Sustainability is central to the way WE Soda does business and we believe it is a key driver of our competitive advantage. It guides the way we work and the impact we aim to have on the world around us.
We have developed a Sustainability Plan that places our customers at its core. We have called it "Sustainability as a Service" because we believe that by working with our customers we can help them achieve their sustainability goals whilst also achieving ours.
At the heart of the plan are six headline targets which help focus our efforts on delivering tangible improvements for our employees, our customers, our business and for the planet.
Our 6 headline targets
Target 1: Safety
Zero high consequence accidents by 2028
A safe and healthy work environment is integral to employee satisfaction and productivity, making health and safety critical to the smooth running of our operations, and the number one priority for WE Soda. Our employees should go home safe and healthy every day, and we are striving for zero high consequence injuries across our sites as soon as possible.
Target 2: Lowest Carbon Products
To always produce, at scale, soda ash with the world’s lowest carbon and water footprint
Most of our customers (and their customers) are committed to decarbonise. However they face a range of challenges in their efforts to reduce their products’ carbon footprint, and it is our role to help them.
Our headline target to always offer products at scale with the lowest carbon footprint is one way we can demonstrate our commitment to supporting them. Our plan outlines how we are going to meet that target, the technical choices we have available and the dependencies upon which we rely.
Target 3: Net Zero
Across all areas of our business by 2050 (excluding product use)
Many of our customers are clear in their intentions: they are targeting Net Zero by 2050, and in some cases even by 2040, with critical targets to achieve by 2030 or sooner. We are witnessing the pushback from some politicians and others on the global Net Zero ambitions, but when we talk to many of our stakeholders, their ambitions and their expectations of us remain as strong as ever.
We have committed to achieving Net Zero across our business by 2050 and we will work hard to get there sooner.
We have analysed our business, our processes and our supply chain and carbon emissions is our most material issue. Our carbon plan therefore straddles our product agenda and our process agenda, procurement, and distribution.
Target 4: Water and Nature
To be water neutral and nature positive by 2040
We operate in water-stressed regions including the Green River catchment in the US and the Sakarya Basin in Türkiye. In order to protect our sites and our communities, our water strategy must go beyond efficiency measures and address the resilience of this precious shared resource.
In priority water basins that are materially associated with our operations, we aim to contribute more to water availability, quality and access and ecosystem health than we consume, through collaborative, transparent and evidence-based action by 2040.
Target 5: Diversity
50% of management team1 to be female by 2035
We aim to foster an inclusive and purpose-driven workplace where employees are empowered to innovate and grow. Our people are central to our success, and we invest in their development while upholding the highest standards of integrity, diversity and wellbeing. We recognise that the success of our business depends on the strength, creativity and diversity of our people, hence our headline target of 50% of middle and senior management to be female by 2035.
Our focus for the coming years extends beyond gender balance to strengthening diversity across all dimensions, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.
Management team = our global senior and middle management in all areas of our business.
Target 6: Sustainability Standards
All mines to achieve IRMA 75 by 2030, and IRMA 100 by 2040
WE Soda believes in the strategic potential of collaborative standard-setting – combining the expertise of actors up and down the value chain, civil society and academia, to create and support a unified standard.
IRMA is a global, multi-sector initiative that sets standards for industrial-scale mining. We have the ambition to achieve IRMA 75 accreditation across all our mining sites by 2030. In 2025, we began the IRMA self-assessment (starting in Türkiye) and we are securing commitments from other raw material suppliers in Türkiye to adopt these same standards.