Circularity

Virtuous cycles and increased efficiency

What measures that increase circularity have in common is they reduce the need for new raw materials. This can be achieved, for example, through extended product life, resales, sharing, reduced waste or improved industrial cycles.

90,000 RETURNED PRODUCTS – with an aim of 100% circularity

For several years, Dustin has offered to buy back customers’ used IT products, which extends the life of the secondary market. The secondary buyers are often educational institutions, which receive quality-assured products at a good price. In 2021, Dustin scaled up its operations by establishing a recovery center in Växjö.

THE NUMBER OF TAKE-BACKS – mostly laptops – increased sharply during the year, from 57,000 to just over 90,000 units. About 90 percent of the products can be reused, instead of steadily losing value in an IT department’s storage or at home in employees’ closets. By managing the take-back internally, Dustin can also take responsibility for the entire take-back procedure, from collection and transport until the equipment gets a new owner. The take-back program has now reached such a scale that it is a profitable business on its own and contributing to change based on both the customers’ and Dustin’s sustainability goals.

Increasing the degree of circularity is a crucial move to create change in a global IT industry with increasing use of virgin raw materials and increasing electrical waste. Among Dustin’s sustainability goals is to become a 100% circular business in 2030. The take-back service is an important tool, and a possible next step is to start selling used products online in collaboration with Dustin’s suppliers.

FOOD WASTE CUT BY HALF

AXFOOD AND MARTIN & SERVERA both aim to halve their food waste by 2025. The single most important tools in these efforts are optimized purchasing and a more flexible pricing of products that risk going to waste. Axfood is also a co-founder of Matmissionen, low-income food stores that sell food that would otherwise be thrown away. Through Svensk Dagligvaruhandel, Axfood and the rest of the industry will open three more low-income food stores in 2022 – a collaboration estimated to reduce annual food waste by almost 3,300 tons.

During 2021, Martin & Servera developed Raddamat. se – a new e-commerce solution that gives all customers the opportunity to buy food that risks going to waste. The platform has also been opened to other suppliers with goods that cannot be sold in regular assortments. This enables reduced waste even upwards in the supply chain and at the same time creates a new business for Martin & Servera.

INTEGRATED ACQUACULTURE AND FARMING AT GÅRDSFISK

Axel Johnson’s investment company Novax during the year invested in Gårdsfisk, a manufacturer of land-based fish farming technology and a producer of fish raised on farmland. The investment will help Skåne-based Gårdsfisk to accelerate production, technology development and distribution to make it even easier for Swedish consumers to gain access to good sustainably produced fish.

Gårdsfisk already sells its fish products under its own brand in Swedish grocery stores. The business is based on driving technology development centrally, while fish farming takes place with local farmers. In agriculture, the by-products created by fish farming are used, such as detritus and water. In this way, a high-tech and integrated aquaculture and agriculture is created. Gårdsfisk’s entire system is designed to minimize environmental impact, with the ambition of creating the world’s most sustainable fish.