“To me, sustain­ability is about showing respect for future gener­a­tions. Our legacy to them cannot be a destroyed planet,” says Mats Jirblom, General Manager of Uhlmann Nordiska in Gothen­burg, Sweden. Driven by this personal convic­tion, he got in touch with his colleagues in Laupheim six years ago to jointly find a way to push this issue forward. “Back then, every­thing was still very much in its infancy,” he says. But it quickly became clear that Mats had the right instinct: “It wasn’t long before major customers approached us with very detailed and ambi­tious plans to radi­cally cut their carbon emis­sions within a few years.” Numerous discus­sions followed in which Mats and his team learned more about these plans, in which Uhlmann was to play a central role as a supplier. “Today, we have a Sustain­ability Manager named Carolyn Leung, a group-wide sustain­ability strategy, and also audits by orga­ni­za­tions such as EcoVadis or CDP which are now stan­dard at Uhlmann. For us, this commit­ment is crucial to success­fully competing in the market­place,” he stresses.

The e-car needs charging? Bril­liant!

Mats thinks it’s a good thing that so much is being done across the Group. But what is even more impor­tant to him is that Uhlmann Nordiska is also making a contri­bu­tion to greater sustain­ability. “We may only be a small sales company with 13 employees, but we are doing every­thing we can to reduce our emis­sions,” he empha­sizes. The vehicle fleet provided him with a perfect oppor­tu­nity. “We spend a lot of time on the road visiting customers, and until now we have always used diesel vehi­cles. It quickly became clear that there were great poten­tial savings to be made here,” says Mats. Using the train wasn’t really a viable alter­na­tive because it’s just too unre­li­able,” he explains. So he replaced the combus­tion engines with elec­tric vehi­cles, albeit not without some reser­va­tions: “We had antic­i­pated a few prob­lems as our customers are usually located within a radius of 300 to 500 kilo­me­ters. This means that the vehicle has to be charged once or twice during the trip.”

But what he assumed would be a draw­back actu­ally turned out to be a deci­sive advan­tage: Because while the car batteries are charging, the employees also have time to recharge their own batteries. “Our colleagues arrive at our customers feeling more refreshed and, more impor­tantly, their journey is safer because they have to take a break during the journey”, he stresses. “And while they wait until the vehicle is ready to drive again, they can answer their emails and inquiries, and make phone calls. So, after visiting the customer, you can go straight home rather than having to complete unfin­ished work in the office like you used to,” he adds. So the team is very happy with the e-solu­tion. “There are even internal compe­ti­tions to see who is the most energy-effi­cient driver,” says Mats with a grin.

Investing in the future

The fact that the elec­tricity at Uhlmann Nordiska comes from a Swedish supplier and is gener­ated from water and wind energy is, of course, a fore­gone conclu­sion. Mats was also able to convince the land­lord of the building where the sales office is located to install twelve charging stations for elec­tric vehi­cles. “It’s not always easy when you want to move in a more sustain­able direc­tion – but it’s worth the effort,” he says with convic­tion. “My mantra is: OK, so it may cost us a little more at first and we have to invest initially, but in the long term it secures our busi­ness. Doing nothing is not an option.”

It’s not always easy when you want to move in a more sustain­able direc­tion – but it’s worth the effort.

Mats Jirblom, General Manager Uhlmann Nordiska

Small steps toward the big goal

Busi­ness travel is still a matter of concern for the Managing Director, and he wants to take a closer look at air travel, in partic­ular. He is there­fore having air travel emis­sions recorded and analyzed by a provider. It’s still unclear what steps will be taken in response to this: “That also depends on how our busi­ness develops. We natu­rally want to continue providing our customers with the best possible support and offer them the services they require. At the moment, a lot is still done through personal contact. But the ques­tion is whether we really need to be on site all the time or whether we can maybe combine three appoint­ments per year into one and other­wise offer more remote service options. Another ques­tion behind every step we take is, of course, this: Will our customers be willing to pay for it?” Mats Jirblom defi­nitely wants to continue progressing efforts to achieve zero emis­sions at Uhlmann Nordiska; that’s some­thing he’s absolutely sure about.