THE GLOBAL DEAL, A WIN, WIN, WIN FOR ALL
27 SEPTEMBER 2016
On 21 September Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, launched the Global Deal at UN Head Quarters, New York.
Scania is a company that prides itself on meeting and overcoming tough challenges. Today’s globalised world presents more complex and essential tasks, often presenting more questions than answers than ever before. The newly proposed Global Deal: Enhanced Social Dialogue for Decent Work and Inclusive Growth is seen as a solution based on the Swedish model.
The Global Deal pays close attention to effective industrial relations and decent working conditions. It is a vision which Scania is proud to support.
Scania and the Deal
Although Scania is a wholly Swedish company, it also is a truly global employer with 46,000 employees operating in more than 100 countries. Scania recognises that the foundation of the company’s success is in motivated, engaged and highly skilled employees. “Supporting Global Deal comes naturally to us. Scania has a unique corporate culture where one of our company’s core values is ‘respect for the individual’,” says Kent Conradson, Executive Vice President, Human Resources at Scania.
Scania is currently developing its guidelines and agreements regarding Labour Relations-structure, minimum requirements for human rights, labour rights and more. The development will ensure that the guidelines are in line with the most stringent standards in the area. Scania previously signed the UN Global Compact, now complemented by Agenda 2030 and its sustainability goals.
“Global Deal creates a natural platform for Scania and its employees for further co-operation and improvements,” says Lisa Lorentzon, chairman of Akademikerföreningen (the academic union) at Scania.
Stronger together
The Global Deal is defined by a ‘joint global partnership initiative with like-minded countries, companies and organisations’ Scania is working alongside major companies such as H&M as well as transformative business groups such as the B team, world leaders and non-governmental organisations including ILO, OECD and international trade union organisations. Together their aim is to jointly address the challenges in the global labour market and enable all people to benefit from globalisation.
The win, win, win
The objectives of the Global Deal are effective industrial relations, decent work and quality jobs for all. If met they will contribute to greater equality and inclusive economic development. This will benefit workers, companies and societies. It is, ultimately, a ‘win-win-win’ for all.
More information:
Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, talks about Why Canada supports the Global Deal»
Secretary General of the OECD talks about Why the Global Deal is important»
PROMOTING WELLNESS AND HEALTHY LIFESTYLES
12 MAY 2017
From local football teams to national ski teams and international awards, Scania chooses to sponsor specific organisations and events sharing in the company’s values.
Through sponsoring and partnering with specific events and organisations such as; Nobel Media, the Swedish cross-country team and contemporary circus troupes, Scania continues to fulfil its commitment to a more sustainable world.
Scania works together with the Swedish cross-country ski team by supporting it with a new ski-waxing truck.Peggy Bergman
Sponsorship and partnership agreements are not only about tickets and brand placement at events. Scania uses sponsorship and partnership agreements as a way of re-enforcing and promoting many of its core values.
“Sponsorship is a tool for highlighting what we stand for, strengthening Scania both externally and internally,”says Izla Aho, Sponsorship and communications, brand management.
A sustainable society
Sponsorship of events is linked to employees and families coming together and enjoying their spare time in places organised by institutions that share in values that Scania holds strong such as; team spirit and determination.
The organisations and local events that Scania supports are in accordance with the company’s strong belief in, and support of, a more sustainable society.
Scania Iberica sponsored the FIM MotoGP World Championships.
Just outside of Madrid in Spain, Scania Iberica works to plant a tree for each bus and truck sold in Spain and Portugal, now the forest stands at more than 13,600 trees and counting. Also in Spain and reflecting Scania’s core values of both team spirit and determination, in 2015 Scania Iberica sponsored the FIM MotoGP World Championships. After being appointed official truck provider for the event the company supplied 14 V8 trucks for official use. These provided the vital service of transporting equipment from circuit to circuit, ensuring that the races could take place.
A healthy lifestyle
Scania has always believed in promoting wellness and healthy lifestyles and so in Brazil the company supported one the of the country’s favourite sports – Judo. Additionally, just as in Sweden, Scania also provides trucks for ski waxing to the Norwegian national Ski team. By providing these services Scania fulfils its promise to solve transport tasks in a sustainable way.
Healthier, more efficient and better organised. Many improvements have been achieved since the cross-country skiing teams received their Scania waxing trailers.
Healthier, more efficient and better organised. Many improvements have been achieved since the cross-country skiing teams received their Scania waxing trailers.
“Here we do what we are experts in, finding tailored transport solutions. We contribute with vehicles and improve the drivers’ conditions in an innovative way. When it comes to the waxing truck, the working environment of the waxers was also drastically improved, something we were first with,” says Mikael Person, Head of Brand Management.
With integrity and by working with those championing shared values of dedication, team work and respect of the individual Scania demonstrates the company’s clear direction towards a more sustainable society overall.
SCANIA - READY FOR THE RISE OF ETHANOL
14 DECEMBER 2017
An increase in the production of ethanol for use by the global transport industry could reduce worldwide carbon emissions dramatically, says a new scientific study. Scania already has the sustainable solutions to take advantage of this.
It has long been considered that ethanol is the most viable biofuel for use in heavy goods vehicles. It is produced in larger quantities than any other biofuel and, it has been suggested, with the right management it could in time replace oil.
“Ethanol is widely available,” says Urban Wästljung from Scania Public and Sustainable Affairs. “And the industry knows how to manage ethanol production sustainably. Of course it is generally more expensive than crude oil, but it has strong carbon reduction potential and it is cost-effective in reducing CO2.”
Scania has been producing vehicles that can run on ethanol for more than 30 years. “Scania has a technology which makes it possible for ED95, which is ethanol blended with an ignition improver, to run a diesel engine,” says Wästljung.
Paris will prohibit the use of diesel
And as sustainability becomes an imperative for business models, ethanol is likely to become an increasingly in-demand energy solution. The city of Paris for example will prohibit the use of diesel by 2020.
The most efficient raw material used in the production of ethanol is sugarcane and the world’s most sustainable sugarcane producer is Brazil, which is also widely believed to have the world’s first sustainable biofuel economy. There is also a major potential for using residual material from sugarcane production.
As far back as 1976 the Brazilian government made it compulsory for the transportation industry to blend anhydrous ethanol with gasoline. There are now no longer any light vehicles in Brazil running on pure gasoline.
Ethanol produced from sugarcane is more efficient than maize ethanol, which is largely produced in the US, and generates only 14 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions of petroleum, says Amanda DeSouza, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois and the University of São Paulo and one of the authors of a new scientific study published in the Nature Climate Change journal.
Advocates sugarcane production
The report also states that sugarcane production in Brazil for conversion to ethanol could reduce current global carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 5.6 percent. The report therefore advocates the conversation of hundreds of thousands of square miles (more than the combined land area of Texas and California) of land in Brazil to sugarcane.
Sugar cane field Araraquara, Brazil Photo: Gustav Lindh 2016Gustav Lindh
This, the report suggests, could be done without touching environmentally sensitive areas, while carbon-related costs of converting the land have been included in the analysis.
Jonas Strömberg, Scania’s Director of Sustainable Solutions, adds that Europe could also play a bigger part in ethanol production. “There are over 25 million hectares of abandoned farmland that could be used for further ethanol and biodiesel production,” he says. “This would greatly enhance the EU’s energy security by replacing oil imports from unstable and non-democratic countries. It could also help ethanol replace almost all of the diesel used in the heavy-duty transport sector. Technology is not the problem.”
THE RIGHT TECH, AND SMART THINKING — SCANIA’S APPROACH
21 NOVEMBER 2017
We need the right technology, not new technology and, essentially a systemic mindset to realise a sustainable transport system. That was the message delivered by Scania at this year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP23).
“Possibilities rather than problems” were the focus of this year’s conference says Jonas Strömberg, Scania’s Director of Sustainable Solutions. Despite this, Strömberg felt there was, at times, too much emphasis on what he called “silver-bullet technology”.
“My first line is always that the technology is not the problem, we have the technology. The problem is that procurers, cities and decision makers are not asking for cost-efficient technology, they are only asking for the next technology,” he says.
Systemic approach to sustainable transport
Speaking during a seminar on public transport Strömberg emphasised the necessity to use several solutions with the technology already present. He also underlined the need to approach sustainable transport systematically.
“We shouldn’t only be looking at the city but also to whole regional transport patterns. Different solutions are needed for different areas, and procuring whole systems of vehicles, infrastructure and clean fuels makes it possible for us in the industry to offer really cost-efficient solutions.”
Considering the whole transport system
Strömberg explained that a change in mindset when it comes to procurement is fundamental.
“To understand the situation you need to understand the operators, the customers, and the cities. This is why one of our key messages was when you undertake procurement you must consider the whole transport system in a systematic way.”
He also spoke of the need for CO2 taxation.
“We believe you really have to have a global CO2 tax otherwise nothing will change.”
Replacing fossil fuel
A CO2 emissions tax has transformed Sweden. In 1970 the nation was the most oil-dependent nation per capita of all the European countries. Now, apart from the transport sector, oil has been phased out everywhere. However, the transport sector is changing fast. Sweden has the highest replacement of fossil fuel systems in the transport sector of any country. A good example of this is Stockholm county’s 2,300 strong bus fleet. Only one bus, on a small island in the archipelago, is still run on a fossil fuel – diesel – and it is soon to be replaced.
For 15 years, public transport procurement in Sweden has been demanding CO2 efficiency, not necessarily new technology. It is the most cost-efficient solution and has reduced CO2 by over 90 percent. All this has been achieved with “off-the-shelf” technology, nothing new.
Scania’s biogas buses in the UK are another good example of a cost-effective sustainable solution. They reduce 90 percent of emissions by 80 percent the cost of diesel.
Making transport more efficient
While on a panel with Business Sweden, Urban Wästljung, Senior Adviser, Public and Sustainability Affairs at Scania was encouraged to see united political opinion on a sustainable future.
“The strength of Swedish and Nordic climate policies is the big consensus of opinion between the opposition parties and the governing parties that we need to do more to get a sustainable society and to de-carbonise. Therefore, whatever happens in the next election, this development will continue and this is important for industry.”
Wästljung underlined the importance to the panel of making the transport of goods more efficient, telling them that “one of Scania’s goals is to reduce CO2emissions by 50% from our land transport by 2025.”