umicore

sustainability strategy becomes business policy

After determining a sustainability strategy, the next step is communication. But how do you convey (all) those different stages and messages to your different stakeholders? How do you make sure that your network (customers, suppliers, partners...) knows what it is working on - directly or indirectly - without getting bogged down in the detail or jargon? When Umicore finalised its sustainability strategy for 2025, they allowed our team to strip it down to its essentials and translate it into a story that would be easy to tell. And the result was a whole new business mantra. 

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from sustainability strategy...

Umicore specialises, among other things, in recycling precious metals and producing rechargeable battery materials and emission control catalysts. The group (rightly) sees it as its social responsibility to use its technological know-how, scientific expertise and connections to help transform the sector. 

How? By focusing on the three Ps. And by focusing on gender equality, safety at work, transparency, sustainable resources, digital development... and net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.

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… to creative concept

Quite something, this strategy. A bulky document filled with goals, dates and comments, and a dose of SDGs. The essence: Umicore is looking beyond the impact of its business processes and is seeking to make a difference by developing products and services for clean mobility and the circular economy. Our account manager, CSR consultant, strategist, art director and copywriter on the project all put their heads together and came up with an umbrella concept which would be starting point for the whole story: ‘Let’s go for zero.’

The entire strategy could be summed up perfectly on an A4 piece of paper, a single slide or landing page. All that was required was one ambitious figure with four interpretations: 'net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, zero harm, zero inequality & zero regrets'.

Umicore aims to be climate neutral for scope 1 and 2 (direct emissions as well as indirect emissions from electricity, heat and cooling) by 2035. The company is committed to a strong culture of safety and prevention in all its locations worldwide, it swears by inclusion and diversity as a breeding ground for innovation, and it wants to lead the industry by not passing up any opportunity.

let's go for zero

The concept is used as a basis for all Umicore's sustainability communications –from press releases, sustainability pages and slide decks to videos, social media posts, and much more. When you say “sustainability at Umicore”, their employees, customers, suppliers and partners say: ‘Let’s go for zero!’ 

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