Working together to achieve major advances The keyword for the past year is speed. It applies to our own efforts, resulting in numerous breakthroughs, but also to sustainability as a movement, with technological developments and new business models turbocharging the industry’s green transition. At the same time, customers are requesting more and better sustainable solutions, and the EU is accelerating the coming regulation of the area. To keep up with this rapid pace of change, collaboration throughout the value chain is required. This year was a landmark year for Ege Carpets’ sustainability work. We achieved our goals for many large and important initia- tives and started up even more, about which we already expect to have news in next year’s report. But we did not achieve this alone; two strong partnerships with suppliers have been estab- lished, to speed up both our own and their sustainability efforts. Our biggest victory is that, for selected carpets purchased as from April this year, we can offer a return system when the car- pets have come to the end of their useful life. After use, the car- pets can be collected, shredded and used as new materials for, among other things, the yarns we use in our own production. We call this Ege CircleBack, and it is an important collaboration with our largest yarn supplier, Aquafil. In collaboration with Shark Solutions, we also succeeded in re- placing the latex binder in our ReForm carpet tiles with a binder made from crushed car windows. This represents significant gains in terms of the proportion of recycled materials in our products, as well as the carbon footprint. Other major news includes that last autumn we made the deci- sion to invest in electrification of the part of our production that uses the most natural gas. We expect to start implementation at the end of 2023, so that as from the next sustainability report we will already be able to document the effect this will have on our greenhouse gas accounts. Even though we have made great progress during the past year, there is still a long way to go before we realise our ambition to create the world’s most sustainable carpets. If we are to achieve our ambitions for 2030, we must think circularly in every part of our business. Because sustainability is not just about stopping the climate crisis. It is also about keeping resources in closed loops, ensuring responsible business operations for ourselves and in our value chain, and restoring nature. The list could go on and on. Fortunately, our customers are with us on the journey and are helping to push companies in the right direction. The green agenda is moving forward quickly. Technology and industrial solutions are maturing more and more rapidly. We must stay sharp and make sure that we invest in the right opportunities. We are therefore constantly setting up new goals and initiatives within our five circular focus areas, to achieve our ambition. Things are also moving quickly on the legislation area. After many years in which sustainability has been a voluntary extra benefit, in the coming years it will increasingly be regulated by law. Companies will face mandatory requirements to address such areas as extended producer responsibility, due diligence in the value chain, eco-design and sustainability reporting. It will take a lot of effort to ensure that we are in line with the upcoming sustainability legislation. But this is the right way for- ward to achieve sustainable progress across industries and to ensure transparent communication concerning sustainability. Lastly, I would like to thank all employees, suppliers, customers and business partners for your efforts. The results we present in this report, and the goals we have set for the future, would be impossible to achieve without your valuable contributions. Thank you. I hope you enjoy reading the report. CEO Rune Stephansen 5
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