12% Reduction in Carbon Footprint compared to 2021, in line with the Committed Strategy

AQUILA published the evolution of non-financial indicators for 2023 in the Sustainability Report. The company's total carbon footprint recorded a 12% decrease in 2023 compared to 2021, reaching 30,731 tons CO2e, according to the location-based calculation method. The consumption of energy from fuels decreased by 7.5%, and energy efficiency relative to turnover increased by 19% compared to 2021.

Răzvan Bagherea, Organization and Human Resources Manager, AQUILA:

"In 2023, AQUILA continued its initiatives for operational efficiency, digitalization, and integrating the sustainability principles into all aspects of our business. AQUILA's decarbonization strategy is ambitious and includes concrete measures such as modernizing the fleet with Euro 6 engines and optimizing transport routes by implementing a route management system. Additionally, 78% of the electricity used by the Group comes from renewable sources. To achieve this, we have commissioned photovoltaic plants with a total combined capacity of 230 kW. AQUILA's achievements have been recognized with a Bronze Medal by EcoVadis, an internationally recognized provider of business sustainability ratings."

The main objective of the sustainability strategy for 2021-2026 is to reduce the carbon footprint by 10% by 2026 compared to 2021.

The carbon footprint structure for 2023 shows that approximately 80% of emissions are direct (Scope 1), which are controllable by the company, and 20% are indirect (Scope 2 and 3), originating from the value chain and being more difficult to control. Between 2021 and 2023, the company recorded the following reductions in emissions: Scope 1 emissions decreased by 9.9% compared to 2021, Scope 2 emissions (location-based) decreased by 56.3%, and Scope 3 emissions decreased by 3.3% compared to 2021. The improvement in greenhouse gas emissions intensity relative to turnover is 32.4% compared to 2021 and is observed an improvement of 17.5% relative to the number of kilometers.

Regarding waste management, the company has developed a program to prevent and reduce the amount of waste and collaborates with authorized operators for its recovery. In 2023, the total amount of waste generated by AQUILA decreased by approximately 10% compared to 2021.

The AQUILA team represents a central pillar of the company's success, thus we implement specific training and development programs. In 2023, a total of 22,019 hours of training were conducted, a fivefold increase compared to the previous year. At the individual level, this meant an average of 7.67 hours of training per employee for all categories of staff, including those at the operational level.

AQUILA transports goods of all temperature categories (ambient, refrigerated, frozen) both nationally and internationally to over 20 countries in the EU, Switzerland, the UK, etc. The company ended 2023 with a net profit of RON 97 million and total revenues of RON 2.5 billion, being the market leader in terms of profitability. For 2024, AQUILA has budgeted investments of approximately EUR 17 million, of which EUR 10.9 million are allocated for the purchase of transport vehicles through leasing.

The sustainability report of the AQUILA Group for the year 2023 was prepared based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 2021 reporting standard. The companies covered in the report are Aquila Part Prod Com S.A. (Romania), Trigor AVD S.R.L. (Republic of Moldova), and Printex S.A. (Romania).

The detailed report can be viewed here.