Last week six excited Clas Ohlson employees participated in Clas Ohlson's field trip to China to learn more about the company's sustainability efforts.
– At Clas Ohlson we have had our own operations in China for several years, and we are working with local purchasing and local auditors. As a step to further increase awareness of our sustainability work internally, we have created this opportunity for employees to learn more about how we work to develop our supply chain and contribute to the local community, says Åsa Portnoff Sundström, Head of sustainability at Clas Ohlson.
During the field trip, the employees visited Clas Ohlson's purchasing office, met with their Chinese colleagues and visited two of the company’s manufacturers in Shanghai and Zhejiang to participate in quality control and in inspection of working conditions.
The group also visited one of the two Save the Children projects Clas Ohlson supports in the industrial zones Zhuhai and Nanjing. The projects aim to provide the migrant workers who live there, and their children, with the opportunity to an education, leisure activities, access to care and integration assistance.
– This has been an incredibly exciting experience and also very educational to see how Clas Ohlson operates to ensure good working conditions in the factories that manufacture our products, and to experience the improvement efforts and training we perform onsite in China, says Niklas Östberg, store manager Clas Ohlson Haninge, Sweden.
The field trip provides a unique opportunity to be part of how Clas Ohlson works with environmental and social issues in the region, and the application to participate is open to all employees at Clas Ohlson.
– This year we have had an incredible amount of applicants, which shows a great commitment from our employees. We are very pleased indeed to see such interest in learning more about how our products are manufactured and how we control working conditions and quality, says Åsa Portnoff Sundström.
The field trip was led by Anna Wastring, Sustainability Program Manager at Clas Ohlson, and the participants were Karoline Gustafsson (co-worker at goods receiving at the Distribution Centre in Insjön, Sweden), Roger Carlström (Sales assistant in the store in Östersund, Sweden), Susanna Panula (Communications Manager at the head office in Finland), Niklas Östberg (Store manager in Haninge, Sweden), Matthew Collard (Team leader logistics in the store in Reading, UK) and James Griffiths (Team leader sales support in the store in Storo, Norway).
More on Clas Ohlson’s field trip and Clas Ohlson’s sustainability agenda, From here to Sustainability, is available at about.clasohlson.com/ourjourney.