Sustainability in Vågen
The UN's 17 goals for sustainable development were adopted as a framework agreement, the denominated "Paris Agreement" in 2015, by UN member states. The agreement not only obliges the authorities, but must "function as a joint global direction for countries, businesses and civil society".[1]
Vågen believes that every company has a special responsibility for both economic, ecological and socially sustainable development in the areas in which the company operates. Based on the triple bottom line ("TBL"), we will elaborate on this, with a focus on the sustainability goals where we believe Vågen has the most to contribute.
TBL is an accounting model within the social economy, developed by John Elkington (1993). The purpose was to highlight that it is not only the company's operating results that are relevant, rather how the company affects society and the environment around it, is also important in measuring sustainability.[2]
Vågen AS accepts students on vocational subjects in upper secondary school for internships. For higher education, Vågen has had several projects with both the Technical College and the College of Engineering, and also offers summer jobs for students. Such cooperation between the company and educational institutions gives students and pupils practical work experience, which is important to ensure the quality of the education.
Vågen AS also buys services from Tysnes Industri AS (TIAS). TIAS has 12 adapted workplaces (VTA), 6 places for work preparation training (AFT) and internships for students in upper secondary school. TIAS assists Vågen with practical needs such as storage space for spare parts, construction of special pallets for the transport of machines, packaging and delivery to customers, as well as transport in the local area. From time to time, Vågen also has deployments from TIAS. The measures VTA and AFT contribute to inclusion in education and working life. Through the collaboration with TIAS on the purchase of labour, Vågen is thus contributing to furthering the goal of inclusion in education.
Vågen also wishes to recruit more women to improve gender balance in the company, in line with sustainability goal no. 5 on gender equality.
Nr. 6 - "Ensure sustainable water management, access to water and good sanitation for all"
Vågen AS supplies machines and systems for water purification, both alone and in cooperation with system suppliers within water purification. This applies both to the purification of drinking water and/or sludge from various processes, such as municipal wastewater.
Nr. 8 - "Decent work and economic growth"
"Decent work for all"
For Vågen AS, it is important to ensure that all requirements under the Working Environment Act, HSE etc. are complied with. It is equally important that we check that all our subcontractors work in accordance with these requirements. In this way, we can be sure that the employees of our partners have a decent working environment.
By a decent working environment, we understand a workplace where everyone has a pleasant psychosocial environment to come to, at the same time that ergonomic conditions, indoor climate, noise, order and tidiness are in order. Vågen has established internal routines to control this.
Social conditions
The social dimension is about how we as a company influence the people around us, both internally as well as local communities, customers and partners.
Economic circumstances
As a company in constant growth, Vågen contributes to value creation and more jobs in Tysnes.
The larger the company becomes, the more important it will be that financial surplus can be used for sustainable measures for future operations. This is how we can minimize our environmental footprint.
It is important for us to align our operations with regard to a sustainable future for the company. For example, there is a steady increase in deliveries to the waste and sludge management sector. In order for society to be viable for the future, it is crucial to have a functioning system for waste management, so that we can mitigate the disadvantages that waste of resources brings to the climate and environment
Vågen AS is at all times involved in the development of new machines and processes in collaboration with customers and research institutions.
As an example, Vågen has been closely involved in the development of a completely new type of biogas reactor.
Nr. 11 - "Sustainable cities and communities"
Vågen will get involved in local sustainable business and community development by contributing in their creation and engaging in industry networks in the region, as well as similar initiatives that actively work for positive development.
Concretely, Vågen has contributed to the creation of what is today called Atheno, Industrinettverket AS. The purpose was to establish a meeting point for cooperation, knowledge exchange and inspiration between the players in the mechanical industry in the Sunnhordland region. After the merger with Vekst Industri Hordaland, Atheno today also includes actors in other industries. In this way, the companies can learn from each other, and together contribute to a sustainable business life for the future.
As a business in a small local community, we consider it important to comply with our social responsibility to stimulate well-being and growth in Tysnes. The spirit of voluntary work is great here. Through financial contributions to socially useful initiatives in Tysnes, such as the Red Cross, the local sailing association and the Multi-Purpose Hall we try to play a part in the community.
Nr. 12 – «Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns»
In this lies a goal to reduce waste of all kinds of resources - such as clothes and food. In sub-goal point 12.5, it is elaborated that one will "significantly reduce the quantity of waste through prevention, reduction, material recycling and reuse".
Vågen supplies a lot of equipment to the recycling industry, and to sewage/treatment plants. We supply, among other things, grinders for plastic and food waste, transport screws for heat treatment and screw presses for dewatering sludge etc. This equipment contributes to material recycling and reducing the amount of waste.
For example, the dewatering method can be used for handling septic sludge and wastewater. Septic sludge and wastewater contain important nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Through dewatering, the nutrient content becomes more easily available.
Vågen machines are almost 100 percent recyclable. Furthermore, these machines are built for a lifetime of over 10 years. In many cases, the machines from Vågen are still in operation 30-40 years after they are delivered.
Environmental conditions
Vågen is interested to take responsibility for the company's environmental footprint. This means that we must control the use of resources involved in production, how waste is handled and to what extent operation/production creates greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, it entails a responsibility to minimize the environmental footprint as far as possible, through concrete measures and action plans.
Nr. 13 – «Act immediately to combat climate change and its consequences»
As part of compliance with the goal of immediate action, Vågen is in the process of implementing environmental accounting in accordance with ISO 14001:2015, and this must be completed by the end of 2023.
In 2019, we engaged a group of local young people to prepare the website avvanning.no. Here you can read more about how our technology for handling sludge waste can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are involved in the transport of various resources. Through this measure, we want to encourage the actors to make use of a sustainable use of resources.
You can read more about how Vågen's work can concretely contribute to achieving the sustainability goals for the environment and climate below.
Vågen AS supplies separation and dewatering solutions that contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions in the farming industry. Avvanning.no has been created to focus on this.
For fishflour production on board fishing vessels, Vågen AS supplies machines that enable you to take care of the residual waste from the fish. This contributes to the sustainable management of marine resources.
We are also involved in several projects for the recycling of plastic, which will help to reduce plastics in the nature/sea.
The way forward
Through systems and routines, Vågen has committed to doing what we can to achieve the sustainability goals. All employees and our subcontractors are aware of this. We hope that more and more people will join in carrying this load, which is absolutely necessary for the future.
Sources
[1] (https://www.fn.no/om-fn/fns-baerekraftsmaal, retrieved 18.07.23)
[2] Nilsen, Heidi Rapp: The three-part bottom line in Store norske lexikon at snl.no. Retrieved 18 July 2023 from https://snl.no/Den_tredelte_bunnlinje