A Real
Difference.
Now.
& for the Future.

Our strategy for a sustainable future

We are dedicated to providing products to enable the user to have an independent and dignified life, with a minimum environmental impact, respecting human rights and social needs. Our focus areas and the main ambitions of the sustainability strategy:

• Good health and well-being – Empowering more people to gain independence, confidence and the ability to lead a full life
• Safe, committed and inspiring workplace – We shall provide great workplaces that promote well-being, belonging and a sustainable workinglife for our employees
• Reduced environmental footprint – There shall be no compromise between product and environmental performance

Highlights 2020

• We adopted a new 5-year strategy with an emphasis on sustainability
• We maintained delivery volumes, in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic, and were able to ensure the health of our users
• A new catheter coating process was introduced at site Mölndal, reducing energy and water consumption and which uses a 100% biobased solvent with better environmental performance
• Sustainability training of our sales representatives
• A new solution added to the product portfolio: the Navina Fecal Incontinence Insert
• A decrease in the carbon footprint of LoFric Sense thanks to an update of the packaging material
• Hazardous waste reduced by 10% in total and scrapped catheter waste reduced by 41% at the Turkish site
• Hazardous chemicals phased out or reduced at both manufacturing sites

1. Excludes voluntary recalls
2. Manufacturing sites in Kazan and Mölndal
3. Wellspect globally
4. Manufacturing sites in Kazan and Mölndal
5. Waste is characterized in accordance with local regulatory definitions
6. Calculated as the ratio of catheters coated in new process, yearly average

Good health and well-being

Empowering more people suffering from bladder and bowel dysfunction to gain independence and enjoy a full life through access to innovative continence care solutions. Providing easy to learn and teach products, committed support and education to healthcare professionals. 

Examples of our main activities:

Good health and well-being

• Expand our geographic market, providing good health and well-being to more people
• Develop products aimed at emerging markets
• Share knowledge about bladder and bowel management, through social media, blogs and articles
• Aim for zero recalls

Community engagement

• Establish a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) profile to be proud of and inspired by
• Continue to sponsor the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation
• Continue to hire people that are excluded from the labor market

Contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals:

Our goal is to make a real difference, every single day. With the help of our products, our users can have a freer, more independent life. Our products contribute to good health and well-being in themselves, while also having high standards for quality and patient safety.

Good health and well-being

The people who need our services are often affected by neurogenic conditions, such as Spinal Cord Injury, Parkinsons disease, Multipel Scelerosis or Spina Bifida. In addition, we also offer solutions and help for people with functional disorders, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, prostate issues or women who have sustained injury following childbirth. Many of those who are affected feel that their symptoms limit their everyday lives and the stigma surrounding the topic makes it hard to ask for help.

Wellspect’s goal is for more people around the world to get access to our solutions. We are continuously expanding into new markets and use several global communication channels to spread awareness and inform people about our products and services. We initiated ACCT, Advancing Continence Care Together, a global forum which gathers science, industry and healthcare professionals with the aim to share, interact and discuss how to best advance bladder and bowel continence care for the benefit of users around the world.

     READ MORE ABOUT ACCT HERE    

As part of our goal to contribute to good health and well-being, we regularly partake in a variety of activities in order to spread our message. We run three blogs in which we share scientific information and user stories , we carry out education through our sales organization and we partake in interviews and newspaper articles with the goal of informing the public about bladder and bowel issues, the solutions, and thereby breaking the stigma to speak about them. 

Community engagement 

Another aspect of our work towards better health and well-being is our sponsorships and partnerships. Across our many markets we sponsor different sport events such as wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball. We also support by watching their games, sharing experiences and demonstrating our products. Furthermore, we welcome members from the teams to participate in our development projects when user feedback is needed. 

Wellspect supports:

Safe, committed and inspiring workplace

Ensuring Wellspect is a desirable workplace and attractive business partner. We want to be an inspiring and challenging partner – together. Being an inspiring and challenging partner, leading to improved workplace conditions throughout the value chain. 

Examples of main activities 

Safe and sustainable workplace 

• Implement an extended safety program within manufacturing to achieve and sustain zero recordable injuries
• Set global Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) objectives
• Implement health promotion programs
• Provide training in sustainability and our Code of Conduct
• Empower our people to reach their full potential
• Embed our culture in our people processes
• Increase virtual and digital training for employees and leaders

Sustainable procurement

• Involve all suppliers in our sustainable supply chain procedures
• Encourage our main suppliers to abide by our values and ambitions
• Ensure suppliers sign our Business partner Code of Conduct and manage their risks
• Engage with crucial suppliers and audit when required

Contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals:

Safe and sustainable workplace

We are convinced that an atmosphere that motivates and inspires, and where we can challenge each other and explore new ideas, is crucial for developing innovations. As a company, we take responsibility and we invest in safety, training and well-being for our employees. We care about each other and face our challenges with joy and mutual respect. 

Safety in the workplace is our highest priority and a key focus point daily. We regularly evaluate data from risk analysis, EHS Rounds (environment, health and safety) and accident and incident reporting, to name a few, to ensure that our workplace is as safe as it possibly can be for our employees. In addition to this, all new managers undergo training in sustainability and work environment, security rounds are carried out on a regular basis and risk assessments are performed in the events of changes to our activities (operations, premises, equipment or working methods).

We believe an attractive and sustainable workplace is a prerequisite for financial growth. Physical safety is a priority to us, as well as the social work environment and thus one’s individual well-being. As a company, we have a range of activities in place to promote this, such as step count competitions, subsidized massages and healthcare allowances. 

Sustainable procurement 

An important part of our sustainability work is to ensure that we have complete control over our supply chains. We demand that our suppliers share our values and requirements as described in our Business Partner Code of Conduct, which includes demands on human rights, social conditions, work environment, sustainability and anti-corruption, in addition to the applicable legislation.

We believe that working together with our suppliers and having an open dialogue is important. Only then can we make a real difference and be credible and transparent throughout our value chain.

Reduced environmental footprint 

We actively work to reduce our environmental impact – both for our operations and products. This includes our carbon footprint, chemical use, water consumption, energy consumption, paper use and waste to landfill. 

Examples of main activities

Carbon footprint

• Develop a climate neutrality roadmap and set targets, strategies, and actions
• Improve energy efficiency
• Adopt climate-neutral transport to/from manufacturing
• Maximize renewable energy, including self-produced, in manufacturing
• Encourage environmental considerations in customer requirements on products

Chemicals

• Optimize core manufacturing processes
• Reduce the use of ethylene oxide
• Phase out DEHP (a phthalate-based plasticizer) and avoid PVC

Natural resources

• Reduce, reuse, and recycle resources
• Optimize manufacturing productivity and minimize waste
• Use FSC certified paper

Contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals:

Carbon footprint

We strive to reduce the climate footprint as much as possible and recognize the UN Climate Panel’s leading role in understanding the science and evaluating the effect of climate change. We want our customers, who depend on our products, to know that we are doing everything possible to reduce the climate footprint these products create. We are however still humble to the fact that this task is highly challenging. 

Our goal is to become climate neutral. We map all sources of carbon dioxide emissions, both from direct and indirect sources, and through planned practical measures we aim to gradually reduce our climate impact. The manufacturing and handling of our products are the largest contributors to our climate impact today, and by carrying out detailed life cycle analysis we can find where the greatest issues lie and work on how to improve those. 

Chemicals

We are highly focused on reducing the amount of solvents used in our production and work actively on replacing chemicals with more environmentally friendly alternatives. We have strict policies for chemical management in place at our production sites.

Natural resources

We are constantly focused on how to use less materials, more recyclable materials and in the future, completely new materials, to minimize our environmental footprint. We strive to run a resource efficient operation by minimizing consumption of natural resources, reducing energy use and recycling any remaining materials. Wherever possible, we try to avoid creating waste. 

We use life cycle analyzes for our products in order to prioritize the right activities and reduce the environmental impact. Through targeted efforts, with the help of digital technologies, we have been able to decrease the amount of waste in our production significantly.

Identifying potential product improvements with LCA

At Wellspect we use Life Cycle Analysis as a tool to identify which factors within the manufacturing of our products have the highest environmental impact and through that we can identify potential product improvements and “hotspots”.

The LCA process looks at all areas of the production process, from the sourcing of raw materials and manufacturing to distribution and eventually end of life.

POBE – The best possible catheter tube material available today

It was a Life Cycle Assessment made in 1990 which started the journey to a PVC-free assortment. Since 2009 the material in the LoFric catheter tubes is POBE, a Polyolefin Based Elastomer.

The POBE material in the tube contains no PVC or plasticizers and combines very good physical characteristics with an exceptionally good environmental performance.

POBE consists of carbon and hydrogen and the material has a low environmental impact, for example 33% lower environmental load for catheters in POBE compared to polyurethane*.”