Optinova Group releases Global Supplier Sustainability Brochure

Today, as we are celebrating World Environment Day, is a great opportunity for us to reflect on our progress building a partnership for sustainability within our global supply chain.

Over the past few years, sustainable development has been closely integrated into our long-term strategy. We support the idea that global sustainability requires a collective effort, and every business is responsible for taking it forward. Thus naturally, we started by looking at the state of our global supply chain with regards to sustainability.

In 2020, we took the first step and initiated the Global Supplier Sustainability Program (GSSP). With GSSP, we attempted to survey the sustainability policies and activities that our suppliers had in place at their organizations and communicate about our own directives and practices.

“Our goal for the program is clear,” said Annette Höglund, CCO of Optinova Group. “We want to be upfront and transparent with our suppliers about our commitment to promoting sustainability across our global supply chain. Through constructive discussions with our suppliers, we wish to learn from their best practices, encourage non-active partners to get involved in the efforts and further advance our global partnership for sustainability.”

In a nutshell, Optinova wishes to offer through the dialogues:

• Straight-forward, accountable, and feelgood relationships with suppliers
• Proactive responsibility for sustainability Is a fundamental part of the business
• Mutual Interest In follow-ups
• Processes to support growth of successful business relationships
• Engaged family owners of the business
• Long-term value generation and financial stability – BEEP
• An inspiring place to work for all employees
• An example of when people grow, the business prospers

A few communication channels we use for the dialogues include:

• Regular supplier interactions for support related to raw material
• Defined process for demand and purchase planning dialogues
• Planned supply chain audits
• Sustainability dialogues

In each conversation, we focus on:

• Collaborate on the industry expectations on supply chains
• Key priorities are to reduce emissions and the CO2 footprint
• Suppliers share commitment for global CSR for social sustainability
• Creation of a #feelgoodfactory relationship

Apart from actively engaging suppliers in our global sustainability practices, we also offered suppliers promotion opportunities on our own media. The latest Global Supplier Sustainability Brochure is an example of such a collaboration between Optinova and our suppliers. The brochure is a visual illustration of not only Optinova’s values and sustainability focus areas, but also a depiction of our dialogues with the suppliers and the mutual interest we share in developing sustainably together. The brochure is also a tool for Optinova to start a conversation with other suppliers whom we have not reached and get them involved in our program.

As we continue to work on our sustainability efforts, we are proud to see how the increased awareness of sustainability has already had a visible impact both at Optinova and in our global supply chain. Although we are still at the very beginning of our efforts, we are making good progress by knowing the importance to work closely with our business partners in everything we do. As the Global Supplier Sustainability Program continues, we are simultaneously taking steps to interact with and invite other stakeholders to join us on this journey.