Our work is defined by long-term thinking in everything we do. The practical effect is that we offer products and solutions that stand the test of time. Simple and safe solutions that mean the work can be performed efficiently, without unnecessary interruptions or waste. Our goal, quite simply, is to create a legacy of sustainable installations that have been built without wasting resources.
Our sustainability work
The idea behind how we develop and offer fastening solutions is based on sustainable choices for today and for tomorrow. We want this approach to permeate the entire value chain – from subcontractor to manufacturing to distribution. As our knowledge of our impact on environmental, economic and social conditions increases, we want to do things better than we did them yesterday.
But, although we have sustainability goals integrated into our strategy, we see that it is not enough unless all parties are onboard. We have therefore set up a sustainability framework that covers all the areas that we as a company can influence, from subcontractors to customers.
Focus areas:
1. Product & Service Offer
High quality is of utmost importance to our business and means safe, long-lasting products. Our products will stand for installations that do not limit the lifespan of the buildings or the products in which they are included. We complement our product offering with services that will help professional users perform their fastening tasks more effectively. In the end, the services will also lead to more resource-efficient ways of working that benefit our customers and our environment. Examples include strength tests, application support, design support, fastener management systems, and automated fastening.
2. Health & Safety
Health and safety are critical values in our offer and in our business. In practice, we combine these values with a good working environment and see them as a prerequisite for doing a good job. These values apply to subcontractors, to our own staff and to our customers.
3. Environment
Unfortunately, we are living in a world where we, in our pursuit of progress, leave behind an environment that is getting worse, with the risk of catastrophic consequences. We are committed to our responsibilities and to continuously making choices that reduce negative environmental impact.
4. Equality & Diversity
We believe in a world of equality, where people are given equal opportunities regardless of gender, origin, religion, sexuality, etc. In a world where differences are seen as positive, the risk of conflict is reduced and we can better address the climate change we face. As a company, it is our responsibility to set an example of gender equality and also influence what we can in the right direction.
5. Material & Waste
An important part of reducing our negative impact on our environment is to increase reuse and recycling as well as limit waste and thereby reduce unnecessary raw material extraction. The choice of materials should be reusable or recycled, if possible, and we will provide solutions that reduce waste of materials in own and our customers’ processes.
6. Sustainable Value Chain
We work for more sustainable production throughout our value chain, although manufacturing is mainly performed by subcontractors. Therefore, we also have a responsibility to constantly monitor and follow up on our supplier partnerships in all areas of sustainability, from health & safety to materials & waste.
Our sustainability objectives
We cannot ignore the fact that consumption and production patterns have a negative impact on our environment. Or that we must immediately take steps to reverse this development. We have therefore chosen two of the UN's sustainability targets as primary focus areas in our work and, as we see, directly linked them to our strategy:
- Objective 12. Ensure that consumption and production patterns are sustainable.
- Objective 13. Take immediate action to combat climate change and its consequences
We are also convinced that on the day we achieve equality – especially between men and women – many of the problems we see today will be dramatically reduced. We also see that economic development has to go hand in hand with decent working conditions for all. As a result, we have identified another two of the UN's sustainability goals, which we will actively work to improve ourselves in.
Regardless of geography or whether it's our own or our subcontractor’s business:
- Objective 5. Achieve gender equality and strengthen the empowerment of all women and girls.
- Objective 8. Seek steady and sustainable economic growth for all, with full and productive employment and decent working conditions for all.
Our focus areas
- Reduce our CO2 emissions from transport (Environment)
- Increase the use of renewable electricity supply (Environment)
- Reduce waste of fastening products during installation work (Product & Service Offer)
- Internal or external environmental certification & auditing of suppliers (Sustainable Value Chain)
- Increase the Degree of Recycling (Material & Waste)
- Introduce products that contribute to more durable and secure fastening or more efficient & ergonomically correct installation (Product & Service Offer, Health & Safety)
- Increase the proportion of women and increase the degree of diversity (Equal Opportunity & Diversity)
- Increase understanding of sustainability work with our customers, our own staff and subcontractors (Sustainable Value Chain)
Our sustainability management
We are guided by current legislation, and the rules are the result of being a publicly listed Swedish company as well as our internal policies and frameworks. These policies describe the rules and approaches that we will follow internally, as well as the demands we make on our entire value chain of suppliers.
In addition, we set goals for different areas of our business, and sustainability is an example of this. In order to ensure progress and follow up developments, we have central and local KPIs. These KPIs have been defined in order to impact ESSVE’s identified sustainability focus areas.
To effectively make it clear to our suppliers what we require of them, and what we believe are the key development areas, we have established a Supplier Code of Conduct. This is followed up by self-assessment and the suppliers' own controls, partly through audits and inspections by our own personnel and by third parties. Together, this gives us as accurate a picture as possible of how we conduct our environmental work and how we maintain good product quality, business ethics, working environment and labor standards.
Whistleblowing function
We encourage our employees, business partners and their employees to report concerns that might be a violation of our Code of Conduct, our policies or the law. ESSVE has implemented a whistleblowing system via our owners (Bergman & Beving). The whistleblowing system is provided by an external service provider and enables anonymous reporting. The reports are treated with strict confidentiality. If you experience or observe misconduct involving ESSVE, we would like you to speak up.
