ESG strategy and governance
We take active responsibility for our ESG impacts in the society and environment in which we operate. While this has always been our core belief, our understanding of what active responsibility constitutes has changed over time. And never more than in the last few years.
Evolving our strategic approach
Working actively and strategically with all aspects of corporate risk and responsibility is a baseline requirement from our customers, investors, employees, regulators, civil society and other stakeholders – and their expectations are converging. At the same time, Maersk has undergone its own transformation: from conglomerate to end-to-end logistics provider, from fossil fuel follower to green industry leader, and from technological conservative to digital frontrunner.
Building on over a decade of commitment to sustainability progress, Maersk’s ESG strategy charts an ambitious course and establishes ESG as core to our Purpose and Values, critical to the success of our integrated logistics strategy, and a differentiator in the value we create for our customers.
In 2024, we reviewed our ESG priorities to better reflect market and business changes since the 2021 launch of our ESG strategy. The updated strategy includes a prioritisation and streamlining of our ESG strategy framework, informed by a double materiality assessment, our understanding of stakeholder expectations, and taking inspiration from globally recognised reporting frameworks and ESG benchmarks.
As external expectations and regulatory requirements continue to evolve, we regularly review our material issues and strategic priorities to ensure alignment with regulatory requirements, stakeholder expectations and opportunities for impact. Read more in our 2024 Annual Report.
Maersk’s ESG strategy
Our ESG strategy encompasses the material sustainability impacts, risks and opportunities for Maersk and its value chain and is centred around three core commitments underpinned by 12 material ESG categories, each with supporting governance KPIs and targets. These core commitments represent issues where Maersk’s position, scale and reach can create the most significant impact, which in turn defines our ambition level in specific ESG categories.
The 12 material ESG categories under our three core commitments are prioritized into three levels, strategic with the highest level of focus, followed by prioritised and foundational.
ESG categories – three levels of priority
Strategic categories:
For strategic categories, we set the highest ambition for Maersk’s performance being a differentiator and impact driver. These topics are also tied to executive remuneration as part of the long-term incentive programme.
- Climate change
- Safety
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Our prioritised ESG categories represent areas which are also closely connected to the impact we have on society, the risks to our business and where we have identified a higher degree of responsibility for acting.
- Human capital
- Business ethics
- Sustainable procurement
- Data ethic
Foundational categories:
Our foundational ESG categories represent topics which are essential to our business and are our license to operate.
- Environment and ecosystems
- Human rights
- Employee relations and labour rights
- Citizenship
- Responsible tax
Our ESG governance framework
Responsibility for ESG and sustainability is anchored with Maersk’s Board of Directors (Board), who endorse the overall ESG strategy.
At the Board level, three Committees are tasked with responsibility for ESG-related aspects as reflected in the committee charters:
The ESG Committee’s primary purpose is to oversee our strategic ESG direction, acting as a sounding board for the Executive Leadership Teams (ELT) and supporting the Board with strategy insights into specific ESG matters. The Committee approves the ESG KPIs that are part of the executive remuneration long-term incentive programme. The Committee meets quarterly to discuss selected ESG topics throughout the year.
The Audit Committee ensures oversight of external ESG reporting, data quality and internal controls.
The Remuneration Committee reviews the sustainability-linked targets, proposed by the ESG Committee as part of the long-term incentive programme for executive leadership
At the executive level, dedicated sponsors are allocated to each of Maersk’s 12 material ESG categories. This sponsorship includes driving initiatives forward and accountability to the full ELT and the Board of Directors for the development of and delivering on targets and policies.
The Risk and Compliance Committee (RCC) is the main executive governance forum for ESG. The RCC charter was updated during 2024 to strengthen central governance across the strategic ESG categories (Climate, Safety, DEI), anchored with the RCC. To facilitate oversight and support decision making for strategic dilemmas and risks through the year, ESG progress updates are compiled quarterly for strategic and prioritised KPIs and targets, and biannually across all ESG categories. These updates, as well as deep dives in strategic ESG categories and regulatory developments are overseen at the quarterly meetings of the RCC and subsequently, if relevant, discussed with the full ELT.
ESG in our central governance framework
In addition to the dedicated ESG governance model illustrated below, ESG topics are integrated into other internal governance processes, including Commit, Maersk's central governance framework. The Commit framework consists of 35 internal governance rules determining the goals and boundaries for our actions. Each rule has a designated owner in the organisation who is responsible for compliance reporting to the Risk and Compliance Committee.
Executive oversight of compliance with Commit is anchored in this committee, where three members of the Executive Leadership Team meet quarterly. The expectations of all employees on ESG compliance are described in the A.P. Moller - Maersk Code of Conduct.
Get a full overview of our internal governance framework on page 65 of our Annual Report.
Driving progress on our ESG priorities
For each of the strategy's core commitments, we have established supporting commitments and targets which steer our activities and enable our stakeholders to measure and hold us accountable for our performance.
All 12 categories and relevant sub-categories covered by our ESG strategy have defined ambitions, KPIs and metrics for reporting. See how we are translating our commitments into action.
Annual Report 2024
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