Working for a sustainable future

Constantly ensuring that everything Nolato does is sustainable and in harmony with the environment, social responsibility and business benefit is vitally important to us. It’s now time to take a new step forward in the area of the environment as we become even more active in working with customers and may also decline products that we do not believe meet the requirements for a sustainable future.

Nolato takes a comprehensive approach to sustainability within the Group. The Group adheres to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals and is a signatory to the UN Global Compact. We ensure all employees receive training on our Nolato Spirit document, which sets out our regulations on environmental and social responsibility, as well as ethics, including our Basic Principles, our Code of Conduct and Whistleblower Policy. All businesses must have environmental certification, long-term sustainability goals linked to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development have been established and are continually followed up, and we provide transparent reporting based on GRI, Global Compact and Carbon Disclosure Project rules.

We can make a difference

“We have a long tradition of a positive approach to the environment, but we feel this isn’t enough,” says Nolato President and CEO Christer Wahlquist. “We’re doing a lot of the right things, but for a long time our focus has been on setting internal targets and reducing our own key performance indicators on things like energy consumption, recycling and carbon emissions. That’s great. But the area where we can have the biggest ­environmental benefit in the future is how we ­develop new products and what products we choose to develop and manufacture.

“It’s in our day-to-day operations and our work with customers that we can make a real difference.

“So when a customer approaches us and wants help with developing a new pro­duct, we now always start by assessing the intended product from a sustainability point of view. Is this the right product for a sustainable future? What is its life cycle? Does it have a short-term or a long-term area of application? What happens when the product comes to the end of its useful life? How is it intended to be manufactured?”

Always finding a greener solution

“If the product doesn’t pass this initial review, we decline the project. And if the product gets the go-ahead, we always aim to achieve an even greener solution,” explains Christer Wahlquist.

“That might involve making the product using different, more environmentally sustainable materials or design solutions and assembly methods that make it easier to recycle.

“If the customer doesn’t wish to implement the improvements we propose from a sustainability point of view, then we shouldn’t continue our involvement with the project.

“Although not everyone currently ­accepts the solutions we propose – for instance, it may be more expensive to ensure a product can be easily recycled – I am certain this is the right way to go and that in the long run it will generate additional business,” says Christer Wahlquist.