At the Eco-label customer day in February 2016, a Scandic Hotels representative was sitting next to me. This was a funny coincidence, because Scandic was one of the partners who inspired us to start our corporate responsibility work in the mid-1990s.

Some questions are complex and require some consideration – for example, ideas regarding the environmental effects of disposable vs. reusable products. Is a reusable product always the better option in terms of the environment?

Are environmentally-friendly raw materials and green electricity enough to claim social responsibility? Of course not, although they are a good start. But what does social responsibility in product design actually mean?

By choosing the right product for each purpose we can ensure that the Earth’s resources are used wisely and that future generations will also be able to enjoy our unique planet.

We have been thinking of ways to make Fiblon an even better workplace than before. Somewhat surprisingly, we’ve come to the conclusion that we should work on improving our atmosphere of discussion. A true discussion consists of listening, presence and a genuine interest towards other people’s opinions. Put your hand on your heart – how often do you really give open discussion a chance? The recipe for open discussion consists of at least six essential ingredients:

The joy of working is one of our four values, and it is important to us that our employees feel good about coming to work in the morning.

Efficient, hardworking, quick-witted, extroverted, fast, accurate, friendly, active and happy – wonderful descriptions. This is the result of my colleagues describing my positive characteristics during our Common Goal Setting (CGS) day.

Since 2015, we have launched several projects aimed at improving wellbeing at work, such as the 3-year Great Place to Work study, which we hope will help us identify the most important areas in need of improvement. The Smartum exercise and culture benefit was tested in 2015-2016. In October 2015, we launched a one-year workplace health promotion group activity for a targeted group, together with our occupational healthcare provider. The group was named Virkku, and they met 11 times to attend various lectures by workplace health specialists and to try out different forms of exercise.

Nowadays, failures are inevitable, and even fashionable.

I have been working determinedly on improving our corporate social responsibility since 1996. The world has definitely changed during that time. When our most recent corporate responsibility report was published on 2.6.2017, I felt immensely thankful that I have had the chance to lead us in this direction for so long.