Our sustainability focus
All our companies work actively with sustainability, which is required from us as owners, as we are convinced that sustainability creates business opportunities. Indutrade wants to build long-term values, by growing as a company and at the same time ensure that we have a positive effect on both people and the environment.
Our materiality analysis
In order to ensure that we are working with, and reporting on, the matters that are most important to the Indutrade Group and to our stakeholders, we have worked carefully with our materiality analysis.
The analysis is based on interviews with our stakeholders, including owners, potential investors, analysts and employees of Indutrade's Parent Company and subsidiaries. Through the stakeholder engagement, by gathering business intelligence and through analyses of our industrial sectors, we have identified our most significant sustainability issues.
The following areas within sustainability form the foundation for the Group's overall sustainability work:
- Anti-corruption and business ethics
- Acquisitions
- Sustainability governance
- People
- Environmental impact
- Sustainable products and solutions
Below, you can read more about how we work within each specific area.
Anti-corruption and business ethics
With operations in 30 countries around the world, business ethics is of utmost importance to Indutrade. In order to grow and develop, we must ensure that we have good business ethics and that there is full compliance at all levels with our requirements on anti-corruption. This ensures that we can retain the confidence that our stakeholders and the rest of the world have in Indutrade. The Code of Conduct contains guidelines for business ethics and in 2019 we expanded and explained the section on anti-corruption in more detail. In 2019, Indutrade's Group Man- agement participated in training on how to counteract corruption. No cases of corruption were reported to Indutrade during the year.
In 2019, we introduced a new Group-level policy for compliance with export controls and trade sanctions (Trade Compliance). The policy stipulates that all subsidiaries must comply with international trade rules as well as applicable import and export legislation in the countries where they operate. The policy also requires subsidiaries importing or export- ing products and services outside the EEA and Switzerland to conduct an annual risk analy- sis, including sales to high-risk countries and controversial customer segments. Each business area manager is responsible for ensuring that the subsidiaries comply with the policy.
Acquisitions
Acquisition is a natural component of Indutrade's operations and it is fundamental to our strategy for growth. All the companies that Indutrade acquire are evaluated from a sustainability perspective.
Sustainability governance
Our sustainability governance efforts have been adapted to our decentralised organisation and they primarily occur via the Boards of Directors of our subsidiaries. In 2019 and for all companies in the Group, sustainability was included as a standing item on the agenda at one of their three annual Board meetings.
Indutrade comprises more than 200 companies in a wide variety of industries and markets. Accordingly, each of them faces dif- ferent types of challenges and opportuni- ties. It means that we cannot have Group- wide targets and focus areas for sustainability. Instead, they must be tailored to each company. However, from a long-term ownership perspective, our overall ambitions for sustainability are the same for all of our subsidiaries.
After having identified each company's most important sustainability issues, the next step is for each subsidiary to, during 2020, identify relevant goals and key indicators linked to the identified sustainability issues, thereby enabling efficient and strategic improvement work within each company. The managing director and senior executives of each subsidiary have operational responsibility for their own sustainability efforts. Each Board of Directors is ultimately responsible for ensuring that their company complies with its own, and Indutrade’s, guidelines and policies.
People
Employees
Indutrade's most important resource is our employees, their well-being and expertise. Performance and high-quality work depends on this. Ensuring that each employee is thriving in the organisation is therefore one of our most important sustainability issues. We do this via competence development, health & safety and our working conditions.
Employees are recruited and promoted exclusively based on their work qualifications and without consideration of their gender, transgender identity or expression, ethnic origin, religion or other faith, functional variation, sexual preference, age or other categories protected by law.
Competence development
One of the most important prerequisites for maintaining a long-term approach in our operations is to ensure we have the right expertise within the Group. In our subsidiaries this is largely a matter of making full use of the expertise that already exists internally. We do this both through continuing education for key individuals and by sharing knowledge and experiences within the Group.
Indutrade’s companies often work as problem-solvers for customers, which requires that the employees have a high level of business and technical expertise. Offering development opportunities for our employees is a way for us to be an attractive employer and thereby retain and attract key talent.
In 2019, several Group-wide activities were held to promote competence development. For example, we maintained our focus on succession planning and knowledge shar- ing. Through Indutrade Academy, we offer an in-house leadership programme that pro- vides training in areas such as leadership and sales. These trainings have been tailored to
our specific views on business acumen. Our aim is to ensure that our managers and employees are better equipped to meet business challenges and customer expectations. It also facilitates knowledge sharing and networking within the Group. During the year, we initiated efforts to, both internally and externally, increase the visibility of job opportunities at Indutrade companies. The aim of such efforts is to make more opportunities available for our employees to develop their skills, along with attracting new talent. A network was set up for the HR managers at Indutrade companies during the year, thereby creating a forum for knowledge sharing and competence development. It is aimed at promoting long-term development of our employees and the companies themselves.
We also documented and distributed several Best Practice cases on how compa- nies in the Group are working with various aspects of sustainability. These cases have been made available to all subsidiaries via Indutrade Portal, which is our digital communications platform for promoting and
facilitating knowledge sharing and networking within the Group. In 2020, our goal is to highlight more subsidiaries that are working successfully with sustainability, thereby sharing good examples and helping inspire others.
A Group-wide sustainability network will be set up in 2020 that will serve as a forum for employees interested in sustainability issues and help them develop their expertise in this area. Network meetings will be held a number of times each year to exchange knowledge and experience between companies. There will also be opportunities to attend specific training in various aspects of sustainability. The goal is to create a global sustainability forum that inspires others by gathering and sharing knowledge and ideas throughout the Group.
Health & Safety
To ensure a safe and sound workplace for all employees in the Indutrade Group, health and safety is one of the areas that we address
specifically in the Code of Conduct. Most of the subsidiaries have operations involving lighter workshop and assembly work, which entails a relatively low risk for injury. Nevertheless, the Code of Conduct emphasises that companies shall work proactively to prevent obvious physical risks, along with monitoring safety work and the employees’ work situation. Subsidiaries’ investments in improved production environments are something that we prioritise, support and encourage. It creates the best conditions for a safe workplace with fewer risks and repetitive movements at the same time that it boosts productivity and creates conditions for high performance and growth at subsidiaries. The goal is zero injuries in the workplace.
Working conditions
We want to promote lasting, inclusive and productive employment with decent working conditions for everyone. Access to national, regional and global markets is critical to our companies’ ability to fully develop their potential.
The new Code of Conduct for Suppliers and Partners states requirements on respect for human rights throughout the supply chain, including subcontractors.
Environmental impact
Indutrade's environmental impact primarily occurs via our subsidiaries. Accordingly, most of our environmental initiatives are carried out there as well. The ambition is to continually reduce our environmental impact via systematic improvement efforts. Most of our subsidiaries are engaged in environmental work, such as more efficient use of energy and natural resources, implementing systems for reuse and recycling of materials and energy, along with preventing/limiting pollu-tion. In order to motivate and promote sustainability efforts, our subsidiaries are encour-aged to participate in Indutrade’s sustainabil-ity network.
For example, being ISO-certified is often a prerequisite for customers and suppliers to even begin working with our companies. The majority of our companies report that they are continuously reducing their environmen- tal impact and actively helping their customers do the same. At the end of 2019, 67% of the manufacturing companies were working with environmental management systems and more than 50% of all the companies belonging to the Group had various types of ISO certification, such as ISO14001, ISO9001, ISO 13485 and OHSAS 18001.
Nine of our Swedish subsidiaries conduct operations that require permits or reporting in accordance with the Swedish Environmental Code. Four foreign subsidiaries conduct operations subject to an equivalent permit or reporting obligation.
At the start of 2020, Indutrade initiated an extensive effort to calculate the Group’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. Both direct emissions (Scope 1) and emissions from energy consumption (Scope 2) will be calculated. Emissions for 2020 will be calculated in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG) protocol. This protocol is considered to be the current best practice for report- ing greenhouse gas emissions for companies
and organisations. Our subsidiaries include both manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies. As such, there are variations as to where the majority of emissions occur in their value chains. A significant portion of the Group's impact occurs in Scope 3 (in the supply chains of subsidiaries and from business trips). At present, however, this data is not available. We are striving to, over time, develop our calculations on greenhouse gasses such that we are able to obtain a full understanding of the Group's impact.
Sustainable products and solutions
Through active board work we support the Managing Directors of our subsidiaries in their efforts to meet the growing demands and expectations for responsible and sustainable solutions. The components, systems and services that our companies market, sell and produce often require technical and industrial know-how in order to be beneficial for the customer. By having good knowledge about customers’ systems and processes, combined with a high level of technical expertise, we aim to improve the efficiency of our customers’ operations and offer solutions that reduce environmental impacts and enhance efficiency. The goal is to stimulate development and sales of sustainable products.