Sustainability

Shifting our portfolio to Net Zero by 2050

We are committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions in our business. We will set progressive and science-based targets that will enable us to contribute to climate neutrality and best balance scientific guidelines, risk profiles and decarbonisation trends in the global economy. We will periodically report on progress in achieving the adopted targets.

Shifting our operations to Net Zero

To become carbon neutral in our own operations we are implementing new Corporate Real Estate Standards (CRES) with embedded ESG goals for energy saving measures and new procurement procedures. We have reduced the 2023 travel budget by more than 30% compared to 2019 and are promoting the use of digital tools to substitute travel.

Responsible investment

In 2022 we achieved the target of ensuring 10% of our investments were sustainable or delivered sustainable impacts. 

Planet positive trading partners

We aim to help our customers find planet positive trading partners. In order to achieve this we invested time during 2022 to identify a suitable partner to support us with ESG ratings. In 2023, we will kick off multiple pilots to investigate the possibilities of embedding ESG ratings into our business processes.

An equal opportunity employer

Our overall employee ratio is balanced at Atradius with 51:49 male to female. However, this is not reflected in our senior management positions where there is still room for growth. We believe that greater diversity at all levels within the organisation facilitates better decision-making. Therefore, we are committed to improving the gender balance in our top management positions.
 
We monitor equal opportunities for employment, pay and training/learning throughout Atradius. In 2022, 31% of all managers were women (including top and sub-top management positions). However, the percentages of women employed on the Supervisory Board and Management Board were 11% and 0% respectively. In addition, 24% of our sub-top level managers in 2022 were women.

It is our ambition to change this over the next five years through the deployment of a multi-year action plan. The plan’s actions include: balancing gender distribution when identifying potential senior profiles, launching unconscious bias training for all our managers, organising a mentoring programme for women, and developing a leadership programme for women. Over the next five years we aim to see a greater percentage of our most senior positions filled by women including: 22% of the Supervisory Board, 17% of the Management Board and 26% of our sub-top level positions.

We also monitor the gender pay gap. The largest pay gap within our professional categories across Atradius was 14% in 2021. In 2022, this gap decreased to 12%. Several factors come into play when measuring pay gaps such as country differences in salary, years of experience and complexity of the position. We aim to stay below a 12% pay gap for each professional category at the Group level. 

Progress in the areas of equal opportunities for employment, pay and learning will be carefully measured and monitored through KPIs.

Delivering value through diversity and inclusion

We have hosted a series of webinars for our employees to explore the key themes of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). These included discussions about and explorations of unconscious bias, trust, empathy, how to foster psychological safety at work and allyship. This was a first step towards raising awareness on these important themes and enabled colleagues to then start a dialogue within the company and take steps towards helping to make Atradius a more inclusive workplace.

Safeguard sustainable growth for the company through compliance with relevant international ESG rules and regulations  

Our sustainability reporting is aligned with our parent company GCO. On a yearly basis, Atradius reports multiple non-financial topics relating to Human Resources , suppliers and the environment. 

In the fast-changing legislative landscape, we are currently analysing the tools available. We are specifically seeking to better enable the efficient collecting, collating and reporting of information required for the current GCO Sustainability Report and any future reporting and disclosure requirements.

Build ESG factors into our strategic decision framework

To build ESG factors into our strategic decision framework, we have refined our governance processes and updated IT processes to take ESG factors into consideration.

Attract, motivate and retain the best talent to help us achieve our sustainability goals

To help us attract, motivate and retain the best talent to achieve our sustainability goals, we have created a new ‘Head of ESG’ role to address the growing importance of ESG and drive our sustainability agenda.  The Head of ESG is responsible for the ESG strategy, for enabling the delivery of our sustainable business ambitions and for overseeing the operational management of sustainability across our different international businesses.

Remain a trusted partner for sustainable global trade

To remain a trusted partner for sustainable global trade we have started a dialogue with customers and business partners about sustainability topics.  In 2022 we held a virtual event titled ‘Clean energy transition: a new way forward for global trade?’. The panel of experts included an energy economist as well as Atradius partners and customers, who together helped us to highlight and explore some of the key issues and risks facing businesses in the areas of clean energy transition specifically and sustainability more generally.  We acknowledge that achieving net zero requires new thinking and we don’t have all the answers yet – but we are committed to supporting our customers in this process.