Sustainability Leadership

Naoufal's Mahdar

"When you build partnerships you share the risks, but you share the benefits, too"
"Find the ambassadors that believe in the transition and enable them to embed a culture of change in the company, don’t try to convince everyone in one go"
Naoufal Mahdar

Fostering a Culture of Purpose

Naoufal is the Senior Vice-President Climate and Decarbonization at OCP, where he leads efforts to harmonize sustainability initiatives across the company. Naoufal is deeply committed to OCP’s purpose to enhance global food security and brings his expertise by ensuring efforts are aligned with the Paris Agreement. ​

OCP Group is a global leader in the plant nutrition and phosphate fertilizer industry, dedicated to unlocking soil fertility to feed a growing global population. With sustainable agriculture at its core, OCP aims to improve food security worldwide while adhering to responsible environmental stewardship.​

​

Sector: Chemicals & Fertilizers​

​

Employees: Approximately 23’000​

​

Geography: Headquartered in Morocco with global operations​

​

Website: https://www.ocpgroup.ma/​

 

Challenges
faced

In his mission to decarbonize OCP’s operations through innovative solutions, Naoufal encountered two key challenges. ​

​

One obstacle was overcoming the ‘wait-and-see’ attitude among internal and external stakeholders who tend to feel more comfortable committing to initiatives only once fully developed, proven business models are in place. This hesitancy can hinder timely progress in climate initiatives, where urgency is essential.

"The risk is to wait until there’s a proven model to deploy or adopt. Others are also learning by doing. We need to accept failures and to celebrate them, but especially to celebrate the learning from these failures"
"I was given this challenge. Within the company, we faced a skills gap that needed to be closed as this is a newly emerging role globally"

Another challenge was building the right team, and finding members with the right competencies, which were difficult to find.

Actions
taken

Naoufal implemented a series of strategic actions to address the skills gab and further embed climate efforts within OCP. ​

​

One key focus was to enable sponsorship for sustainability initiatives within the company, particularly at the strategic level. His approach involved continuous efforts to identify and engage key individuals across the business, ensuring they understood the importance and urgency of OCP’s climate and sustainability goals. By delivering the right insights to the right sponsors, Naoufal was able to inspire commitment from influential figures within the organization.

"Convince them. Not with arguments, but with examples. When they see some good pilots, proof of concepts, partnerships that have been initiated then it strikes their minds that something big can be achieved in this topic"
"We have created partnerships to make our common added value bigger than each one from each side"
"Find the ambassadors that believe in the transition and enable them to embed a culture of change in the company, don’t try to convince everyone in one go"
"We are serving a great purpose in this company, and we believe in it with sincerity"

To expand the reach and impact of OCP’s climate initiatives, Naoufal developed external partnerships that support innovation. These collaborations, including partnerships with start-ups like Regrow, focus on implementing proof-of-concept projects and pilots to showcase the potential success of sustainability initiatives.

 

Within his team, Naoufal also promoted a proactive approach, encouraging team members to take action and champion sustainability initiatives. By empowering his team to apply the learnings and avoiding micromanagement, he has fostered an environment where hidden talents can emerge, contributing unexpected value to OCP’s sustainability goals. ​

​

To engage employees company-wide, Naoufal and his team emphasize clear communication, encourage participation in sustainability courses and training, and incentivize involvement in cross-functional sustainability initiatives across the company. ​

Resonance
of impact

Naoufal’s efforts have driven substantial progress toward the company’s sustainability goals. ​

​

High scores on their Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) reporting motivated OCP to launch key initiatives aimed at mitigating climate risks and seizing new opportunities. This included introducing an Internal Carbon Price and aligning climate governance processes with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).​

​

OCP’s commitment to near-term targets, validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTI), has also been a significant milestone. This endorsement pushed the company to master the GHG emissions accounting across all three scopes, and to better evaluate the technical feasibility and economics of each potential decarbonisation lever.​

"OCP aims to ensure the food security for the world while contributing to the mitigation of climate change"

Looking ahead, Naoufal remains dedicated to advancing OCP’s ambitious sustainability goals, including the commitment to become a fossil-free company by 2030 and to transition to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2027. As part of this commitment, Naoufal and teams are actively exploring carbon capture technology to produce sustainable aviation fuel. OCP also plans to promote sustainable agriculture across Africa by working with cooperatives and farming communities to enhance soil health and carbon sequestration. Through innovation, Naoufal and his team are dedicated to creating viable business models that empower farmers in the shift toward low-carbon farming practices.

What Naoufal found useful during his ESG journey

Relevant resources to Naoufal’s work

Skip to content