Henrik Hjalmarsson – President and CEO
Henrik Hjalmarsson, President and CEO on why a sustainable Inwido creates sustainable values
Why is sustainability important to Inwido?
- For us, it is obvious with high ambitions in long-term value creation for our shareholders and other stakeholders. In order to deliver on these ambitions, our business must continuously become more sustainable, based on a circular thinking, with as low an impact as possible on our surroundings, while our products create as much value as possible in terms of energy efficiency. It's not just what our shareholders and consumers expect. Avoiding environmental risks also avoids increasing costs for impact on the world around us, and this is actually what one can reasonably expect from a responsible large organization.
How can Inwido contribute to a more sustainable world?
- Our largest contributions come in two forms. Firstly how we gradually improve our products' abilities to contribute to a sustainable lifestyle by saving energy in homes, offices and other indoor environments. Europe's real estate portfolio accounts for about 40% of total carbon dioxide emissions and reducing these is important for Europe's climate ambitions. Secondly it is about how we can responsibly minimize our negative impact and maximize our positive impact on the environment, on the health and well-being of our employees and on the society around us. We must strive, among other things, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and waste, to stimulate and motivate our employees to develop and to contribute to the development of society in our local environment.
How does Inwido drive the sustainability agenda?
- Developing our sustainability plans and activities and following the results of our efforts is a fully integrated part of our business strategy. For example, in our work with the strategy in our business units, we have always had separate deep dives into their sustainability plans, anchored in their business strategies. We have developed and followed up structured key figures that clearly measure successes and challenges so that we can adapt our activities to create better results. Finally, all MDs in the Group, as well as Group Management, have a portion of their variable remuneration based on the outcome of the sustainability work, to stimulate focus and drive on these issues.
What sustainability progress has been important in 2021?
- I am pleased that we have committed ourselves to joining Science Based Target initiatives to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and that we are in the process of setting ambitious goals to be able to live up to the 1.5-degree goal. I am also pleased that during the year we continued our sustainability work with increased intensity.