"Sustainability must be part of core business"

Sustainability issues were the focus of Stockholm Science City's breakfast seminar on September 24th. Urban Adolfsson, CFO and responsible for sustainability at Gradientech, shared his experiences.

Urban highlighted four critical questions that they asked themselves when starting the work:

  1. Why should we work with sustainability?
  2. How do we build a sustainability team?
  3. What should the content be?
  4. Where can we find help to make this a little easier?

For Gradientech, "Why" was about 1) doing something good - everyone can do something, 2) attracting personnel and investors and 3) being one step ahead in the field and thus gaining competitive advantages.

– Putting together a flexible team with representatives from different departments was important. Let it take time to lay the foundation. Having top management in the team from the start was also a success factor, he says.

Urban further highlighted the importance of not separating the sustainability work from the core business. Sustainability must be part of the business and should be on the corporate agenda. Finally, to successfully do this with reasonable resources - search help of others around you. STUNS Life science has held courses and supports valuable networks. Gradientech has also benefited from employees who are interested in the issues. For reporting, there are many good examples in large companies' annual reports - "steal with pride".

– And don't make a fuss about it; I hadn't worked with sustainability issues before and was a little worried about all the concepts and abbreviations. But that is not the most important thing. Start simple and keep it simple", concludes Urban.

More information

Urban Adolfssons presentation "Gradientech Sustainability Seminar" (PDF)

Fanny Bloms presentation "Hållbarhet för växande bolag" (PDF)