Akzo Nobel’s Decorative Paints UK business has been awarded the Carbon Trust Triple Standard, the second time that AkzoNobel has won this prestigious award.

This award recognises AkzoNobel as having the greatest positive impact on the environment, and rewards the company for reducing the amount of energy used, the amount of water used, and the overall waste output.

Since 2009, Akzo have aimed to reduce the carbon footprint of our operations, managing to do so by 37%. Water usage has been cut by 24% since 2010 and waste output is down by 42% since 2011.

Akzo Nobel's managing director Matt Pullen said: "It’s a point of great pride for me that AkzoNobel Decorative Paints UK has been certified to the Carbon Trust Triple Standard since these reductions began in 2009, and is one of only a small number of

companies to have held the accreditation for such a long period of time."

"To have won the overall award this time recognises and demonstrates the scale and effectiveness of our ongoing commitment to sustainability."

"We are working hard to demonstrate our position as creators of sustainable long-term value and positive social impact too. To this end, we announced a major new sustainability goal earlier this year: we are aiming to become entirely carbon neutral and to use 100% renwable energy in our own operations by 2050."

"As part of our broader sustainability plan, we opened the world’s most advanced and most sustainable paint plant, in Ashington, Northumberland last month. Thanks to the benefits created by a whole host of renewable energy sources (including photovoltaic cells and a biomass boiler, plus a state-of-the-art automated manufacturing process which helps us to save water, waste and energy), we can estimate that the carbon footprint per litre of paint produced at Ashington will be reduced by 50% compared to our previous facilities."