Gold to green heroes

The foundations of the FM sector’s new environmental labeling system was laid when Coor decided to take an overall grasp of environmental issues instead of working on a fragmented and customer-controlled basis.

“We decided to produce our own concept to service-assure our whole delivery. We checked out the environmental assurance criteria already in place, collated our own experiences and assigned our specialists to develop it,” comments Magdalena Aspengren, Coor’s Environmental and Quality Manager.

Our concept was verified by the WWF, the Svanen (Swan mark) environmental labeling system in Sweden and Coor’s external environmental and quality auditors before launch in early-2010. At the same time, Coor decided on its own inspections of all major FM sites in 2010, which were conducted in October. The results were also published later in the year.

“We inspected 120 sites, and nearly 60 of them achieved silver or gold standard. These different levels enable us to discuss environmental improvements with our customers in concrete terms. We work on continuous improvements at Coor, and our own inspections enable us to highlight and map our work from an environmental perspective."

To achieve gold or silver status, contracts or sites must score a predetermined number of points, some of which are mandatory. Coor has prepared a proprietary tool covering all services in a delivery. There are several environmental segments to each service, and customers can score a maximum of six points for each environmental segment.

Magdalena thinks it’s clear that customer commitment controls this work and level of ambition.

“We’ve now got results for 2010 that everyone can relate to and use to set goals for this year’s work. At Coor, we’re really motivated that this promotes partnership with the customer to make improvements and take action in dialogue with the customer."

In its audit, Coor can verify what it can influence on a delivery itself, for example swapping cleaning products for environmental alternatives, while other things need more investment that the customer needs to decide on. Coor’s inspections are an important tool for understanding such issues.

“Coor Green Services isn’t a product we sell, it’s strategic consultancy. We don’t take a view on how our customers decide to work on environmental issues, but our starting-point is that we environmentally assure delivery indicating the possibilities for enhancement on contracts,” continues Magdalena.

The tool for the 2010 audit included soft and hard FM. In early-2011, Coor added industrial services to this year’s tool, thus covering Coor’s whole business. Other changes for the 2011 audit are minimum points levels, a few new segments and raised standards for most segments.

“The more skilled our customers get, the higher standards. We learn more, get new information, develop processes and services. This year, five contracts achieved gold standard. It might be harder next year, but we’ll also have worked a whole year on improvement proposals.”

The response from customers has been positive and most appreciate the fact that Coor has produced its own environmental labeling system. Some customers want one result for a whole site, even if Coor isn’t responsible for 100% of deliveries.

“Some customers want to partner with us and use Coor Green Services for their customer groups. I think that’s evidence that we’re maintaining high quality,” concludes Magdalena.

Want to know more about Coor Green Services?

Contact Magdalena Aspengren.