Sustainability report 2019

AAK’s role in the value chain We have illustrated AAK’s role in the value chain in order to assist in identifying the steps involved in the making of our products and solutions. At AAK, we recognize that our responsibility in the value chain goes beyond our own operations. Every step is connected to multiple stakeholders such as employees, communities, ecosystems and business partners around the world. In the illustration you can see that we are located in the middle of the value chain, sourcing multiple raw PDWHULDOV JOREDOO\ WKDW ZH SURFHVV DQG UH¿QH WR SURYLGH solutions to our customers’ end products. It means that we have a key responsibility managing and mitigating WKH VLJQL¿FDQW LPSDFW ZH KDYH LQ WHUPV RI ZKDW ZH FDQ LQÀXHQFH DV EX\HU SURGXFHU DQG VXSSOLHU The impact we can have and how we manage it rely upon an evaluation of risks and our position in the supply chain. Upstream, our key responsibility is to ensure traceability and compliance with the AAK Group Code of Conduct for Suppliers of Raw Materials with focus on environmental and social sustainability issues. In our operations we aim to minimize our environ- mental footprint and create a good working environ- ment. Downstream of our own operations the impact relates to ensuring a high quality of products and relevant information of where and how our products have been produced and the potential positive impact it has created. Our direct responsibility and requirements can look different in the various supply chains that we are oper- ating in. Priorities and management approach therefore also differ from raw material to raw material. Please read more about the work we do upstream in “Our Suppliers” section and about the work we do in our operations in “Our Planet” and “Our People” section and the work we do downstream of our value chain in “Our Customers” section. 6