporting and management of our operations in the most responsible manner.
The second step is an active and constant effort to understand the external changes that will inevitably impact our business in the future. This step requires strategic alliances with our stakeholders. We strive to build strong relationships with our stakeholders, as well as with key technical experts on climate change, water and waste management, developments in human rights legislation, safety standards, health impacts, good corporate governance and other related areas. By doing so we better understand the trends that will most likely affect our business in the future.
The third step is “Future Proofing”. Future Proofing our business means making it resilient to the changes that are happening around us. In the future, many of these changes in external factors can apply severe pressure on our ability to be sustainable. We continue to monitor our environmental performance metrics and keep them embedded into our strategic business plans to minimise risks and find new opportunities that will be presented by the requirements of a sustainable planet and society.
Among many other Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) objectives, Hafnia is focused on a selection of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water) and SDG 17 (Partnerships to achieve the Goal).
