Sustainability

A successful company has no other way than to operate responsibly. We have to take care of the promises we’ve made to our customers, as well as the well-being of the people who work for our success. We do our best to use natural resources as less as possible to
minimize the burden we place on the planet. This report tells you how we managed these tasks in 2016.

Year 2016 was a year of growth for Lindström. We increased our customer volume across the Group. To make growth possible, we made lot of investments and purchased large
amount of textiles, which causes a slightly decreasing profitability.

Lindström is currently very solid and our equity ratio is high. Therefore, we are able to invest in the growth and guarantee to our customers a reliable service. We have boosted growth through acquisitions, with which we have gained valuable expertise in the local market.

We have had a great start in the implementation of the new strategy. We want to be the best service company in 2020. This challenge we have embarked boldly by asking questions about our customers’ daily lives and the challenges they see in the future. These discussions generate new ideas and bold visions, on which we can build future success stories.

We are already running a number of projects, in which we, together with our customers, test our ideas. This path we want to pursue. We have also asked how our customers perceive our service today and how we could improve the experience. You will see
the result of this work in everyday encounters, and certainly in the customer satisfaction results. The road towards being the best service company is already a lot smoother
than a year ago.

We have encouraged all our people to react fast to customer needs and within possibilities, solve them immediately. We´ve encouraged our managers rather act as mentors than
assign tasks. I strongly believe that people are motivated to do their best when they have the expertise to make the necessary decisions and the courage to confront the failures.

During the year 2016 we also renewed our brand, that is the way how we communicate and look. The new brand refl ects the attitude, ”We Care”. We are truly close to our customers and we want to make their everyday lives easier. “We Care” also has a
strong presence inside Lindström. We are encouraged to give and receive feedback, as well as do our best for the customer in every situation.

If 2016 was a year of growth, I´d like to see this one as a year of cooperation. I hope to see great achievements and smiling faces. May year 2017 bring success to all of us.

Juha Laurio
President & CEO, Lindström Group

Our leading thought is to create value for customers in everything we do. This means that we have to understand the needs of our customers and focus only on such activities that
brings value to them.

The way in which we add value to our customers must always be a responsible one, and our ethical codes of conduct are independent of our current strategy. As our President
& CEO says, we at Lindström have no other option but to act responsibly.

Harri Puputti
Senior Vice President, Quality

We managers have to be able to imagine the future and to convey this vision and its possibilities, to our people. With the help of the vision, it is easy to set common goals, to start developing the right kinds of skills, and to motivate people to work towards their
goals.

We must also support and encourage each other. Creating a sense of being trusted, valued and truly cared for is the best kind of “glue” to bind people to the company. Moving decision making to the people that are close to the customer is also a clear signal of
trust.

We’ll help our managers further their own skills so that they’ll be able to support, develop, and encourage Lindströmers to advance to more challenging jobs. We’ve published career paths as well with which people can recognize their own potential to develop to more responsible positions at Lindströms.

We’ll follow employee engagement and satisfaction regularly. It is good to see Lindströmers engaging so strongly.

Minna Gentz
Senior Vice President, Human Resources

Customer intimacy means that we genuinely want to be a supportive partner of our customers’ business operations. Our customer retention indicators, which have
already been on a high level for a long time, speak for the satisfaction in our services, and we are indeed proud of our globally extensive clientele and long partnership relations. Cooperation can be long-term only when it generates clear benefit for both sides.

Being genuinely present everyday is important in the maintenance of customer relations and in the development of our services. Mutual daily routines and experiences raise our understanding of what our customers require and how we’re able to react to these requirements.

We have strongly emphasised the development of new solutions by which we are capable of offering higher quality service as well as new ideas to our customers. Our Customer Service will also be switching more to the channels our customers wish to use.

Anna-Kaisa Huttunen
Vice President, Business Concept Development

We have precise ethical action guidelines that we conform with. We have also brought about a big change in the organisation and reports are made on all operational nations directly to the financial director.

Previously, it could be difficult to report problems or possible management violations up the ladder, but now it’s easier to bring problems up, and we have also harmonised our operational methods.

In addition, we’ve further detailed the processes connected with corporate acquisitions, for instance, so we don’t just act or react according to the circumstances but in a precisely specified manner.

We’re especially diligent when it comes to observing local laws and regulations, and we take action on problems detected immediately. We also carefully go through the problem cases with the management and Board – and above all we learn from them!

Petri Vapola
CFO

We at Lindström don’t handle responsibility in a separate department but every Lindströmer makes responsible decisions daily. For instance, at the laundry, each textile care worker makes decisions about the quality of the service to be delivered, energy
and water consumption, and the eff ectiveness of our service when choosing the washing program for the textiles. These important decisions are made at Lindström laundries a
million times daily.

We make similar decisions all the time that have an effect on the amount of textile waste and the quality of our products together with the well-being of our staff and suppliers.
Responsibility isn’t just an empty word for us, it is one of the values that guides our decision-making and gets us through the rough patches.

Operational Excellency means for us, first and foremost, the effective means of operations and management that saves both time and resources. We’ll only focus on such activities that bring value to the customer and that the customer is willing to pay for. In other words, cut to the chase and ignore the rest.

Effectiveness is also necessary because we are under constant pressure for faster delivery. Despite pressure and hurry, we have to act responsibly, always, and follow our values. This also entails the choosing of right business partners. Being in a hurry doesn’t give us the right to cut corners when it comes to responsibility.

A joint pilot project in smart textile management was launched in June by Lindström and food company Atria. The project makes use of radio-frequency identification, tracking tags attached to workwear. The technology allows to monitor the circulation and volume of workwear delivered by Lindström also in Atria’s own premises. A total of 30,000 workwear garments are in circulation.

The jointly developed garment range caters for the clothing needs of 2,000–2,700 Atria employees. Employees having clothing that allows them to work well and safely served as a starting point for the pilot project. The lifecycle of workwear can be monitored in a completely new way with the availability of accurate information on how often an item of clothing has been used, washed and maintained.

“Knowing the whereabouts of items of workwear and thus also their need means that no one has to worry whether clean workwear is available at the start of a shift,” explains Ralf Tupeli, Procurement Director at Atria.

Partnership and responsibility make a difference

In the food industry, the main function of workwear is to protect food products. Workwear needs to correlate with the industry’s high hygiene standards. Also responsibility counts. “It is important for Atria that all suppliers operate responsibly, taking care of their financial, social and environmental obligations. Also public reporting increases reliability,” says Anne Hirvelä, Quality Manager at Atria. In addition, longterm partnership plays a role. “It makes a difference for Atria that new solutions are developed for key workwear needs in longstanding partnership,” Hirvelä adds.
According to Hirvelä, in addition to ensuring food safety, workwear needs to be functional and comfortable in challenging working conditions. Clothing needs to protect employees from moisture and the cold, while being breathable and pleasant to wear. High-quality, suitable workwear improves wellbeing and work itself.

Electrotek is a leading manufacturer of antistatic clothing in India. The company’s unit in Bengaluru manufactures garments solely for the needs of Lindström’s customers. As a result of the partnership with Lindström, the Bengaluru unit has grown from a unit of 22 to a production plant employing 140 people.

”We mainly employ women, and for us it is a matter of honour to be able to offer enough work to secure their workplaces and livelihoods. We want our employees to produce high-quality products, which I believe will only happen through their wellbeing at work. We are currently in the process of expanding our production facilities, paying attention to the wellbeing of staff in the design”, explains T.K. Shankar, Director of Electrotek.
“We meet our contact persons at Lindström a few times a month for one or two days at a time to go through products, work methods and premises”, says Shankar. “Together we develop our operations to correspond to Lindström’s requirements as far as both corporate responsibility and product quality is concerned. Sometimes the targets are challenging, but our abilities and desire to develop are trusted.”

“Electrotek is a typical Indian clothing manufacturer for Lindström. The supplier was selected according to strict criteria, and operations are monitored through close collaboration and regular audits”, says Sourcing Director Kristiina Tiilikainen. “We are also glad to be involved in the development projects of our suppliers, such as the expansion of Electrotek’s production facilities. We examined the plans together a year ago, and I just visited the plant to ensure the plans are being carried through as agreed”, states Kristiina.

Sustainability has became an important issue and matter of reputation for hotels. Customers world-wide expect sustainable use of energy, water and textiles, as well as responsibility in suppIier chain. “From all of our suppliers we require a written code of conduct, system of monitoring their supply chains and environmental programme to make sure of sustainable use of natural resources”, says Cathrine Dehli, the Head of Sustainability of Nordic Choice Hotels. The hotel chain has three textile suppliers, two in Sweden and one inNorway.

“We are aware of the challenges in the field and have, with our suppliers, been analysing the sustainability chain of our textiles covering cotton growing, manufacturing, sewing, dying, transportation, use in the hotels as well as maintenance in the laundries and disposal of textiles out of use”, explains Cathrine of the work done lately. Also the mixture of bed linen by adding polyester and reducing cotton has been under consideration.

It would make the linen more sustainable, but also affects the look and feel of them. Cathrine wants to emphasize that sustainability is a chain of considered actions. “Our customers need to leave textiles they don’t want to be washed to racks, we have to leave textiles in racks to rooms and consider our own use of textiles. Our suppliers have to use the nature resources sustainably, wash and dry with as less energy and water as possible, and minimize the transportations. We don´t require that everything is perfect but the attitude has to be open, and going forward”, Cathrine sums up.