Stakeholder engagement
Understanding the needs and expectations of our stakeholders is the foundation for our ESG strategy and supporting actions.
Our approach to engagement
Maersk continuously engages with seven key stakeholder groups, including those that may be directly impacted by our activities and those who are users of the information that we publish. Their valued input informs our decisions and the actions we take to live up to our responsibilities and mitigate potential negative impact on society or the environment. They also help us identify emerging issues that may pose a significant risk to our business.
Stakeholder group | Stakeholder expectations | Engagement channels |
---|---|---|
Stakeholder group
Customers
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Stakeholder expectations
Solutions that ensure responsible business practices and net zero emissions in their supply chains.
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Engagement channels
|
Stakeholder group
Employees |
Stakeholder expectations
Meaningful work, fair treatment and wages, a sense of belonging for all, and good development opportunities.
|
Engagement channels
|
Stakeholder group
Investors and analysts
|
Stakeholder expectations
Strategies, plans and actions to mitigate short and long-term risk to the business model.
|
Engagement channels
|
Stakeholder group
Suppliers and& business partners
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Stakeholder expectations
Responsible business practices , and partnership on strategic issues.
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Engagement channels
|
Stakeholder group
Authorities
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Stakeholder expectations
Compliance with regulation and industry leadership on transformation to net zero.
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Engagement channels
|
Stakeholder group
NGOs
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Stakeholder expectations
Responsibility and accountability towards material issues, and industry leadership on topics of highest impact and leverage.
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Engagement channels
|
Stakeholder group
Communities and nature
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Stakeholder expectations
Responsibility and accountability towards material issues, and positive contributions in areas of highest impact and leverage.
|
Engagement channels
|
ESG ratings as a proxy for stakeholder expectations
ESG ratings are a source of insight on stakeholder expectations and valued by customers and investors.
We have prioritised those that are most material to our stakeholders and align with our priorities. Our ambition is to achieve leadership scores in these ratings, and it is expected that our disclosure level will continue to increase as our ESG strategy matures.
Key partnerships and coalitions
We actively engage in cross-industry partnerships and coalitions to set standards, develop solutions and drive common agendas across the ESG agenda.
This active engagement is core to our ESG strategy and in recent years, we have seen significant growth in engagement requests.
We aim to prioritise our efforts where we have the biggest impact and where it adds the greatest value, and therefore consciously assess and prioritise our partnerships to determine the appropriate level of engagement (or disengagement).
ESG risk to business
We draw on Maersk’s enterprise risk management (ERM) process, which assesses top risks to achieving our business plan within a 5-year horizon.
Two ESG issues are identified among our top 10 ERM risks this year. These are: organisational capital (inability to attract and scale the right workforce to drive the process excellence, tech strategy and logistics growth); and decarbonisation (failure to generate business value from decarbonisation).
For more information, see the section on risk in our Annual Report.
Assessing our corporate human rights impacts
A corporate-level human rights assessment informs our understanding of Maersk’s potential and actual human rights risks and impacts across our value chain. Learn more about how Maersk works with Human Rights under our Social priorities.
Engaging with customers on sustainability
We engage with our customers on sustainability as part of daily business relationships and in dedicated fora. Understanding their needs and priorities is a vital part of our continuous evaluation of Maersk’s strategic direction, and we are always looking for potential partners, not least for driving us towards net zero as fast as possible.
Gaining deep insights into our customers’ own sustainability challenges and goals also gives us the opportunity to develop innovative and sustainable services that help their businesses go all the way.