The second Sustainability Report produced by AAL Shipping in line with GRI Standards keeps the premium project heavy lift carrier accountable, transparent and on track with its ESG goals

Premium project heavy lift carrier AAL Shipping successfully met all its 2023 annual targets related to Environment, energy conservation, Social, and Governance , as detailed in its second publicly available Sustainability Report. The 2023 report highlights AAL’s comprehensive sustainability approach and evaluates its ESG activities in alignment with the internationally recognised Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards.

Felix Schoeller, AAL Director and Head of its Sustainability Committee, said: “Despite the challenges facing the shipping sector in 2023, our commitment to sustainability was and is unwavering. As this is the second report under GRI standards, which assists organisations in enhancing their transparency and effectively communicating their positive and negative impacts on sustainable development, we have been able to track our developments and performance in all ESG areas compared to previous years.

“At the same time, we have been able to audit the related opinions of our customers and partners across multiple industry sectors. This is invaluable as a way to keep ourselves accountable and on track with aligning our sustainability goals with those of our key stakeholders.”

In addition to meeting all of its goals as set out in the 2022 Sustainability Report, well-being and morale of its workforce was placed front and centre of AAL’s social efforts in 2023, and this resulted in a substantial increase in the level of happiness for employees.

Steward Chen, Research and Analytics Manager, and member of the Sustainability Committee, said: “Our initiatives over the years that focus on the social side of our ESG strategy is where we have seen real benefits. We have created an environment for our staff that protects their mental health and well-being and encourages personal and professional development. This is an area we are particularly proud of, as often it is something that is only looked at when it is too late. While the result of our employee survey is confirmation that our efforts are bearing fruit, we will continually strive for improvement.”

With regards to the governance aspect of AAL’s ESG strategy, Schoeller added: “In recent years, several geopolitical events have heightened the importance of good corporate governance and compliance. Our existing governance framework ensures that we not only stay abreast of these issues but periodically review our approach to maintain best practise.

“Producing this Sustainability Report is in itself a testament to that, and part of the reasoning behind benchmarking our performance against GRI Standards. We also firmly believe that good governance is to the benefit of the whole industry and in the past year joined the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) to support their efforts in eliminating all forms of maritime corruption.”

The path to decarbonisation, meanwhile, is a marathon not a sprint and AAL has made steady progress in that arena. “We are not only joining the industry push towards greener operations and working towards compliance with upcoming environmental goals, but taking proactive steps in initiatives that support the sector’s sustainability efforts, such as our participation in the Smart Freight Centre’s (SFC) methodology to harmonise emissions accounting and reporting in the breakbulk segment,” explained Schoeller.

“We urge you to explore our Sustainability Report 2023 to gain a deeper understanding of AAL and our ESG development over the course of 2023 and going forward.”

The AAL Sustainability Committee once again worked in close collaboration with Grow Sustainability Consulting to compile the report, which covers the period from January 1 to December 31, 2023, and covers the related operations of its headquarters in Singapore as well as its branch offices in Australia, China, Japan, Middle East, Europe and the Americas.