We have been gallivanting in Europe for quite a while now and seen much diversity in the variety of businesses and business practices we have encountered. The companies in Stockholm provided another fascinating layer to study and analyze in depth. The two companies we will be examining today are Ericsson and NorthVolt.
Ericsson is an enormous company with global reach that most firms would dream to possess. As such however, they feel like they have a proportionality higher responsibility to sustainable activity. The United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 and Ericsson took the lead in adopting these goals as their own guide to environmental policy. These fifteen simple goals (such as Quality Education and Sustainable Cities and Communities) give companies and people a framework and goal to build upon. Naturally, Ericsson took the goal “Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure” as their primary focus. Ericsson abides by this in several innovative ways. For example, they are partnering with another Swedish company Volvo to reduce their carbon emissions by 15% within the transport divisions of each respective company. They believe that Information and Computer Technologies (ICT) has the potential to lower global emissions by 15% with the implementation of innovations such as smart grids to increase efficient transportation and utilization of goods and services.
NorthVolt is a company whose raison d’etre is sustainability. They wish to produce advanced and renewable lithium ion batteries in Europe. Using untapped hydroelectric power in Northern Sweden, they believe that they can accomplish this in a way that will not add more carbon emissions to the Earth. The statistics they produced (which I have to admit to being a little skeptical about particularly regarding scaleability), claim that their methods are leaps-and-bounds more efficient than competitors around the world and produced far more cheaply as well. With innovations like IOT and autonomous vehicles becoming more prominent, the need for batteries will likely keep increasing. With a sustainable and low-cost method of producing said batteries, NorthVolt believes that it has built a strong competitive advantage.
It is interesting that these two companies (one mature and one brand new) are both strongly committed to a green future. It really shows how dedicated Swedes are to a more sustainable future.
