10 Introduction

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New Wave Group ’ s corporate sustainability efforts and sustainability goals revolve around the areas where we can make the biggest difference . Below we present the goals a little closer . The goals serve as a guide and reminder of what the

Group and its subsidiaries should prioritize .

PRODUCTS WITH SUSTAINABILITY ATTRIBUTES New Wave Group aims to introduce more sustainable and eco-friendly materials in our range of products . We want to increase the amount of products coming from sources and processes with extra care for people and the planet ( read more on page 18 ). Working with eco-labels and certifications is an important part of our sustainability work . It is a tool to help our customers to identify the best performing products in terms of social and environmental responsibility .

Measuring the amount of certified products would have been a clear way of reporting the amount of sustainable products . However , we think it is important to also highlight products which for example are made of more environmentally friendly materials where certifications are not always available . This applies in particular for the hardline products where the selection of eco-labels and certifications is very limited . Therefore , when measuring the amount of sustainable products we use our own indicator “ products with sustainability attributes ”.

We base our classification of the products on established industry practices . The development is moving forward and the list of materials and processes we view as more sustainable will be updated and adjusted over the years .

Textile products with sustainability attributes include products with one or more of the following labels , materials or processes : The Nordic Ecolabel , GOTS , Oeko-Tex , Fairtrade , recycled polyester , spun dyed polyester , EXP 4.0 treated wool recycled polyamid . Oeko-Tex is by far the most represented attribute and accounts for more than 90 % of the products with sustainable attribute .

Hardline products with sustainability attributes include products with one or more of the following labels and materials : FSC , recycled polyester , recycled rubber , biobased plastics and recycled glass . Also included are crystal products from Orrefors Kosta Boda made of so-called “ ecocrystal ” that are free from lead and arsenic , which is unfortunately still common in the industry .

In 2019 , we see a relatively modest increase in products with sustainability attributes , despite a lot of work going on in the Group . Several of the subsidiaries worked during the year to develop new collections of products with sustainability attributes , which will be launched in 2020 . Thus , we can expect to see greater effect in the 2020 report .

The Global Goals

2017 2018 2019 Goal Comments

* New Wave Group has around 8,000 active products ( color / size excluded ). Around 50 % are textile products and 50 % are hardline products .