SUSTAINABILITY

An example of our commitment is our contribution and collaboration with Swedish Solar Water that started in 2018. Both employees and companies within Latour are donating money to Solar Water every year.

Sustainability issues (economic, social and environmental) plays a central role within LSAB Group and our owners. We develop innovative and sustainable solutions both in our own business and in our customers production.

This is an example from Wood Solutions strategy: “We have unique possibilities to influence the process from the moment the log enters the sawmill and the steel is delivered from the smelting plant and finally reaches the recycling. The industries of our customers are all strategical important in a sustainable point of view. Wood and cellulose are essential for the future of sustainable material supply and the process revolution of the engineering industry, will have major effect on material and energy use.”

Our three focus areas:

Environment
• We must reduce our environmental impact at all levels.
• We must ensure that our products are manufactured with the least possible energy consumption and raw material consumption.
• In Sweden all our units uses 100% renewable electricity.
• We measure and monitor our CO2-prints and works effectively to reduce them.
• All our waste is sorted and disposed of by certified recycling companies.

Employees
• We continuously monitor our employees condition and work preventively to reach a zero vision regarding workplace accidents.
• Gender equality and diversity are important to us.

Code of Conduct
• We act according to our owner Latour´s code of conduct at all levels. Read more here!

Solar water is a 10-liter portable water purifier that purifies and heats water using sunlight. The product has been developed by inventor and entrepreneur Petra Wadström. It is aimed at third-world users who, with clean and hot water, can reduce both family health care costs and wood needs.

Solar water

The Latour companies started a collaboration with Swedish solar water in 2018. Both employees and companies within Latour are donating money to Solar Water. Every year before Christmas, Latour matches the amount that has been collected from employees and companies during the year. Since 2018, we have gathered more than a two million crowns that have gone directly to solar water containers that are transported to ongoing projects in Burkina Faso and Uganda. Latour’s goal is that during a three-year period reaching out to 3,000 families, which corresponds to approximately 24,000 people.

Clean water at home

Solar water is a Swedish innovation that helps families purify water. At the moment, around one billion people live without access to clean water and electricity. That is, one in seven people. If you were one of them, you would need to use about 4-5 hours each day to fetch water and fuel to heat and boil it clean. With clean water at home, the chances of getting time to go to school or work increase, which is a path out of poverty.

Every woman who is trained to sell solar lamps in Tanzania is helping 250 people gain access to clean energy and reducing carbon emissions by the equivalent of more than 160 flights Stockholm – London. Every year. She also receives an income, enabling her children to go to school and giving her a higher status in the village.

Watch the film about the Solar Sisters’ visit to Tanzania in 2023

Female entrepreneurship for the climate

The successful scheme, named Solar Sisters, has been in place since 2010. But the needs are great. Nearly a billion people live without access to electricity today, while the Corona pandemic has led to increased poverty worldwide. To raise more funding to recruit and train more women, Swedish companies have joined forces under the Social Initiative Women & Climate. One of the first companies to join the initiative was Latour.

Social Initiative

The initiative is run by the organisation Social Initiative who has been working closely with Swedish companies and social entrepreneurs across the globe for twenty years. Solar Sisters was started by Katherine Lucey after a meeting with a local woman in rural Uganda. She realised that many people lit their homes with expensive and toxic kerosene lamps that can cause fires and disease, and that food was cooked over an open fire. Solutions were needed that were both sustainable and affordable, and that could easily be passed around to families in need.

Solar Sisters has really made a difference. The products sold create a ripple effect on the health of families, their finances, education and, by extension, communities at large. It also enhances the status of women. Today, there are over 7,000 Solar Sisters entrepreneurs in Southern Africa who have brought clean energy to three million people. But that’s just the beginning. We are delighted to be able to contribute to this positive change, Katarina concludes.