Stahl chief executive, Maarten Heijbroek, who stepped into the role in July 2021, has said he believes last year was “a pivotal moment in the company’s success story” as it pursues what he called “ambitious environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) goals”.

On presenting Stahl’s newest ESG report on May 10, Mr Heijbroek said a roadmap the company launched last year was driving it towards more responsible chemistry and transparency across the supply chain.

Giving more detail about the roadmap, he explained that Stahl’s aim is to achieve a “massive cut” in its CO2 emissions between now and 2030. This comes from its acceptance that industrial and chemical companies, including Stahl, will need to make these large-scale cuts in emissions to help the world achieve the Paris climate agreement of limiting global warming to an average of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Stahl’s commitment is to reducing its scope-one (direct greenhouse gas emissions) and scope-two (emissions from the energy required to run the company’s own operations) emissions by 2% every year between now and 2030.

Also by 2030, it aims to make sure its entire portfolio of leather chemicals will meet ZDHC standards for safety.

Mr Heijbroek said Stahl had already reduced its scope-one and scope-two emissions by 15% and had achieved ZDHC certification for more than 1,600 of its products and had completed lifecycle assessment (LCA) exercises for 50 strategic products and was able to share the data.

He added that the company had a target for reducing scope-three (from suppliers and the wider supply chain) emissions for 2022 and will extend the availability of LCA data to 100 products.

For its own people, he said the company would continue its efforts to build “safe, inclusive environments”, improving physical conditions at its sites, and contributing to sports and cultural activities. It will also create coaching and mentoring plans and set out career paths for its employees.