This report is based on our Business Strategy Topics and our Business Responsibility Topics. These topics were formulated following input from comprehensive stakeholder, risk and materiality analyses.
This is our first Sustainability Report, and we are at the start of our journey to measure, monitor and drive our sustainability performance. We have made some good progress in recent years, but we still have work to do to fully realise our potential to bring about societal benefit.
Going forward, we intend to set and work toward ambitious sustainability objectives to complement and further develop the well-established positive societal impacts of our automated vacuum waste collection systems. We believe it is our responsibility to ensure we have the best possible impact on society we can – by optimising the benefits of our operations and solutions, while mitigating any negative impacts.
Envac’s four Business Strategy Topics reflect the positive sustainability benefits of our products and services. The topics were identified based on Envac’s strategic business targets and are a natural part of our daily business.
Envac’s three Business Responsibility Topics define our responsibility as a business partner – to guide our behaviour and how we operate our business. Taking care of our employees, being honest and transparent towards our business partners, and treating everyone as an equal and with respect is key to be considered a serious business partner.
We are at the beginning of our sustainability journey, and some data in our prioritised sustainability topics is still being collected and developed. Therefore, we cannot currently provide measurable targets for every topic, but this is something we are aiming for in our coming reports.
Minimise environmental impact
Cost efficiency
Added value
Safe & user friendly system
Working conditions
Fair & ethical business
Diversity & inclusion
Identifying impacts
Identifying our sustainability impacts was our first step to understanding our value chain. This involved understanding that our operations have a footprint, such as environmental impact, but that they also benefit society, such as by reducing costs, creating added value, and enabling safe and user-friendly waste management systems. These impacts are documented in detail in the Higher Purpose section.
Risk evaluation
In 2020, we evaluated the risks for each step in our value chain in terms of holistic sustainability – including economic, environmental and social aspects. We also included “quality” in our evaluation as the high quality of our systems is essential for promoting sustainability, the efficient use of resources and a long lifespan – which is at least over 30 years.
The evaluation identified our main sustainability impacts in each stage of our value chain and their related risks. The impacts and risks were verified by our key internal stakeholder groups that were asked to perform a risk assessment from a likelihood and consequence perspective. In total, 15 stakeholders were involved in the stakeholder assessment and around 10 workshop meetings were performed to finalise the value chain risk assessment.
Building on the evaluation of our value chain risks, we conducted a market investigation with external stakeholders on a global level. Sustainability was part of the investigation but not its sole focus.
In parallel, we held 15 workshops with 20 Envac employees that have regular contact with important external stakeholders. The employees were asked to rank 22 different materiality topics from the perspective of specific external stakeholders in order to gauge the sustainability perceptions and priorities of various external stakeholder groups.
The results of these materiality assessments were cross checked with the findings of our value chain risk evaluation to provide a list of prioritised reporting topics that is aligned with our Business Strategy Topics and Business Responsibility Topics. The prioritised list was approved by the Envac Board and Global Executive Management Team (GEB) in the beginning of February 2021.
Important sustainability business drivers
Reducing heavy traffic, promoting customer health and safety, enhancing urban liveability and increasing recycling rates are all important sustainability business drivers. Consequently, these are all important themes in the report, despite not being identified as prioritised topics from a sustainability risk perspective.
Reporting scope
This report focuses on the sustainability topics that are most material to our business. It is based on and inspired by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards to provide a balanced and reasonable representation of our positive and negative contribution toward sustainable development. The data collection and case stories have a heavy focus on Northern Europe, but the report is based on our global approach to sustainability.
A key success factor has been our ability to draw on the sound long-term relationships we have with our stakeholders in order to gather their feedback on prioritised sustainability materiality topics for example. Building on this knowledge in the future, we will also be able to respond to upcoming sustainability requirements and shape our approach to sustainability in the future.
Christer Lundberg
Sustainability Practice Lead, Envac Scandinavia AB
Report format
We have chosen to exclusively publish this report in a digital format to avoid unnecessary printing. To make it easy for readers to access the report, we have made it responsive – to ensure you can read it on any tablet or smartphone.
Envac AB
Fleminggatan 7, 3tr
SE-112 26 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel: +46 8 785 00 10
Corporate web site:
www.envacgroup.com