EVERY GENERATION MUST BE THE FIRST GENERATION

By overconfidence we might now be too relaxed. Our strength of long term commitment instead of hunger for change might become our worse enemy. Our success might lead us always to remain in our comfort zone. How do we use our power of taking initiative to prevent us from being a victim of external factors? How do we live in the two worlds of today and the future, with an ability to capitalize on both?

That was one of the subjects we discussed at this year’s sphere forum. 

In a dualistic world WE MUST CONTINUE BEING DECISIVE AND MANAGE DUALITY.

EVERY GENERATION MUST BE THE FIRST GENERATION, BUT THEY MUST ALSO UNDERSTAND WHAT EXISTS AND BE CAPABLE TO DEVELOP OR REVOLUTIONIZE IT.

Our partner LEGO is a fantastic partner to this. Their blocks are not only used for developing the engineer in you. They are also used to develop a child´s social ability to make friends. LEGO now creates fantastic communities for various ideas and phenomena on the internet and a virtual world. LEGO works with Facebook. It is interesting they do it to such an extent that the people in their joint teams no longer really know what company they work for. That you can call collaboration!

HUNGER FOR ACTION shall be our next library portal with films, workshop material etc, a toolbox to facilitate new learning for individuals as well as for teams. We shall preserve our values and continue to work on; How to be part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the form of innovation, digitalization, new technologies and what we can do with them. I am glad to learn that 87% of all managers have worked with the White Book and Stena’s basic values with their teams. 59% of management and teams have watched the films, and 58% have accomplished the team learnings on care, results, quality and collaboration. Continuous competence development for all of us is the most important aspect of sustainable care for our resources. 

This year’s forum took place in Halmstad on the premises of Stena Nordic Recycling Center and we had the opportunity to see and learn about various methods of recycling waste in the form of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap, paper, plastics, electronic waste, dangerous industrial and other waste. Stena Nordic Recycling Center has transformed Stena to be the technological leader for recycling in the Nordic countries. By flawless care of the waste we handle, we help our clients to run a green operation. The Stena Green Bond quoted on the Oslo Börs highlights our commitment to recycle everything with sustainable methods. In many instances our clients and we work so intensely in many groups that we really feel we work for the common good making the world a sustainable place, for the same task and not for our specific companies. An example of this attitude of colla-boration is the achievements by our company Envac together with Bergen city. Thanks to the solutions, in carrying waste in pipes instead of in containers, Bergen is clean from flying debris. We are also proud of the work our people perform in various groups with big as well as with small companies developing sustainable and safe methods in their production. 

In the cyclical economy, companies try to use as much recycled material as possible in their production. Not so long ago many car manufacturers boasted that they only used prime material in their production as a sort of guarantee. Today they boast about how much recycled material they use in their production. This is a fantastic change as it creates a market for recycled materials especially for aluminum and plastics.

Stena Properties’ contributions to sustainable communities are – How do we create safety and the feeling of care in our premises? Again it is about collaboration in a wider sense with our tenants for safe physical places, for easiness for our tenants to bond with each other, for easiness in communication with us, for help with school homework and the latest; we employ 350 young people during summer vacation to perform regular disciplined work and earn some money and get accustomed to, what it will be to have a regular job, once they enter the labor market. With a CV from working with us, it is also easier to apply for and get a job.

Saving energy is profitable and Stena Line, Stena Bulk, Concordia Maritime and our other marine activities still manage to keep on saving about 2% bunker-consumption annually. The industry has promised to reduce total energy consumption of oil with 50% till year 2050. We at Stena are on the right track. Stena Germanica, running on methanol free from particles, is doing fine. For Stena Jutlandica we are installing electrical battery power. Already the ship can call and leave port powered by electricity. This summer we plan to run for twenty-five minutes on electricity. Our next generation of ships most probably due in 2030 will, we envisage, run all the way to Fredrikshamn on battery.     

With so many things happening right now – How do we stay relevant? Not only thinking about making good. How do we by our performance create profit? Without profit we shall have no oxygen. In that sense – Greed is good. Greed is necessary. But I am coming back to duality. Profit is necessary and good. But we create it by also working for other purposes.

Dan Sten Olsson 

Göteborg 23 september