Klara Tengstrand, Sustainability Manager at Office Management answers three questions.
2022-09-13
1. Hi Klara! In a time of war, economic uncertainty and also an election year with shifting issues on the agenda - is there any risk of sustainability falling further down the agenda and what is important to counteract this?
Sustainabilityencompasses many dimensions, but if we talk about the environment and climate, we have clearly noticed that these issues have taken a back seat to other priorities in the elections and have not taken the place in the debate that they should. It is worrying that short-term solutions are taking precedence over long-term ones, as researchers and 227 companies from the business community pointed out in 1944 in public calls for increased efforts to ensure that Sweden leads the way in the transition. It becomes less safe to make green investments if you don't know what policy will look like. However, Sweden's commitment to be a pioneer unites the broad majority across the bloc boundaries, and broader cooperation on these issues will be needed if we are to reach the Paris Agreement at all.
Although politics can create better conditions for speeding up a more sustainable transition, we should not underestimate the business community, which sees the environment and climate and other sustainability issues as business-critical. The business community can be quick on its feet, but we need consensus and cooperation across the value chain to make the transition happen; we can do very little on our own. Constant dialogue with customers, suppliers and employees is essential to find more sustainable solutions and to lead the transition.
2. You have trained the management team and some other employees in the organisation on sustainability - what do you want to achieve with this?
Todrive more sustainable development, we focus on creating understanding, awareness and commitment to sustainability throughout the organisation. Sustainability can tend to be a fuzzy concept, and here the training with Sustademy has helped to give employees and the management team a common understanding of the concept and its components, which is a prerequisite for good dialogue and decisions.
Knowledge creates confidence and provides ripples in dialogue with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders, which is a prerequisite for making a real difference. The management team and key players also become important ambassadors to keep the focus on sustainability throughout the company.
3. What is the focus for Office Management in the area of sustainability in the near future?
Ourfocus is on how sustainability plays into the workplace of the future. Something that touches the vast majority of people, whether in the physical or digital workplace. We are a knowledge company, an advisory service company. We provide physical products and services that through their life cycle have a large environmental and climate impact, but where the customer with the right knowledge can make a big difference, both in terms of the environment and also social aspects. We put a lot of focus on making it easy for our customers to do the right thing. We evaluate what the customer has today to assess what can be kept and what needs to be upgraded and replaced. We take back, recondition and recycle what is not being used.
To that end, we are climate neutral to the PAS2060 standard. This means that we measure, reduce and carbon offset 100% of the carbon footprint of the products and services we supply as well as our own impact. Climate offsetting finances, among other things, the transition to renewable energy.
To ensure a more sustainable supply chain all the way, we need to work with suppliers who have the same ambitions as us. That's why we're tightening expectations of suppliers going forward, both in terms of climate targets and social impact. We are well aware of the complexity of our supply chain and the challenges of environmental and social responsibility, and we know that this can only be achieved through good collaboration with our suppliers.
You can read more about Office Management's sustainability work here:
https://www.officemanagement.se/hallbarhet/klimatarbete/
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