Icotera's Path to a Greener Future: Inside Our Life Cycle Assessment Journey
A tailor made course in LCA boosts Icotera with a data driven perspective on ESG product optimization, innovation and communication
ESG is a key strategic focus at Icotera, and understanding the impact of our product's journey from cradle to grave is more important than ever.
That's why colleagues from across the company gathered for a two-day Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) course, guided and certified by the LCA expert at Danish Technological Institute, Ulf Smith Minke. The course was sponsored by the EU through SMV:Grønne kompetencer.
The course introduced the participants to the LCA methodology, giving them a solid foundation on how to assess and interpret the environmental performance of our products when it comes to areas like CO2, pollution, water, waste, and reuse of materials. This course was specifically tailored for Icotera to boost the competencies in ESG, and support the company ESG strategy.
New ESG eyes on the products
The course was arranged by Icotera ESG Manager, Freja Ludvigsen, to introduce the circular perspective on the product portfolio to a broad range of managers and employees.
Icotera has implemented its own LCA model illustrating the six phases of a product journey from cradle to grave.
The Icotera LCA Model
“Understanding the full life cycle impacts of our products, opens our eyes to the value of designing long-lasting products and reducing packaging and distribution, and the value of the data we receive from our suppliers. It supports our customers in their green transition and ESG-reporting, and inspires us in the product innovation”, says ESG Manager, Freja Ludvigsen.
She points to three areas in the product life cycle, where Icotera is already ahead:
1. Resources and manufacturing: CO2 footprint on product level
Based on the resources used and the manufacturing processes, we are now able to deliver CO2 cradle-to-gate footprint per unit for a range of products, fitting into the customers ESG reporting on Climate Change (ESRS E1), scope 3.
2. Manufacturing: Avoiding hazardous substances
Icotera has for several years paid constant attention to limiting the use of substances of concern in our products. We have extensive black and gray lists of chemicals. Adhering to these is legally binding across all our suppliers. We have reduced the use of flame retardants based on bromine (Br), chlorine (Cl) and phosphate (P) to less than 0,1%. By that, all our products are certified compliant with the EU RoHS and Swedish chemical tax legislation.
3. Refurbishing: Prolonging product life time
Our products are designed with high-quality components and software updates for a minimum 5-year product lifetime which is longer than the average time a router is deployed in an end-user home. This is why refurbishment of end of use routers makes perfectly good sense to many of our customers. Icotera offers an in-house refurbishment service that stands out in the market by its quality.
Every time we prolong the lifetime of a customer’s router, the total cost of ownership is reduced and the planet is saved from up to 90% of the CO2 emissions of manufacturing a new product. Add to that the reduction in extraction of virgin raw materials and minerals and lower amounts of E-waste.
The footprint in the use phase
The ESG manager also points to one area where Icotera has work to do together with the industry, supply chain and customers to improve:
“Especially the CO2 footprint of power consumption in the Use phase is an area we will focus on, both regarding supply chain reduction innovation and standardizing the accounting method to make sure that companies can be compared evenly on this post in the CO2 baseline”, says Freja Ludvigsen.
Read more on Icotera’s ESG vision and LCA perspective here
Reach out to ESG manager Freja Ludvigsen on fln@icotera.com
The LCA course was funded by:
