Strategic Focus on Corporate Social Responsibility
Since the merger of former companies Karlshamns and Aarhus United started in 2005 activities within CSR has been very much continued by local initiatives. The complex merger
process naturally focussing on customers, products, organisation etc. was a consequence
of that. However CSR progress has not come to a stand still. Implementation of environmental and ethical requirements for supplier approval has continued, reduction of environmental impact and optimisation of the use of resources from production sites has continued and various AAK partner ships have continued and developed
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In 2007 CSR came on the AAK group corporate agenda. The Group Management Team
decided it was time to integrate CSR in the group strategic planning and establish a group
CSR organisation covering all AAK sites.
NEW CSR ORGANISATION
CSR Steering Group
Global CSR Coordinator
Jesper Korning
AAK-UK
Local CSR group
AAK-MX
Local CSR group
AAK-US
Local CSR group
AAK-SE
Local CSR group
AAK-NL
Local CSR group
AAK-DK
Local CSR group
AAK-LA
Local CSR group
Sourcing & Trading
CSR representative
UNGC
Mid 2007 AAK decided that it will continue to support the UN Global Compact 10 principles
in the areas of human and labour rights, environment and anti-corruption and communicate of progress within these areas. It was confirmed in a group statement by President
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and CEO Jerker Hartwall. The statement is now available on the company website. See
link.
To promote the 10 principles of UNGC, the principles and criteria of Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil production and CSR in general AAK has during 2007 given several speeches
and presentations to customers and suppliers. A 2 page UNGC promotion was published
in the international magazine Oils and Fats October 2007 urging readers to join the Global
Compact.
Caring for Climate
At the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit meeting in Geneva AAK signed together with
200 other companies the Business Leadership Platform “Caring for Climate” and thereby
committed itself to take actions to increase the efficiency of energy usage and communicate on this on a regular basis
The UNDP Partnerships
One of the most important raw materials for AAK is shea kernels that grow on wild trees in
West Africa savannah. The kernels are collected by women from the local villages and are
part of their private household where the oil from the kernels is used for cooking. The surplus of kernels is sold on local markets and represents one of the few income creating activities for the very poor population in these areas.
Women in these areas have a huge daily workload getting water, grinding grain, shelling
rice, extract the oil for the shea kernels, cook food, nurse the kids etc. This leaves them
very limited time for making income-creating activities. To improve their livelihood it is essential to reduce their daily workload.
An effective help for the women is the so-called multi-functional platforms (MFP). A simple
diesel engine providing energy for various tools that can grind, shell, press etc. Furthermore it can run a water pump and a generator producing electricity. The time saved can be
used for various activities amongst others collect more shea kernels and thereby improve
their financial and social conditions. And we are talking of a considerable amount of time
saved. Impact studies show that for example mechanically processing of cereals saves 8
hours per week. Manually shelling of a “paddy” (28 kg rice) normally takes 48 hours. With
the MFP it takes less than an hour.
In 2003 AAK signed with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on a partnership
and cost-sharing agreement with the aim of installing 400 MFPs in Burkina Faso. Recently
a 3rd party midterm study monitoring the effect of the project was completed. 19 randomly
selected villages have been studied and it shows the positive effect of the livelihood that
was anticipated.
Examples of impact:

60% of the women groups had a saving of more than 300 euro

3.000 euro has been paid as wages among the women of the groups
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
Donations from the 19 women groups to local society were 1030 euro (2006)

More than 25% increase of women that can read and write
Being assured of the positive impact of the local population and of AAK raw material strategy to increase the supply of shea kernels AAK has together with UNDP prepared a similar project aiming at installing 100 MFPs in the area around Bobo-Dioulasso also in Burkina Faso. This area is much smaller and a very shea tree dense area. The partnership and
cost-sharing agreement is just about to be signed.
Due to the smaller distances between platforms in the new project AAK’s possibilities to
work closer with the women groups have improved. At present AAK do business indirectly
through middlemen with approximately 400.000 women and directly with 15 women
groups. Additional projects have been initiated to work directly with more women groups
helping them to organise, paying a better price directly to the women, giving micro credits,
launching information campaigns about the value of shea kernels and how to keep the
quality good, develop tool to help carry shea kernels etc. All in favour of both the women
groups and AAK business.
Late 2007 AAK initiated a trial production of certified organic shea butter with a women
group in Burkina Faso. Project is still pending and quality and application results will be
assessed in 2008.
Novella Africa
2007 AAK accepted an invitation to join the Novella Africa Initiative. The long-term objective is to bring economic growth and biodiversity benefits to the people in the rainforest
region in Africa. The edible oil from the seeds of the 'Allanblackia tree' will be extracted to
produce commercial products sold throughout the world. The initiative is a public-private
partnership including local communities, non-governmental organisations, donor agencies
and 2 private companies. Amongst the partners are Unilever, ICRAF, IUCN, ICCO and
ICA.
The project is at present running in Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania. The main
objective for AAK is to develop value creating applications to secure a market demand.
Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil/GreenPalm
An important component of AAK work for sustainable development is the work in the
Board of the Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). In cooperation with the WWF
amongst others involved in growing, processing and selling of palm oil, AAK actively promotes sustainable production methods for palm oil. During 2008, palm oil certified in accordance with the RSPO’s criteria for sustainable production is expected to be available on
the market.
In 2007 AAK established a web-based trading platform to facilitate the sales and purchase
GreenPalm certificates based on the book and claim concept. Only palm oil grown sustainably and certified via the RSPO certification scheme are offered GreenPalm certifi-
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cates. The certificates and the actual oil are traded separately thereby avoiding the need
for a segregated supply chain minimising the generating of extra costs and having less
negative impact on the environment in general. The GreenPalm Programme has exclusive
endorsement from RSPO.
AAK CSR Objectives for 2008
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Establish a group CSR policy
-select recognised standard to assess against
-define key impacts
-set goals on group level and BA/site level
Establish a 3-year action plan for CSR
Decide reporting standard for CSR
Carry out first assessment of all sites and BAs against selected CSR standard
CSR publication
AAK general CSR activities are made public to stakeholders at the annual report 2007
(see link) and the website
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