David Briggs CEO of the VELUX Group

Looking back at 2021

A personal highlight for me in 2021 was representing VELUX Group at COP26 in Glasgow. I came away with the overriding understanding that what we at VELUX Group are doing is the right thing. However, like others we have to pick up the pace and work even more closely with our partners and industry stakeholders. Happily the building sector has moved beyond its focus on pure operational efficiency and acknowledges the need for a whole life perspective to tackle carbon emissions from buildings and embodied carbon in building materials. Now that we agree on the action we need to take, I hope that we can see greater speed across the industry in the way we respond.

Progress on many targets

First historical carbon capture project established The first forest conservation and restoration project in our 20-year commitment with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is underway in Uganda and is estimated to capture around one million tonnes of CO₂. Read more

Green our packaging

A new highly protective packaging material made solely of paper and cardboard was introduced in Europe and the US. This replaces previous packaging material that was a mix of plastic, paper and cardboard. Read more

100% renewable energy supply by 2023

As part of our accelerated decarbonisation strategy in the VELUX Group, we established a Purchasing Power Agreement for 100% renewable electricity by 2023 to replace electricity sourced from fossil fuels. Read more

ESG reporting

We aim to have the same level of governance and scrutiny around our sustainability data (ESG) as there is around our financial data and have put a clear reporting structure in place within our Sustainability and Finance teams. In 2021, six of the 15 targets in our sustainability strategy 2030 have been included in the ESG reporting.

Pioneering good governance principles for sustainability reporting

We want our sustainability report to reflect the commitment we have made to sustainability. To ensure this journey, we are investing significant resources that will enable us to achieve the auditing level of reasonable assurance for our sustainability reporting. The ultimate aim is to achieve that for our 2024 sustainability report, which will be published in spring 2025. By then, our sustainability data will be subject to the same level of scrutiny as our financial data.

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