Enabling Responsible Progress Across Our Group
Our approach to sustainability
A Group-Wide Commitment, Led Locally
Our approach to sustainability is a natural extension of USTC’s core principles of business acumen, leadership, and decency. Anchored by a dedicated owner family with a firm ambition to advance this agenda across the Group, we leave day-to-day implementation to individual companies, allowing each one to address specific needs within its own industry.
As external expectations around ESG continue to evolve, and as our own efforts progress, we see our priorities and reporting maturing in parallel. We have long recognised the importance of mindful business practices, but formal ESG reporting has propelled our initiatives further, driving forward-thinking developments that will guide us for years to come.
Our ESG ambitions
The USTC Group has formulated five main focus for the implementation of sustainable business practices and ESG.
In 2021/22, we defined our first ESG framework, aimed at creating positive impact on multiple fronts. This blueprint guides how we embed ESG considerations into every aspect of our business. Over time, stakeholder expectations have increased, making ESG a necessity rather than a choice. Yet doing what is right can still be complex, as even well-intentioned actions can yield unintended consequences.
That is why our ESG agenda remains rooted in guiding principles rather than rigid mandates for each company. We believe USTC should enable and support our teams, not dictate prescriptive measures. This way, each company’s management and board can interpret and apply those principles within its unique context, remaining both responsible and adaptable in a rapidly changing world.
Words from our CGO
Keeping track of progress
As a Group, we operate in a complex and evolving environment, one where expectations are rising, regulation is accelerating, and responsibility is no longer a choice but a prerequisite for long-term relevance.
Our role as owners is not only to support progress, but to actively enable it. That means ensuring governance structures are in place, strategic priorities are aligned, and the right foundations are built across the Group. We don’t impose direction from the centre — instead, we equip each company to move forward with clarity, ambition, and accountability.
Over the past year, we’ve taken important steps to mature our framework, broaden the scope of our disclosures, and prepare for upcoming regulatory requirements, including CSRD. As we face varying degrees of complexity across industries from decarbonisation readiness to transparency and human rights — we remain focused on balancing ambition with realism.
This journey demands structure, resilience, and alignment — but also long-term ownership and a willingness to act. That’s what we are committed to as a Group. And that’s the course we will continue to follow.
Mia Østergaard Rechnitzer, Chief Governance Officer
Documentation
