During 2014, Electrolux consulted widely with stakeholders to refine its sustainability priorities and build internal engagement around the strategy. In this Q&A, Henrik Sundström, VP Sustainability Affairs shares key milestones and explains how the company plans to drive sustainability more deeply across the Group.
Sustainability Affairs is a Group function with responsibility for defining and promoting sustainability as an integral part of the business strategy. This includes setting targets, raising awareness, encouraging stakeholder dialog and monitoring progress. It’s also responsible for engaging with stakeholders on sustainability issues to raise awareness of the role of energy- and water-efficient appliances.
Last year the emphasis was on internal engagement and reinforcing management commitment to sustainability. Prior to the annual top management conference, we conducted a survey among the top 200 managers in Electrolux. The result: robust support for stepping up integration of sustainability—99% said sustainability strengthens our competitive position, 97% said it would meet the needs of consumers, retailers and distributors; and 95% believed it would improve brand reputation. As a result, a program was launched to clarify and align sustainability at Electrolux. Workshops have since been held with Group and Sector management and Staff functions.
A key component has been to start with the megatrends we believe will define future developments. Other important inputs are peer company benchmarks and feedback from stakeholders. From this we defined a shortlist of themes that we believe should be the building block for our sustainability work and asked workshop participants to vote on the most important issues. The result was a set of 10 themes that will be the core focus of our sustainability approach going forward. These will help steer how we develop our business, become a more efficient company and an even better employer and corporate citizen.
The 10 themes fit easily into a business context. They’ve created very productive discussions and consensus about what’s important. That’s exactly what materiality is about—defining what’s most important from an internal perspective and for key stakeholders. We didn’t rank the 10 themes because we believe we have to be good at all of them to achieve sustainability leadership—our ultimate objective.
There was progress on a number of fronts this year—in products, operations and stakeholder partnerships. Here’s a sample from across the company:
A majority of consumers buy products in the mass segment, where the key criterion is price rather than efficiency. Thanks to global product platforms and standardized modular elements, we’ve been able to develop high-efficiency mass consumer products. Two examples are the Salsa top freezer refrigerator and the Zanussi LINDO washing machine.
Electrolux Professional and the global network of chefs’ associations WORLDCHEFS announced an alliance this year to share knowledge and raise awareness about sustainable cooking. Chefs2Chefs training sessions will focus on core themes like cooking with locally sourced ingredients, with information on how to plan, source, prepare and make the most of technology underlying the Electrolux Professional range.
Eliminating hazardous substances is a high priority for the Group. To help reduce their use in products and apply best practice for managing chemicals across worldwide operations, Electrolux established a Global Chemical Office.
Electrolux wants to be a responsible employer and good corporate citizen. All our activities must be conducted with respect and consideration for human rights, health and safety, and the environment. The objective of the Industrial Relations strategy is to reduce the risk of inconsistencies in implementation of the updated Code of Conduct and International Framework Agreement. Together with continued roll-out of the Ethics program, it will help local management understand the implications of working in a global organization.
The focus in 2014 was on clarifying and aligning sustainability in the organization. Workshops were held with Group Management and among around 150 top managers in Business Sectors and Group staff functions. This top-down, bottom-up approach resulted in wide-scale engagement and support for integrating sustainability priorities into business practices. The outcome will be used to define a strategic framework for the five-year period ending 2020.
Climate change is the largest challenge of our time and Electrolux can make a difference by promoting products and services with lower impact. This year we continued to implement the 50% Carbon Reduction target. Many of our activities identified under the 10 themes will directly contribute to lower emissions of greenhouse gases. In 2015, the focus will be on implementing these themes in our daily work, setting expanded KPIs (key performance indicators) and continuing to engage with internal and external stakeholders to further improve our approach.