Starting this year, large and listed companies must disclose their environmental and social impacts. This is one of the first steps in the fight against climate change, based on the Paris Agreement adopted at the United Nations in 2015.
Jonatan Karjus, CEO of Standard, says that the company competes in the international premium market, and cooperation with customers there requires a sustainable way of doing things, including the transition of Standard’s production building to renewable energies. In the interview, he reveals how they have reached big deals at the international level and what Standard’s success is based on today.
Standard is a well-known brand with long traditions, what is your focus and direction?
Standard just turned 80 years old, and we are one of the few companies in Estonia that have been operating for such a long time. During this time, we have produced a wide variety of furniture – from children’s beds to office furniture. Probably the best-known Standard products for the reader are the Eva sofa and sectional wardrobes, which can still be found in many homes today, but outside we are primarily known as hotel decorators. Standard has furnished more than 100 hotels in nearly 30 countries. One of the most exciting recently completed projects is a boutique hotel in the middle of the Icelandic wasteland.
Recently, we have been dealing primarily with commercial projects, which are the furnishing of cruise ships, hotels, offices and school buildings. We offer a full service – we procure, manufacture and install furniture and think along with solving interior design challenges. We focus on foreign markets, but we also offer the same services in Estonia.
Manufacturing is inevitably an environmentally damaging activity, how do you reduce your footprint?
Joining Sunly was the first step after passing the green audit to move towards reducing our footprint. We saw very clearly that the share of energy in Standard’s emissions is very large. Purchased electricity accounted for 6.3 percent of Standard’s footprint. It was the easiest thing to fix quickly. Our factory is located in Kose, and there we use both the sun and the wind for energy from a distance.
We practically do not have surpluses in the factory. We have two important directions in production: we use the residues in other products or we heat our building with them using a specially adapted bioboiler equipped with filter systems. In addition, whenever possible, we use materials that are more environmentally friendly. This requires good cooperation with the customer and the customer’s contribution, as these materials are more expensive.
Why did you choose Sunly as a partner and how has been the cooperation so far?
Sunly is a progressive and innovative company and it is important to us that they think along and offer thoughtful services. Sunly gives us feedback on what energy we use and how much. Thanks to this, we can better understand what the use of renewable energies means more precisely. We can see how much carbon emissions we save thanks to the subscription, and it is possible to display this back to customers with simple means.
These are important activities for the marketing of the company – not only to consume green energy, but to communicate it both more widely and internally. We used to have an exchange package and it didn’t give a good overview of where our energy comes from. We have started the first month and the January report has just been completed.
How aware are your customers – will joining Sunly help you market your business better and stay competitive?
Yes, sure. Customers ask what our plan is and how we can be a greener company. It is not directly asked whether we use green energy, but the company’s CO2 emissions are looked at as a whole. For example, we are finishing a hotel project for an international company in Finland, where the client asks for the project’s CO2 emissions. We have to calculate it in terms of products, transportation and installation. As the energy consumption of products and transport is relatively high, so is the impact of using green energy. The use of renewable energies gives us a significantly better result.
It is the large international clients who ask for this information, as they have a duty to report as listed companies. We are starting to see this trend more and more in public procurements both in Estonia and abroad. For our international customer, for whom we are one of three suppliers in the world, and for whom we have offices in Mexico, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, we have to report every year how we can reduce our emissions by at least half by 2030.
We are also increasingly asking our suppliers, both material sellers and subcontractors, for this information in order to make our own calculations.
Has the change been reflected in Standard’s sales figures?
It’s just starting to show. A strong selling point for us is that our products have a smaller footprint compared to our competitors. With materials, it is more difficult to offer more environmentally friendly products at the same level of price, since materials that harm the environment less are generally more expensive.
It is possible to do more in the production process, because renewable energy is not significantly more expensive than the stock exchange package today. We chose Sunly because financially we don’t lose, but we can offer a significantly higher value, and this is important to our customers.
What are the plans in the future, how do you continue the sustainable direction?
The use of green energies is an important pillar, but we need to see how Standard can move towards long-lasting products and more environmentally friendly materials. We no longer compete among cheap hotels, we rather make more sophisticated 5-star hotels, and it is in the premium market that the sustainability of the company comes out brightly.
“Standard AS sets an example by being one of the leading companies that have taken a step towards a sustainable future. The company’s decision to start using green energy is not only environmentally friendly, but it also sends a clear message that sustainability and innovation go hand in hand,” comments Siim Lääts, a board member of the Sunly Retail.
Article was published on 4th of March in Äripäev
