“ Our goal as a company is to advance the world through engineering , and we can ’ t do that without making the world more sustainable ,” he comments . “ In pursuing these goals , we take a holistic approach that includes our own operations , but also looks downstream to think about our customers , and considers the upstream , looking at our suppliers – because the products we provide to our customers are the sum of everything up to that point . It means asking questions such as : what ’ s our footprint ? How can we improve the type of materials we purchase ? How can we provide better solutions for our customers ? And finally , how can we measure the difference we make ?”
As Mats insists , this last point is especially crucial . “ You need to be able to prove your work with numbers ,” he points out . “ By applying metrics , it gives you a start point ,
an end point , and you can place targets along the way . At Sandvik , we ’ ve said that we want to reduce our CO2 impact by 50 percent by 2030 , and within that , we have targets for different pillars of our business , such as products and packaging . To achieve those targets , we need to collaborate with our key suppliers , integrating them into our decisions – beginning with small changes , and scaling them up continuously over time .”
Award-winning innovation
In June of this year , Sandvik announced the winner of its annual Sandvik Sustainability Award . The award is held in memory of Sigrid Göransson , a champion of social responsibility and improved working conditions within Sandvik – as well as the granddaughter of Sandvik ’ s founder , Göran Fredrik Göransson , and daughter of Anders Henrik Göransson ,
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