AkzoNobel has been ranked number one on the influential Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) for the fourth consecutive year.

The latest listing places the company first out of more than 350 companies in the Materials industry group. As well as underlining AkzoNobel’s commitment to continuous improvement, the ranking also highlights how the DJSI can play a key role in driving innovation that benefits customers and the whole value chain.

“This result reinforces our belief that sustainability should sit at the heart of our business strategy,” said CEO Ton Büchner. “The DJSI is an extremely effective strategic tool for managing sustainability and business performance, and today’s ranking reflects the importance we attach to working closely with customers in order to develop more sustainable solutions.”

The company has now been placed in the top three for ten years in a row and aims to generate 20 percent of its revenue from sustainable solutions by 2020. The DJSI will play an important role in achieving this, as it gives added momentum to AkzoNobel’s Planet Possible sustainability strategy.

“We’ve developed great products such as additives that allow asphalt to be laid at low temperatures and solar-reflective exterior paint that reduces a building’s energy use up to 15 percent,” adds Büchner. “But innovation is only part of the story. The DJSI also helps us to make advances in terms of becoming more eco-efficient, improving the safety of our products, attracting and retaining talent and improving relationships with our customers.”

The benefits of working closely with customers are typified by the company’s cooperation with passenger ferry operator Baleària, which involves supplying sustainable coatings from AkzoNobel’s Intersleek range that prevent marine organisms from sticking to a ship’s hull – helping them to travel more smoothly, use less fuel and produce less emissions.

“We wanted to use this new technology due to its fuel-saving potential and the positive environmental impact of using biocide-free technology on our passenger vessels in the Mediterranean Sea,” explained managing fleet director Guillermo Alomar. “The performance improvement was immediately apparent and analysis of the first year of sailing data confirms a significant fuel saving of over 12 percent.”

Widely regarded as the most respected independent sustainability ranking system, the DJSI World Index benchmarks the sustainability performance of leading companies based on environmental, social and economic performance, including forward-looking indicators.

It assesses various criteria, including supply chain management, operational eco-efficiency, product stewardship, human capital development and occupational health and safety.