Leading the field in ESGperformance, instead of simply complying with legislation or following trends, requires a continuous commitment.”

Erja Sankari, Executive Vice President and COO, iLOQ

iLOQ continues to commit to ESG excellence across the board

Just as iLOQ speaks about itself as a born-digital company, we also take great pride in the fact that our entire existence is rooted in designing and distributing digital access management solutions, which by nature, save resources.

Traditionally, when we look at the environmental impact of our technologies, we see our strengths and competitive edge. For the better part of twenty years, we have been talking about the environmental benefits of having a battery-free digital solution that harvests its own energy from kinetic movement or from the mobile devices you carry on your persons daily. Being virtually maintenance-free also reduces our environmental impact by reducing on-site maintenance visits.

Always look inwards first
Regardless of the fact that our own Scope 1 carbon footprint has long been zero and the utilization rate of waste generated from our own operations is 100%, we continue to actively seek out ways to improve environmental efficiency in our own operations as well. During the past year we have, for example, invested in new automated packaging solutions for the products being shipped out of Oulu, Finland. We are now able to ship all of our hardware worldwide with renewable and mostly recycled packaging. This fast and accurate automated solution brings with it a new, more-space and material efficient physical-product packaging that allows us to ship more units in less pieces of packaging.

Driving change across the value chain
But, as a company that sources components from a network of manufacturing partners, the biggest impact we can hope to have is achieved by concentrating on demanding improvements in environmental performance from our important Scope 3 partners and suppliers. And, indeed, supporting them in improving their performance. Based on our Greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, up to 90% of our emissions originate from the operations of our 20 biggest suppliers.

The 2023 ESG Survey for suppliers revealed that our suppliers share very similar priorities regarding GHG reduction with us. While we recognise that there is still much that can be done to improve performance on this front, the survey revealed many important factors are already being actively addressed. More than 85% of our Key suppliers, all of the bigger ones, already have a sustainability strategy in place with at least 60% having set specific GHG reduction targets for their operations. Also, more than 90% of Key suppliers fulfilled our social responsibility requirements without needing to take new related actions. We will continue to work with our network of suppliers to continue improvements wherever we can.

Only as good as good as the people we work with
At the other end of the value chain, we need to also be mindful of what takes place in our international sales offices and indeed our vast network of partners and distributors. The same applies to partners and iLOQ country organizations alike. All operations must always adhere to local social and legal requirements as well as internationally recognized standards.

Regular audits are included in our contracts, and we monitor both environmental as well as social responsibility factors. Through numerous HR-led initiatives, we also aim to ensure that we are able to support our employees and partners in DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) -related efforts around the world. We are, for example, initiating an internal program to improve equality and transparency in pay policy across the organization.

A never-ending responsibility
At iLOQ, we don’t wash our hands of responsibility upon delivering our products to the customer. The end of life for any product is a significant phase especially in terms of responsibility and sustainability. This is why we aim to have recycling agreements in place in markets where we sell and operate. We ensure that, upon reaching the end of life, eachiLOQ device is responsibly handled either by us or our local partners, depending on the market and customer in question.

And, as mentioned earlier, our R&D is looking to improve our operations in terms of recyclability and material use. Now that we have optimized our packaging to contain 100% recycled input materials, we are setting our sights on all onsite operations. We have set an ambitious 80% target for all inhouse recycling with the 100% utilization rate we mentioned earlier. Being a responsible corporate citizen and striving to lead the field in ESG performance instead of simply just complying with legislation or following trends requires a continuous commitment. A commitment iLOQ has publicly made to all its stakeholders.