Our continued commitment to sustainability

Our focus on sustainability is embedded in more than 60 years of work with safety, responsibility and quality.

Ever since VIKING was founded in 1960, we have led by example and have taken responsibility for our environment. In 2023, we continued this important work across all three ESG pillars: Environment, Social responsibility and Governance.

Our sustainability efforts continue to be anchored in VIKING’s top management team who have stood by the decision to execute a long-term sustainability strategy based on a structural approach to engage our entire global organisation and value chain.

Every year, we see how the ESG agenda not only drives more and more strategic decisions, but is also integrated into legislation, customer inquiries, credit facilities and insurance issues at a level where the ESG elements today are a ”license to operate” for international companies like ours.

Sustainable growth is now a top strategic priority throughout VIKING, and we work every single day to pave the way for new, innovative and sustainable safety products of the highest quality.

Our entire organisation’s structured approach to sustainability is driven by our ambition to become carbon neutral by 2030 at the latest.

We will continue to launch new initiatives and make strategic investments to help us achieve this, supported by robust data.

Assessment of materiality

Sustainability is many things: from small, ongoing improvements on the factory floor to strategic investments, quantum leaps in materials and production methods, and continuous improvements to the management system. In order to prioritise our sustainability efforts in VIKING, we have defined a number of criteria for our initiatives. They should...

Be significant
Be measurable
Align with our business model
Be future-oriented
Be applicable to a global roll-out
Strengthen our ambition to be a leader in our industry.

We continuously evaluate and prioritise the initiatives with which we can most effectively contribute to promoting the sustainable and responsible development in our industry.

Steering our global organisation towards sustainability

In 2023, we have continued to standardise our global organisation through the alignment of key business processes across quality, training, compliance, safety, behaviour, leadership principles, business policies, supplier management and transportation.

This work is anchored in the relevant international ISO standards such as ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001, which we have implemented systematically and rigorously in our organisation.

Besides business process standardisation, we have continued our investment in building a validated baseline of CO2 data in order for us to create sustainable solutions that make a difference, and measure same. With an ambitious climate agenda, the data work has been particularly extensive, and it has involved both our own and independent experts.

Using advanced analytics tools, we have continued to deepen our understanding of the carbon footprint of the materials that are included across our product portfolio, including rubber, textiles, fiberglass and steel.

Through our clear understanding of our climate impact, we have been able to enter into even closer dialogues with our suppliers regarding the development of future materials and components, focusing on both quality and sustainability.

The efforts to create full transparency throughout our entire global value chain will continue in 2024 and onwards.