MAteriality
Impacts throughout our value chain
A value chain perspective on sustainability helps us identify how we can best manage our impacts and create maximal value.
This approach makes it easier to identify opportunities, minimize or enhance impacts, and understand boundaries. It also helps us understand how our actions and impacts are interrelated.
The following section illustrates our degree of influence along our value chain, identifies key impacts and how we manage them, and provides examples of the value we create.
Product development
High ability to influence
Close collaboration between Design, Marketing and R&D enables new products to offer best-in-class consumer experiences. Read more in our Promise Constantly improve product performance and efficiency.
Risks
- Not meeting regulatory or market requirements
- Not meeting consumer expectations
How we manage our impacts
- Continuously improve product efficiency
- Increase use of recycled materials
- Eliminate harmful materials
- Integrate future requirements into product development plans
Generating value
Products with leading environmental performance deliver customer value in line with our business strategy, while reducing negative environmental impacts.
Suppliers
Medium ability to influence
Electrolux has over 3,000 direct suppliers, including many in emerging markets, that must abide by our sustainability requirements. We focus on safeguarding Electrolux standards, and developing supplier capacity to improve sustainability performance. This requires careful assessment and supplier selection.
Risks
- Connection to social, ethical and human rights violations thorough our supply chain
- Severe weather conditions caused by climate change could negatively affect our supply chain
- Supply interruptions due to unethical business practices in the supply chain
How we manage our impacts
- Apply a risk-based approach to our suppliers
- Climate impact assessments of key suppliers
- Conduct auditing to safeguard standards
- Provide training and drive improvement initiatives
Generating value
Rewarding suppliers that comply with our requirements stimulates technical improvements and innovation. Promoting universal norms supports human rights and raises environmental, labor and economic standards – particularly in low-cost countries. This also builds trust and reduces business risk.
Electrolux operations
High ability to influence
Electrolux has manufacturing operations in 53 factories in 19 countries and approximately 56,000 employees in total. Our main focus areas are to: reduce our environmental footprint, maintain high ethical standards and working conditions, as well as have a positive impact in local communities.
Risks
- Disruptions due to emissions and discharges as a result of incidents
- Disruptions caused by severe weather related to climate change
- Impact due to social, ethical and human rights violations
- Corruption due to weak governance
How we manage our impacts
- Environmental management systems and efficiency programs
- Ensure the best conditions for health and safety
- Governance systems and training to enforce sustainability policies
- Climate impact assessments of operations
- Support local community programs
Generating value
We benefit society by providing jobs, knowledge transfer and economic opportunities. Positive employee relationships promote competence development, employee wellbeing and job satisfaction. Value is created for Electrolux by retaining talented employees and avoiding financial costs related to accidents.
Transport
Medium ability to influence
Electrolux emits more CO2 transporting its goods than through its total energy use in Group operations.
Read more in our Promise Improve sustainability in the supply chain.
Risks
- Emissions from transportation
- Labor conditions in logistics companies
How we manage our impacts
- Collaborative solutions to mitigate logistics-related impacts
- Promoting more efficient modes of transport
Generating value
We support the trend toward more sustainable transport and encourage our logistics suppliers to further reduce their impacts. This reduces transport-related emissions and our climate impact.
Sales
Low ability to influence
Electrolux annually sells more than 60 million products in over 150 countries, primarily through retailers. Energy and performance labeling, and retailer sustainability campaigns allow us to raise consumer efficiency awareness.
Risks
- Not effectively informing consumers
- Failure to meet consumer expectations on product efficiency
- Limited opportunity to influence decision-making at the point-of-purchase
- Corruption
How we manage our impacts
- Continuously improve product performance and efficiency
- Improve pre- and point-of-purchase communication
- Third party endorsement of products, e.g. best-in-test
- Communicating on themes such as food storage, reducing food waste, and caring for clothes
Generating value
Promoting transparency and our sustainable product offering contributes to retailer sustainability goals, strengthens our brands and builds customer loyalty. As sales of our Green Range demonstrate, an efficient product offering is a profitable strategy.
Consumer use
Low ability to influence
As the main environmental impacts of our products occur during their use, product efficiency is a top priority.
Risks
- Failure to meet consumer expectations on product performance
- Consumers not using products optimally
- Product safety
- Data privacy for users of connected products
How we manage our impacts
- Continuously improve product performance and efficiency
- Keeping ahead of data privacy regulation
- Product safety governance and procedures
- Increased development and sales of connected products
Generating value
Appliances deliver social benefits that many take for granted – such as food conservation, hygiene standards, freeing up time from household chores, and facilitating equal opportunities – which are particularly important in emerging markets. Providing efficient products, raising consumer awareness and increasing appliance connectivity can help counter rising global CO2 emissions due to increasing consumption, while reducing costs.
End-of-life
Low ability to influence
We promote proper recycling as part of our producer responsibility. In the most comprehensive producer responsibility legislation, 80% of the materials (by total volume) from collected large appliances must be recovered (70% for small appliances).
Risks
- Expectations on producers to take responsibility beyond legislation
- Waste of resources due to a lack of recycling
- Illegal trade of discarded products and recycled materials
How we manage our impacts
- Establishing circular business models for recycled materials
- Eliminating harmful materials to enable higher quality recycled materials and decrease environmental impact.
- Promoting proper recycling as part of producer responsibility
Generating value
Building resource efficient and closed-loop systems help reduce environmental impact and overall resource consumption. Innovative designs that allow material reuse saves money and energy, and increases consumer trust in our brands.
Electrolux
Electrolux shapes living for the better by reinventing taste, care and wellbeing experiences that make life more enjoyable and sustainable for millions of people. Through our brands, including Electrolux, AEG and Frigidaire, we sell more than 60 million household and professional products in more than 150 markets every year.
S:t Göransgatan 143
SE-105 45 Stockholm, Sweden