{"id":3160,"date":"2024-04-02T08:40:03","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T06:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/?p=3160"},"modified":"2024-04-09T16:11:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T14:11:28","slug":"small-location-big-role-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/small-location-big-role-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Small loca\u00adtion, big role model"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cTo me, sustain\u00adability is about showing respect for future gener\u00ada\u00adtions. Our legacy to them cannot be a destroyed planet,\u201d says Mats Jirblom, General Manager of Uhlmann Nordiska in Gothen\u00adburg, Sweden. Driven by this personal convic\u00adtion, he got in touch with his colleagues in Laupheim six years ago to jointly find a way to push this issue forward. \u201cBack then, every\u00adthing was still very much in its infancy,\u201d he says. But it quickly became clear that Mats had the right instinct: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t long before major customers approached us with very detailed and ambi\u00adtious plans to radi\u00adcally cut their carbon emis\u00adsions within a few years.\u201d Numerous discus\u00adsions followed in which Mats and his team learned more about these plans, in which Uhlmann was to play a central role as a supplier. \u201cToday, we have a Sustain\u00adability Manager named Carolyn Leung, a group-wide sustain\u00adability strategy<\/a>, and also audits by orga\u00adni\u00adza\u00adtions such as EcoVadis<\/a> or CDP which are now stan\u00addard at Uhlmann. For us, this commit\u00adment is crucial to success\u00adfully competing in the market\u00adplace,\u201d he stresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To me, sustain\u00adability is about showing respect for coming gener\u00ada\u00adtions.<\/p>\nMats Jirblom, General Manager Uhlmann Nordiska<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The e-car needs charging? Bril\u00adliant!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mats thinks it\u2019s a good thing that so much is being done across the Group. But what is even more impor\u00adtant to him is that Uhlmann Nordiska is also making a contri\u00adbu\u00adtion to greater sustain\u00adability. \u201cWe may only be a small sales company with 13 employees, but we are doing every\u00adthing we can to reduce our emis\u00adsions,\u201d he empha\u00adsizes. The vehicle fleet provided him with a perfect oppor\u00adtu\u00adnity. \u201cWe spend a lot of time on the road visiting customers, and until now we have always used diesel vehi\u00adcles. It quickly became clear that there were great poten\u00adtial savings to be made here,\u201d says Mats. Using the train wasn\u2019t really a viable alter\u00adna\u00adtive because it\u2019s just too unre\u00adli\u00adable,\u201d he explains. So he replaced the combus\u00adtion engines with elec\u00adtric vehi\u00adcles, albeit not without some reser\u00adva\u00adtions: \u201cWe had antic\u00adi\u00adpated a few prob\u00adlems as our customers are usually located within a radius of 300 to 500 kilo\u00adme\u00adters. This means that the vehicle has to be charged once or twice during the trip.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what he assumed would be a draw\u00adback actu\u00adally turned out to be a deci\u00adsive advan\u00adtage: Because while the car batteries are charging, the employees also have time to recharge their own batteries. \u201cOur colleagues arrive at our customers feeling more refreshed and, more impor\u00adtantly, their journey is safer because they have to take a break during the journey\u201d, he stresses. \u201cAnd 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 unfin\u00adished work in the office like you used to,\u201d he adds. So the team is very happy with the e-solu\u00adtion. \u201cThere are even internal compe\u00adti\u00adtions to see who is the most energy-effi\u00adcient driver,\u201d says Mats with a grin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investing in the future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The fact that the elec\u00adtricity at Uhlmann Nordiska comes from a Swedish supplier and is gener\u00adated from water and wind energy is, of course, a fore\u00adgone conclu\u00adsion. Mats was also able to convince the land\u00adlord of the building where the sales office is located to install twelve charging stations for elec\u00adtric vehi\u00adcles. \u201cIt\u2019s not always easy when you want to move in a more sustain\u00adable direc\u00adtion \u2013 but it\u2019s worth the effort,\u201d he says with convic\u00adtion. \u201cMy 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 busi\u00adness. Doing nothing is not an option.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s not always easy when you want to move in a more sustain\u00adable direc\u00adtion \u2013 but it\u2019s worth the effort.<\/p>\nMats Jirblom, General Manager Uhlmann Nordiska<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Small steps toward the big goal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Busi\u00adness travel is still a matter of concern for the Managing Director, and he wants to take a closer look at air travel, in partic\u00adular. He is there\u00adfore having air travel emis\u00adsions recorded and analyzed by a provider. It\u2019s still unclear what steps will be taken in response to this: \u201cThat also depends on how our busi\u00adness develops. We natu\u00adrally 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 ques\u00adtion is whether we really need to be on site all the time or whether we can maybe combine three appoint\u00adments per year into one and other\u00adwise offer more remote service options. Another ques\u00adtion behind every step we take is, of course, this: Will our customers be willing to pay for it?\u201d Mats Jirblom defi\u00adnitely wants to continue progressing efforts to achieve zero emis\u00adsions at Uhlmann Nordiska; that\u2019s some\u00adthing he\u2019s absolutely sure about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sustain\u00adability is not a ques\u00adtion of size. Uhlmann Nordiska is living proof of that. Our subsidary company in Sweden may be small, but it\u2019s making a mighty effort toward achieving climate neutrality. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

Read More\u2026 from Small loca\u00adtion, big role model<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pactuell"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3160"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3171,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160\/revisions\/3171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}