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Bravida is the latest recipient of the InExchange Environmental Award. We met the company on site in Stockholm (Hägersten). In two articles to come, we will tell you about their environmental work and intensified focus on e-invoicing. Here is the first part. The second part will be published next week.
Bravida has adopted a sustainability strategy where the long-term goal is to be climate neutral both for themselves and their customers by 2045.The work spans a variety of areas. Reducing paper consumption is one piece. Bravida, in collaboration with InExchange, has embarked on an ambitious digitization project to promote electronic document flows.
The greater the proportion of e-invoices, the better for the environment.
"For a couple of years now, our environmental work has been gathered under the umbrella term "Sustainability at Bravida"," says Ebba Gerdland and explains that a special committee - consisting of the group's chiefs of staff - is responsible for the overall activities and formulates strategies and policy statements.
Ebba herself is Group Sustainability Business Developer. She is a civil engineer in energy and the environment and likes to make real progress in these important areas. That attitude permeates the whole company. It's a team effort, driven not only by internal initiatives but also by external expectations.
- The environmental aspect is becoming increasingly important in society. At the same time as we as a company make tough demands, sustainability thinking and environmental considerations are something that customers also demand. And we are a very customer-driven company. It is essential for us to constantly improve in this regard," says Ebba.
Broad environmental perspective
Bravida's sustainability work is part of future-proofing and developing the business and contributing to the transition in society that needs to take place. Each area where climate impact may occur has been grouped into specific categories. This breadth reflects the thoroughness of the approach. Beyond the purely material sector, the focus is on social responsibility and health and safety, among others. The company has an explicit zero vision for occupational injuries. There is continuous work on health and safety issues and preventing injury risks.
But without in any way neglecting the seriousness of the latter, we quickly jump back to the material. This is a priority area that Bravida has labeled "Climate, energy and resource use."
"There are a number of target areas within this," explains Ebba Gerdland.
"One of these is our customer offerings on energy savings in order to reduce climate impact. It's really an important sustainability aspect and also an economic issue. Everyone wants to save money on energy, and using solutions that are also positive from a climate perspective is of course great," she continues.
- "Then there is the energy use in our own properties. We are in the process of converting to renewable electricity in all our premises. We also have an area that handles vehicles. We are converting our vehicle fleet to electric cars. There are a lot of vehicles, but we are well on our way.
No to paper invoices
In the context of resource utilization, Bravida's increased request for suppliers to send electronic invoices is included. Alongside all the other benefits of e-invoicing, such as time and cost savings and increased security, the environmental benefits are obvious in the form of less paper and fewer transports, resulting in lower carbon emissions.
It would save us between 15-20 working hours. Per day.
Bravida has enlisted the help of invoice operator InExchange for its digitalization project. The public launch took place in February last year.
Kristoffer Hagberg, accounting assistant at Bravida, is pleased to note that the collaboration has created the intended effect. The company now says no to receiving paper invoices and has also cut down on the number of PDF invoices (which also entail a lot of extra work).
- We receive about 1.7 million invoices a year. These are extreme flows. So it's good that the number of electronic invoices is now increasing just as we had hoped. It makes it much easier for us in Accounts Payable," he says.
How much time would your team save if it were 100 percent e-invoices?
"It would save us between 15-20 working hours. Per day, says Kristoffer.
"We accept the challenge"
So sustainability work never stands still and is constantly evolving with new environmental measures.
- One area that has become hot is the reuse of installation materials. We are currently investigating which products are most suitable for reuse. Then the next step will be to carry out pilot projects together with customers," says Ebba Gerdland.
Bravida writes in its sustainability policy that "we accept the challenge of creating places where people can live sustainably - today and in the future". It's a huge task, but Bravida is systematic in its thorough environmental work and the direction is clear.
Only when they themselves and their customers are climate neutral is the goal reached.
