Most people know that the construction industry is facing large carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, a lot of time is also spent on measuring emissions in many places. For just over a year, together with the major concrete manufacturers, we have defined which key figures are interesting to follow and exactly how they should be measured. Slightly simplified, we have worked with the questions:
- How big a climate impact do the raw materials used have, according to the suppliers?
- What volumes are used of different raw materials?
- How much of the raw materials are classified as sustainable?
- How large volumes are produced of different product categories for different purposes? In other words, how successful is the work in guiding customers to use more sustainable alternatives?
In an industry, agreeing on exactly how all key figures should be defined and measured has been a large project with many people involved. Now the system is up and running and the concrete industry is working on the first reports. Those of us who worked on it have gained a lot of energy and we want to take the opportunity to share some experiences:
- It is a magically to see how talented people from competing companies work together to solve a common problem. There is tremendous power in joint work. It took some time in the beginning to get going and find the shapes, but OH what a team it has become!
- Peer pressure is a strong force for sustainability work. If all your competitors compile and report their information, you want to join in and deliver.
- There is a willingness to cooperate in sustainability issues and a different openness to sharing experiences. We can't afford to be secretive if we're going to change in time!
- When information is interesting for the companies themselves to share, it is also interesting to collect.
How it came about that we started working with the concrete industry here is a long story, but our contribution is that we have coordinated the work and created a platform to collect data and create reports. We make key figures for the industry while protecting the companies' own data. And precisely that, that we protect the data has been an important factor for everyone wanting to share data with each other.
So my tip for getting ahead in sustainability work is to call your worst competitors. Or, if you think it's too much trouble, contact our CEO Erik and we'll call you!
