“Even though we are at the heart of the circular economy, we are still asked about sustainability”
Even if your own company focuses on environmental technology and the circular economy, you must still pay attention to sustainability issues. That’s what Marketing Director Kirsi Ahonen from Tana Oy, which manufactures waste handling machinery, found out when a multinational customer first asked Tana for a sustainability report. Such a report did not yet exist in the requested scope.
“We were still in the early days of our sustainability communications, even though we operated at the heart of the circular economy. We thought that there was no need to emphasise sustainability separately,” Ahonen says.
Tana did not have to start their sustainability work from scratch, fortunately, because a lot of work had already been done. Ethical guidelines and sustainability priorities had been defined, but more systematic and strategic work were required. It was time to think about how the company measures its progress in terms of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) and how it communicates this.
Systematically developing ESG+D begins with a situational review
This is where Tana’s collaboration with Medita began. Medita’s ESG+D package takes into account different aspects of sustainability and how ESG (Dialog) is communicated.
Our work began with the following:
- An initial situational review
- A comparison with competitors
- A clarification of the expectations and requirements of stakeholders
By researching the situation in the industry and among competitors, Medita was able to give Tana a clear visualisation the areas in which the company is doing well and those in which it needs to improve. Traffic light symbols described the situation at Tana and among its competitors.
The background work included interviewing the company’s internal and external stakeholders, including employees, customers and financiers. In Tana’s case, many stakeholders hoped for concrete actions and transparent sustainability communications.
An important point emerged when collecting data:
“Stakeholders expect honest communications. This means we can also communicate about areas that are incomplete. We don’t want to go anywhere near greenwashing; instead, we gave careful thought internally about what concrete things we already do better than others in terms of sustainability,” Ahonen explains.
Ahonen has noticed that sustainability is also increasingly important in terms of recruitment.
“It’s been great to notice how people now want to work in the waste industry – unlike a couple of years ago. We want to be on the side of good.”
At Tana, both the management team and employees have responded well to sustainability issues. Communications should show what ESG means in everyone’s work and everyday life.
Business valuation increases with sustainability work – measurably
During the process, the next steps in Tana’s sustainability work were defined. In addition, the effects of investing in ESG+D on Tana’s business valuation were evaluated with the expertise of Medita’s partner, the law firm Eversheds Sutherland. Eversheds’ calculation based on the ESG+D situational review and development plan clearly demonstrated the growth potential in the company’s business valuation over the coming years.
To guide continuous sustainability work, a sustainability programme was created together with another Medita partner, Ceriff, which develops quality management and sustainability information systems, including the possibility to gather all the data needed for reporting on one platform. Our partner Family Creatives was responsible for producing visualisations for the project.
End result: a clear roadmap for the future
Tana and Medita piloted the service package together, and the end result of the two-month collaboration was a satisfied customer.
“The ESG+D package clarified what to we had to do and was easy for us as a company to implement. We are not yet in the scope of sustainability reporting, but we want to have the capabilities for it in the future. We received good advice from Medita on how to proceed,” Ahonen adds.
Medita prepared an ESG communications strategy for Tana, which Ahonen confirms is a good tool. At the same time, the crystallisation of the core ESG message was revised to support Tana’s current core message.
At the time of writing, Tana’s sustainability programme is not yet complete, but the amount of information to be communicated to stakeholders has increased significantly. In addition to the comprehensive background work and resulting increase in company valuation, Tana learned an important lesson:
“Sustainability work has to be done thoroughly and over the long term. We do not expect the entire chart to turn green immediately. ESG+D work is never really finished. If sustainability work seems like a big hurdle, breaking it down into parts can make it more manageable.”
Tana Oy
- A networked international environmental technology company that promotes sustainable development by offering smart devices and solutions for solid waste management
- The company’s goal is to enable customers to turn waste into value
- A privately owned Finnish company founded in 1971
- TANA machines are sold in more than 50 countries through 30 authorised Tana distributors
How could your company also benefit from our ESG+D service package? Contact us and find out!
