Letter from our CEO

2022 was yet another unpredictable year. While the pandemic is largely behind us, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and the ensuing recession have deeply impacted people and businesses around the world. However, amidst these challenges, we cannot forget the urgency of the global climate crisis.

ESG at the core of our purpose and values

In 2022, we accelerated our decarbonisation targets and made significant progress towards delivering on our ESG commitments.

Fulfilling our ESG goals is extremely important to our customers, making our efforts a competitive differentiator and essential to our value proposition. Acting on our ESG strategy is also core to our longheld values and our newly articulated company purpose: Improving life for all by integrating the world.

This purpose is what drives us to deliver a more connected, agile and sustainable future for global logistics. But our efforts must be matched at the industry level in order to successfully accelerate a green and equitable energy transition. Together with industry-leading customers and partners, we’re calling for ambitious policy and action to ensure this happens. We’re also fully committed to doing our part to make this vision a reality.

Making green shipping a reality

While we take a holistic approach to ESG, our greatest opportunity for change is within the environmental category. In our global operations, we emit millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases every year. We recognise that we are part of the problem.

We are, however, also part of the solution and uniquely placed to decarbonise the logistics industry by using our resources and technical expertise. In 2022, we made significant progress towards our ambitious 2030 and 2040 targets by investing in additional green methanol-enabled vessels, bringing the total order to 19 vessels.

To power these vessels, we signed memorandums of understanding with nine green fuel producers around the world.

We also took steps to move away from fossil fuels to electric energy in our terminals and logistics networks, including the order of 400+ heavy-duty electric vehicles in North America.

Our responsibility in the war in Ukraine

Our commitment to global citizenship made the choice clear when it came to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Given the severity of damage and loss of life, Maersk decided it was no longer possible to responsibly conduct business in Russia or Belarus. We made the decision to exit both markets, ensuring operations were wound down responsibly with care for our employees. We have supported humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, working with UN partners and global humanitarian organisations to secure a stable flow of aid and relief supplies.

Addressing our shortcomings

While 2022 had many wins, there were areas where we failed to live up to our commitments. Foremost is the tragic loss of nine colleagues and people operating on Maersk’s premises. I am deeply saddened by these losses and, of course, we find any loss of life completely unacceptable. We are doing our utmost – in terms of our operations, management and culture – to ensure that everyone in our duty of care goes home safely every single day.

We are also taking major steps to transform the culture in our ocean fleet to address the harassment cases that came to light in 2022. Every instance of sexual harassment is inexcusable and will not be tolerated. I encourage you to read more about the concrete measures we’re taking to address this later on in the report.

Creating a more integrated world isn’t something we can accomplish on our own. This is why we support the UN Global Compact and recognise the importance of collaboration to reach our ambitious goals. I would like to personally thank our customers, partners, stakeholders and Maersk’s global team for making this truly the decade of action: forging sustainable, responsible supply chains to improve life for all.

Vincent Clerc CEO of A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S

What we depend on

Purpose-driven people and our culture

Our talented, diverse team of 110,000+ employees.

Our brand

For over a century, we have built partnerships with customers, enabling them to prosper by facilitating global trade.

Stakeholder relationships and partnerships

We rely on constructive relationships with customers, suppliers, peers and authorities. See our key partnerships on p. 19.

Natural resources

Our business relies on natural resources such as steel for vessels and oil for fuel.

Assets and end-to-end delivery network

Our assets, supplier relationships and logistics expertise ensure resilient supply chains.

Financial capital

We have a strong balance sheet and are committed to remaining investment grade-rated.

Technology and data

Technology and data are key to connecting and simplifying supply chains.