‘The drive & will is the greatest opportunity’

– I studied chemical engineering with physics at Chalmers. At the end of the programme, when it was time to specialise, I chose to focus on energy and the environment, and that interest grew stronger as I entered the workplace. What drives me is the opportunity to contribute to a long-term approach, for Proton of course, but also to contribute to a long-term approach for my family, my children, my friends and my surroundings – yes, even for myself.

– The most important change is that demands have increased from a wide range of stakeholders. It’s not just regulators who care about the environment today, but customers, suppliers, the media and the neighbour across the street. Not to mention all the young people who prioritise the environment and sustainability. I’ve had the privilege of working in environmentally heavy companies over the years, where the issues have been taken very seriously, but the big difference now is that so many people really care about the work we do!

– It is no more important for Proton than for anyone else. Working consciously with sustainability-related issues is very important for any company that wants to remain on the market. Sustainability is a matter of survival from many perspectives.

– What they care about most at the moment is the climate issue. Proton’s stakeholders are very clear that they want us to demonstrate progress in reducing our carbon footprint and emissions.

– Carbon emissions and emission reduction is a very important issue and stakeholder demands will become even greater in the future. Another big challenge is to go deeper into the supply chain and ensure that sustainability requirements are met all the way – not only in terms of climate but also other, sustainability-related requirements. The challenge is that we often have complex supply chains. One example is Exaktor, which works with many components from different parts of the world.

– The drive and will that exists in the organisation and with the owners. We have an opportunity to show that we are moving forward and making things happen. In some areas we have created a small lead over our competitors, not least on the surface treatment side.
The fact that we have the entire Proton Group behind us also gives us a little extra muscle and opportunities for investment. The fact that we have such breadth in the various businesses – and that they are not always synchronised in the business cycle – can actually be an advantage sometimes.

– We have just started work on producing a sustainability report under the new European CSRD directive for the entire Proton Group. This is exciting work where I will learn a lot more about and get closer to our businesses and companies. It’s really fun. Within the framework of this work, climate calculations are also underway for all companies in the group. The work will give us a good basis for real and important improvement work going forward.