01. Copperberg Podcast
Episode 04
Green Gains: Turning Sustainability into Profits in Aftermarket Services
Running a smart and agile manufacturing operation
This episode provides the tools and inspiration for industry leaders to move from intention to action, transforming sustainability into a cornerstone of a resilient, forward-thinking business.
02. CONTENT
In the latest episode of Copperberg Conversations on Manufacturing Matters, we explore the complex yet promising journey of integrating sustainability into the aftermarket services sector.
Lisa Hellqvist, Copperberg’s Co-Founder and Managing Director, joins us to unpack why sustainable practices are no longer optional but essential in an industry where profit margins are tight and customer expectations are rising. With years of experience leading Copperberg and direct collaborations with manufacturing leaders, Hellqvist has witnessed the evolution of sustainability from a “nice-to-have” to a powerful lever for competitive advantage and long-term growth.
Through a range of practical examples, she shows that the path to sustainability doesn’t have to compromise the bottom line—in fact, it can enhance it.
Key Topics Covered in This Episode:
- Forces Driving Sustainability in Aftermarket Services: How customer expectations, regulatory pressures, and technology are reshaping how aftermarket companies approach sustainability.
- Challenges and Opportunities: The barriers companies face in turning sustainability goals into action and how some have turned these challenges into profitable opportunities.
- Designing and Proving Sustainable Practices: Real-world examples of companies rethinking product design and adopting holistic approaches that align commercial and environmental goals, as well as effective strategies for measuring and communicating sustainable value to stakeholders.
- Embedding Sustainability Across the Organization: How to secure leadership buy-in, integrate sustainability into sales and service teams, and create a lasting cultural shift that ensures sustainability becomes part of the company’s DNA.
As sustainability continues to shape industry expectations, companies that proactively embed it into their core operations will find themselves not only meeting regulatory and customer demands but also setting the pace for a future where responsible practices define success.
03. Speakers
Copperberg Conversations on Manufacturing Matters is your go-to podcast for candid discussions with the industry’s top thinkers and innovators.
04. Listen now
Green Gains: Turning Sustainability into Profits in Aftermarket Services
Lisa Hellqvist, Copperberg’s Co-Founder and Managing Director, joins us to unpack why sustainable practices are no longer optional but essential in an industry where profit margins are tight and customer expectations are rising.
05. Transcript
Nina Roper Yearwood (00:32)
Hello and welcome to a new episode of Copperberg Conversations on Manufacturing Matters. I’m your host, Nina Roper Yearwood, Social Media Manager at Copperberg. In this episode, we are going to pick the brain of Copperberg’s Managing Director, Lisa Hellqvist, on turning sustainability into profits in aftermarket services. Lisa isn’t just leading the charge at Copperberg. She co-founded the company back in 2012 and has been steering it as managing director ever since. With over 15 years of experience, she’s a seasoned expert in the industrial aftermarket, service, e-commerce and digitization. She’s also a well-known figure in the industry, regularly engaging with manufacturers and creating impactful content that resonates across the board.
So sustainability, it’s a term we hear a lot these days, but it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming especially in an industry like aftermarket services where margins are notoriously tight and cost pressures are high. The big question is how do you balance the immediate need for profitability with a long-term goal of environmental responsibility in a way that not only benefits the planet but also drives your business forward?
In today’s episode, we’ll break down the complexities of sustainability in the aftermarket and services sector. We’ll explore the forces driving the sustainability agenda, the challenges of integrating sustainable practices into your business, and share some practical insights and real world examples to help you on your own sustainability journey.
So let’s dive in. First, let’s welcome and get to know our expert guest in today’s episode. Hello, Lisa. Welcome to the show!
Lisa Hellqvist (02:23)
Hi Nina!
Nina Roper Yearwood (02:26)
Lisa, you’ve been for many years a champion of this topic and I’ve seen through your talks and articles you’ve written how passionate you are about sustainability in the aftermarket long before the topic got really big and got major attention. Could you tell us a little bit about why this is so dear to you?
Lisa Hellqvist (02:45)
It’s a great question actually, but it’s one of those, I think it has to do with when you have a certain number of years in this industry and you start looking at really macro-environmental changes and trends that are forming our everyday lives. Almost like nations are formed by this, right? There’s this big agenda on sustainability.
Then you take that to your home turf and in the areas where you thrive and my expert area almost always around aftermarket parts and field service, you realize that yes, there’s a lot of focus points on the production of things. There’s always where we come in and where the manufacturers will look at is their own production sites. But the products often live multiple set of years after that. And there is this responsibility of taking care of our machinery and equipment installed base to the best of our abilities.
Within the last couple of years, it’s been clear that things like the IIoT, connected services, that everything that basically reads into the predictive maintenance programs, the virtual assistants, remote support, being able to refurbish and remanufacture parts, things like that is now opening up a whole new set of solutions that can be both resource efficient in terms of our internal resources, which is labor, transport, these kinds of things, assets, etc. And being less waste on our environment. And therefore, I think it’s really an interesting thing because now it looks like the sustainability angle of the aftermarket has finally built its own business case. And that’s one of the reasons I’m so passionate about sustainability in the aftermarket function.
Nina Roper Yearwood (04:42)
So speaking about business case, let’s get into the heart of that. The force is driving sustainability and aftermarket services. Walk us through the broad view and the aftermarket services industry where the pressure again, like what I said earlier, to stay profitable is always high. Sustainability can sometimes feel like a luxury, but with the landscape changing so quickly with so many pressures, customer expectations, changing regulations in the market itself. What’s been the most surprising or significant change you’ve observed in how companies approach sustainability today?
Lisa Hellqvist (05:21)
Well, I think there’s two main shifts that I would like to highlight. First, there’s this growing shift in the customer landscape. And I think it’s mainly driven by the younger generation of buyers who are now, you know, they’re forcing us to produce more end-to-end solutions. And, you know, the consumerization of everything, if you may, is fast-tracking the impact of service economies, right?
There was a lot of fancy words there, but I think you’re keeping up with me. It’s basically we’re forced to embed added services, soft services. It could be software into hardware for people to sort of relate to the product itself. So, you know, customers are no longer just buying the products, they’re buying the outcomes. So, you know, it’s uptime, it’s contracts, it’s outcome based services, etc.
And the younger generation also, they’re raised in a world of as a service models, like, know, some iTunes is a great example, right? Where we actually heavily invested in the software that we were forced into by the hardware. So it’s a great way of showcasing how these works.
But it also means that we’re willing to pay more for solutions that provide this ongoing service and added value that is beyond this sort of initial point of sales or the initial purchase. So that’s something I think the generation of new customers definitely is driving this. And when I talk about these things, I’m not talking about changing what is today because that has already happened. I’m thinking about what we know about tomorrow. And we already see some of these changes sneaking into our daily lives. It’s all about e-commerce, it’s all about the outcome services, etc. And as I said again, the consumerization of everything.
Then secondly, it’s the sustainability term itself. I think it has now made its way to the forefront of everyone’s agenda. Whether it’s driven by global, national or industrial goals for reaching net zero, or it could be also internal company commitments. I think companies today are really scrutinizing their entire supply chain. And what’s more interesting is that companies are also beginning to expect sustainability from their service providers, right? So customers now want transparency around the carbon footprint that their purchases machinery equipment is bringing and also the services that they receive that are attached to this equipment. So this shift with these two aspects, both the customer demands and these corporate sustainability targets that are forcing our customers to up the pressure on our ability to deliver data sets on this has been accelerated by the pandemic.
And I think it’s also because of the technology adoption that came during the pandemic that actually enables us to track this. But we also were forced to adopt more efficient remote support systems, etc. And interestingly enough, these measures that were driven out of necessity actually ended up being more sustainable.
It’s, you know, because we reduced travel and we were optimizing resource use and all of this ended up as almost like a win-win. I’m of course oversimplifying this, it’s not true for everybody, but in general, this is the trend that I’ve picked up on and this makes the sustainability discussion in aftermarket and services extremely important right now because there is a paradigm shift. There’s definitely a paradigm shift and I truly, truly believe that those who can be ahead of the curve here and being able to quantify this and also being able to add this as a sort of value add towards their customers, they will be ahead of the curve.
Nina Roper Yearwood (09:30)
Lisa, you’ve mentioned about this paradigm shift, right? Into this whole sustainability project, if we could call it that. So, I want to see from your perspective the challenges you’ve heard manufacturers mention when it comes to moving from sustainability intentions. Because again, like you said, these are nice things to have, making the most out of what you have. To concrete actions, which, you know, expectation versus reality may have a lot of discrepancies.
Lisa Hellqvist (10:05)
And I mean, okay, so one of the biggest challenges and I think this is one that we will still carry with us to be honest, is to translate this high level corporate sustainability agenda and goals into actionable steps for each department, right? I think that is where we’ve lacked, there’s been a disconnect. Everyone knows that sustainability is important on a corporate level.
But not everyone on a departmental level have been accountable for their own department’s contribution to that goal. If you think of it then, if we take an aftermarket director as an example, they have had great corporate communication about how important this was sustainability, but it’s not really broken down in tangible elements in their own profit and loss, for example, responsibility.
So it’s hard. You take a very broadly painted goal and need to do something actionable out of it. And that’s not easy. And the sustainability initiatives traditionally – trust me, I’ve tried to do events on this before, tried to dig into the ownership and who is the stakeholders – one of the biggest things is that they’ve lacked ownership. There might’ve been some kind of corporate responsibility, you know, officer or something, but it doesn’t really translate fully to sustainability. And when we speak about, you know, production lines and etc, there’s a disconnect.
So, I mean, there is a lack of ownership on departmental level. So now that’s one of the major issues, but I also think now that a knock on effect of some of the efficiency gains that we’ve done. The technology adoption has also proven to be sustainable. So now, you know, when people are getting more acquainted to this, they are also being smarter about it. They turn it around, right? They say, okay, not only are we more efficient, we’re also sustainable. So that’s an interesting thing. The other is of course the barrier and the mindset that sustainable means more expensive.
And I think that there’s a lot of lessons to be learned in looking at the potential profitability in sustainable services. We’ve had numerous keynote speeches on this over the last couple of years. Not only can it help driving top line revenue as in you can actually charge premium for sustainable service because you make your customers life easier by being able to transparently share that ESG data that’s making their life easier.
But also can you protect your bottom line because almost all sustainable efforts has an efficiency gain in them. It’s not true for everything, yet again I’m simplifying here, but it is true in many aspects that you can do things sustainable but more cost efficient. And that is thanks to the technology adoption. Remote support is great way of saying that you can take more service jobs in one day but you have less people in circulation.
Nina Roper Yearwood (13:32)
Yeah, so very interesting Lisa, because even in the B2C sector, for example, sustainable products are often marketed as well sold more expensive than the, you know, your other products that don’t have the sustainability aspect of them in it. So that said, you also mentioned something about before the lack of ownership. That’s one thing that I picked out and you mentioned as well having, you know, having difficulty organizing a sustainability event because there’s no one to talk to or to talk about it in a concrete manner. So that we actually have an event about this now.
Lisa Hellqvist (14:19)
We do!
Nina Roper Yearwood (14:20)
Does this signal a change of the times where there is somebody who takes care of it now?
Lisa Hellqvist (14:26)
Yeah, and I think that goes down to, again, it’s number one, the whole sustainability aspect has just risen in importance over the last couple of years, right? It’s pressing, you know, from any macro environmental regulations, there are national, global, regional, local, company-wide efforts to make this happen. There are new EU legislations on digital product passports and all of these things about transparency and traceability.
We’re talking about so many aspects when it comes to sustainability now that it’s actually reshaping the industry as such.
But I also think that the accountability and the ownership, when people, and this is true for almost any trend, and unfortunately this is the truth, is that when people see that there’s a business case, so departmental heads, if they can see a business case in things that they are set out to do and there’s a logic to it that from a business perspective makes sense.
And especially if they are only dedicated with the P&L of that specific department, but no one has given them a very specific sustainability target, then of course, they are not going to sit around and deal with sustainability all day and try to make changes on that because in the end of the day, they will be measured on their contribution to the P&L budget.
Kind of what’s in it for them, why should they? There’s a communications gap there, and that’s where the ownership gets lost. But if someone then can see how this can harmonize with their profit and loss, then all of a sudden we have a totally different ball game, right?
And this is what I think has happened because, yeah, you mentioned the event that we’re putting together now and I had this great idea just before summer that I wanted to put, you know, pull this together basically.
And you know how it is when you do events and people check their agendas and you do speaker recruitments and etc. But I sent three emails and I got three “yeses” within 24 hours, of three potential speakers. And that tells me that we’re on to something now. This is something that the service and aftermarket leaders actually want to discuss. And it’s on their ownership. It’s on their agenda. They want to do this. So that means that there is a business case.
Nina Roper Yearwood (16:51)
I was just very interested because repeatedly I pick out the business case. That’s the key word for this one, right? And proving sustainability. So let me just go back to because we earlier this year we had a virtual seminar on sustainability and someone from our online manufacturing community brought up a crucial point about designing for sustainability, saying that if we don’t rethink product design efforts like refurbishment, which you mentioned earlier, take back schemes might just end up cutting into margins instead of adding value. So they really emphasize that the holistic approach where commercial goals and environmental responsibility are baked right into the business plan is the key. Very, very big words.
Nina Roper Yearwood (17:48)
So I’m curious, have you seen any standout examples where companies have taken this approach and not just met their targets, but actually created a win-win scenario for the business?
Lisa Hellqvist (17:57)
I think, great question by the way and a great point from the speaker earlier on, I think as it goes with anything where we talk about design for service, it is very, very instrumental that if we want to have a service life cycle and with that I mean the life cycle that is after the point of sales of the equipment, right? And we want to do the most out of that, it needs to be taken into consideration already in the production phase, the product development phase. So you design for it in the R&D phase, right? Back in the days, we used to make jokes and say, okay, we designed for failure because that’s how we sell extra aftermarket services, right? And that’s actually one of the things that I think is not true now anymore. Of course, there’s probably an element of it because all machinery will at some point fail, right? And you can sell them your service program.
But I think it’s more like we’re designing for service, which I think is a brilliant term. Because as I started off saying, we have more of a service economy now. People are looking at output uptime. You know, they almost lease machinery and equipment. You know, they don’t own it anymore. They get the service, you know. And they’re willing to prepare for it because they don’t want the responsibility of the actual equipment. It’s a major line in their books as well to have all these heavy assets, right? So it’s way more scalable and flexible to have leased equipment for example and then split that cost. So that means that the designing for service aspect should always include aftermarket as a part of the designing process and not an afterthought.
But also if we then add the sustainability layer to it, of course, I mean, we should be looking at the potential of, you know, go voice down to very, very simple things just making sure your original CAD drawings of the equipment are somehow digitally stored. So you easily could do a CPQ process on, for example, a part later on where you can configure the part and potentially even 3D print it. You can refurb it based on those original drawings.
There’s this whole digital thread throughout the lifecycle, which is important. And I think in ultimately designing for services, instrumental and, you know, the fact that we’re many doesn’t have a connected install base today but I think many are still looking at whatever they sell from this point onwards are going to be connected to the installed base. Which means we sit on the product data, we can run predictive maintenance schemes that also means that we need a lot of product data with us into the service value proposition to be able to also see how the equipment is behaving from the get-go.
So, I think this is true and it’s one of the most crucial aspects to making any aftermarket, let’s say effort from now, this point onwards, efficient and successful because this is something we need. And that’s a traditional gap where there’s a disconnect between the R&D and product line and then the aftermarket and service.
And I think those companies that are moving into the asset service value proposition of their equipment, it could be, you know, I think there’s Sandvik has their rock and drilling aspect there. I can’t remember the full name, but they of course are selling mining as a service, which is enabled with the electrification of a mine, for example. And of course that has gone into the design process, right?
There are many examples of where this value proposition already needs to be. If you’re going to sell soft services around your equipment, you need to have it in the design process.
Nina Roper Yearwood (21:49)
You know, I’m very interested about what you said when it came to as a service, the younger generation coming in and the customers asking and actually needing to show a proof of sustainability. This brings to mind another question from our community. So, it was about the increasing pressure on customers to provide proof of sustainable benefits in their environmental performance reporting. That question was about finding the best ways to show clear, sustainable benefits in environmental performance reporting. So let’s just dive into that a little bit because I think we’ve already covered in detail the internal aspect of aftermarket and designing for service and baking it into the business.
Now let’s look into the customer side as well and what it is from their perspective. What have you seen in terms of effective models or examples for really measuring and demonstrating the value of these sustainable practices to stakeholders?
Lisa Hellqvist (23:02)
Yeah, that is a great question. I think number one, what we know is that customers more and more, and especially like procurement divisions, etc., they are under higher pressure, more high pressure than ever to make sure they source sustainable solutions, right? They have a responsible sourcing program. And this is coming more and more, which means that, you know, in these tenders or whatever it might be when you’re up against your competition, if you can show this transparency of ESG data, you might make it to the next round. If you can’t showcase that, you might be cut out. It’s always probably going to be an element of pricing there and all of that. But I think already now many companies can provide this for their services. I think it’s important that we at least build a framework where this is going to be happening within shortly if you’re a manufacturer.
What is then happening on top of that is of course, and here comes the interesting discussion that it’s almost going to be slightly, maybe somewhat flimsy, I hope not, but one of the things you said there is the value, right? Now, we have the difficulty of explaining value. It’s very easy to say to someone that you have sustainable practices and etc. But you have to be able to showcase why they are sustainable, how sustainable they are, why they are more sustainable this year than last year. So you need to have this comparable data. You also need to be able to showcase the impact that this is doing for the customer, your alternative solutions. So you need to be very transparent on this. So the customer needs to be able to hold your data up against someone else’s data and say, okay, this is actually a sustainable solution.
And then of course they would go for other aspects such as price etc. When they may or, you know, the other circumstances in the SLA. When they go into whether or not they should do business with you. But I mean it’s very important that we start tracking this data. Number one, I think, that’s a gatekeeper right now. That is that the field service organization or aftermarket organizations they might not sit on this data.
So you need to start measuring you know for example how many in-field technicians you have or had and now how many have been avoided through a remote support approach and then you have to do the calculation on that and, you know, associated reductions in terms of carbon emissions. And then of course this data can be shared with customers and also as an improvement and also if it has further cost benefits or other things for example, if they’re opting for a remote support solution, they might have a 24/7 service agreement with just a certain number of service escalations instead, which is course more achievable for the organization. It’s easier access for the customer, but it doesn’t have the same carbon footprint. So one could also say that there could be something in the price range there.
One could also argue that if you can offer things sustainable, you could probably charge a small premium because that will have an impact on the customers that are actually asking for it. Because then you’re helping them with the data sets that they otherwise would be forced to somehow source themselves.
Nina Roper Yearwood (26:31)
Lisa, I’m just thinking about, you know, it as a whole, a helicopter view of it, birds eye view of it. So my impression is that customers want to show proof and the aftermarket organizations need to, of course, essentially prove their value, the value of what they’re doing. In order to do that, you need your front-facing people to be able to communicate that well with the customers. How can you bring sales teams along in that, who are, you know, they’re more focused on short-term targets. So yeah, how? Can you just give us an idea how it could work?
Lisa Hellqvist (27:33)
That is a very good question actually. And I think it’s the same challenge we see with any kind of service sales, to be honest. I noticed that there are different kind of aftermarket sales teams, right? Or service sales team. One is of course the more transactional one, where it’s like a one-off service job or a service escalation, or the customer is paying some kind of money for each service exchange or service intervention.
Then of course you have the more premium, I shouldn’t say premium, but there are other types of contracts that are more with a certain service interval and a certain proactive maintenance program maybe in not using the word predictive since not many are there yet, or you have a condition-based maintenance program, for example.
And I mean, just as anything, it’s not necessarily so that the service sales is always interlinked with the actual maintenance operations here. So here’s where it becomes quite interesting. I think we have to regard as we move into asset service and outcome based, and I’m not saying that’s necessarily true for everybody. I’m really sure there will be, there’s two trends in my head. One is we increased in transactional self-service part of the aftermarket, which is tied to spare parts and e-commerce and these kinds of things. But then the more, you know, cultivated service jobs and the more long-term maintenance, uptime based contracts, they will be, you know, sold as a service or they will be based around a solution selling model, as you say, within the sales terminology.
And then we come down to, it doesn’t matter if your solution and your service package that you’re trying to sell is sustainable or not, because you have to know what your customer needs. And the customer doesn’t always know what they want. They don’t always know what they need, but you have to know your customer well. And I think this is also, if you’ve also started to pave the way that our service solutions are going to be sustainable, that is going to be an added value to the pitch. It all depends on how you make your price tag go along with that. I don’t think there’s any customer today that’s going to say that there’s no value in having sustainable solutions because it’s always in the eye of the beholder what value is. But I think everyone on some kind of macro scale understands that it is valuable to have sustainable solutions.
Whether or not they’re willing to pay for it, that’s up to yourselves, guys. So this is where it becomes extremely important to showcase, as in any solution selling, you have to showcase your impact, you have to showcase what your tangible elements of your value proposition actually are, you have to be able to turn that perceived value that you think that the customers are going to have into actual quantifiable elements, you also have to know your customers because adding items doesn’t necessarily mean you’re adding value.
So, you don’t add things that your customer doesn’t want because it’s not a value to whom is it a value, right? So we have to be careful here. And this is always going to be, you know, a biggest, one of the biggest challenges. It doesn’t almost matter. It’s always, you know, if it’s marketing in sales, if it’s pricing in sales, if it is aftermarket and aftermarket sales. We always have to understand that there’s one in-house strategy and then there’s a go-to-market strategy and it’s not necessarily and very rarely I would say handled by the same team. So we always have to make sure that the other team understands the common objective of doing this and that we unify around the terminology I would say as well.
And of course we have to understand our customer base. I mean, presenting something to customers that they’re not even interested in, it doesn’t make any sense. You can’t force a customer to buy anything. That’s kind of where I think you’re onto something here Nina. This is going to be one of the biggest challenges is actually presenting this. I think we can ride a little bit on the sustainability wave here. I don’t think customers want to turn down sustainable services if there’s an option and it’s at a sort of the same price level. Because I mean, that’s almost a little bit irresponsible, maybe. So I think that’s your, you have a moral hook on them right now.
Nina Roper Yearwood (32:11)
OK, so, excuse me for saying this, but it can sound a little bit fluffy, right? When you think about when you think about it in that way, because fluffy doesn’t always translate to profits. So yeah. And so now I just want to imagine, because I think this can also be mapped into leadership. I think the leaders play a big role in making sure that service sales, marketing, everyone knows what they’re selling and the terminologies that will be emphasized and maybe they also have a wider view, a broader view of these things. And of course, while we know that leadership buy-in is critical, it can also be challenging to secure. So can you just show me what strategies you’ve seen work well in securing not just support but active? So it has teeth essentially. The sustainability initiative will have teeth from top leadership.
Lisa Hellqvist (33:18)
Yeah, and I mean, think it’s a little bit, as I said, the corporate agenda has probably been there for ages, right? On sustainability, it’s something that many are talking about. It’s a little bit like big data, we’ve all seen the memes that no one actually knows what it is, but everyone’s talking about it.
But sustainability is definitely one of those that has been on the corporate agenda for long time, specifically on board and C-level. And many manufacturers are extremely adamant of having that as a part of their core values within their corporate culture. And I think that’s great. I think that is also fostering a culture where the mindset around sustainability is intact. And it’s there, it’s a driver.
But then of course the leadership again, think some of the best examples I’ve seen is actually where they have taken almost like proof of concept pilot projects. They’ve authorized someone to drive change, right? And then it’s like, it could be, I had a very good speaker here on our Spare Parts events from Ariston company earlier on this year who gave this fantastic presentation on the benefits of their refurbishment program, remanufacturing of spare parts.
Lisa Hellqvist (34:40)
He also showcased in that specific session how it has been driving profitability from both protecting their bottom line because they didn’t have to source new raw materials and produce new spare parts, but it was also actually offered to customers to prolong the life cycle of the equipment. And that actually gave them an intermittent chunk of money that wasn’t in the service contract from the beginning. So they’ve upsold a little bit, right? So you had this great example of how you can earn some and save some at the same time, right? And it’s also a really environmental friendly aspects to do that. And it was easier, right?
And also given so many aspects on why this is a sustainable practice. Number one, then just to put it into context is that you don’t have to source raw materials for new spare parts. You don’t have to, of course, ship these parts across the world, which is often one of the things. You don’t have to keep warehouses for them. I’m not saying that refurbished parts, it’s not a zero carbon footprint, but this is an improved carbon footprint.
Then one of the things that comes often and people forget about is that if you, for example, have a larger equipment or machinery and it takes months or sometimes weeks to source that part and you know it’s about to get, you know, it’s wear and tear, it’s not running on an optimal level what people disregard is that that asset, that part of your installed base, that piece of equipment is not running on optimal asset health which means that all of a sudden is producing more carbon footprint than it has been doing before.
So by exchanging that part in a shorter amount of time, you’re limiting the carbon footprint for the customer. So that’s one of the, they’re like knock-on ripple effects, right? So there’s this whole scenario where this is actually becoming really good.
I mean, that’s one of the things that is extremely important to think of when we think of that. It’s also not only in our direct handling of parts or the material or the field service operations. It’s also what it does on the customer side of things. If we prevent breakage, if we run on optimal health, then we have a lower carbon footprint at the customer side as well. That’s one good example. Then, of course, the other things is the ones that manage to track their carbon footprint data and can actually use that as a value proposition to their customers.
Not only, you know, this is very common in the consumer goods world. Like you probably have a refrigerator that has a certain energy, you know, labeled to it. And then it has a certain CO2. And with the smart equipment nowadays, they are even telling us, you know, how much they produce, right? So there is this intelligent devices already out there and we see it more and more with the B2B segment, right?
Where I see it coming strongest is the companies that has a strong consumer segment, like home goods or whatever, but they also have a B2B segment because they’re now taking this smart technology and moving it into their B2B segment. And therefore they can have this traceability of data and they can then start doing sort of preventative care programs that is helping the customer with a lower emission.
And often also again, when we talk about goods, etc, it’s obviously the energy efficiency, which is a cost saving for the customer. So there is also that aspect. So, you know, there’s a lot of wins. You know, I always say less waste is less waste in general, right? So that’s something to keep in mind.
Nina Roper Yearwood (38:25)
This brings to mind I’m not a psychologist. I’m no expert in that. But I was thinking, I was actually buying a monitor. Some years ago and on Amazon they show like the the grade right? Grade in energy efficiency, BCD, whatever. And I thought I was probably also slightly influenced by the grade of that. Because I ended up buying, I think something around A or B never to see D or E, so, yeah. It’s it’s probably heading into that direction as well, and it reminds me in a very simple way. Here in Germany, in kindergartens, there is this some, what’s it called? Like a light a sign that if you’re going over the speed limit, you get a frowny face. And if you maintain the speed limit that is required for that street, then you get a smiley face. And I always see cars who are speeding up automatically slow down just because they get this smiley face. So in simple terms, yes, we want that reward.
Lisa Hellqvist (39:40)
Yeah, they want that reward, right? It’s almost like, you know, this gamification. No, but I think it’s an instant reward. And, you know, the fact that you’ve done something good. And I, again, I think the consumer market is really, you know, driving this. We saw the energy crisis that had a lot of especially as, you know, household owners that was struck by the electricity prices and etc, you know, there is not the single in a piece of electronics in my house now that hasn’t been scrutinized on its energy consumption because I can’t afford it basically consuming more. So it’s like, you know, it’s been a self-fulfilling prophecy a little bit. And I do believe that that’s the same that’s shaping and those, let’s say aspects that we take from our consumer life are following us into our, you know, still humans being consumers after hours that are running the B2B procurement division, right?
So, you know, it doesn’t matter what we say about B2B procurement. In the end, they’re still, you know, we’re still humans. They’re still, you know, almost majority of them are millennials.
Nina Roper Yearwood (41:04)
And we like to get our smileys.
Lisa Hellqvist (41:07)
Yeah, we want the smileys, right?
Nina Roper Yearwood (41:10)
So, you know, we had a really inspiring and may I also say concrete conversation about concrete steps that companies have taken like Ariston. So just as we wind down our conversation, I’d love to hear about some of the standout lessons you’ve picked up from the sustainability journeys you’ve witnessed. What’s one insight that you think would really resonate with our listeners, something practical they can take back to their own teams and start applying right away.
Lisa Hellqvist (41:39)
Yes, and I think number one is the most common thing I heard here right now is that I think the landscape of service professionals is divided into the ones that are in the forefront as with any trend that are like already, you know, riding the wave of sustainability, they’re really fully embracing it, it’s embedded into everything they do. There is a corporate agenda for it, there’s a divisional agenda for it.
And there is really I see that every time we do any promotions or anything about this event that’s coming up in December in Stockholm, there’s a lot of ripple effects. There’s a lot of commotion, there’s a lot of commentary. So there’s definitely something there, right? It’s a hype. And hopefully it’s more than a hype. Hopefully it’s a long lasting effect, but there’s definitely something where we’ve sort of been able to sort of struck a nerve with the industry on this one, right? But I also see that there is a disconnected those who doesn’t really feel that they are mature enough, right?
So we get a lot of conversations that are like, we’re not ready yet. And I don’t think that’s true. I think they’re looking at, again, sustainability with the bird’s eye perspective. They don’t feel that they have anyone accountable, but I think there’s always these small steps are leading to an accumulated effect from several departments, right?
So I would say that my call to action is stop overthinking, you know, who owns and what is it if you’re in service, obviously your industry peers that are in the forefront of, you know, digital adoption and these kinds of things, they’re already paving the way for this. You might learn something by listening into this.
The other thing is stop overthinking, start measuring. It’s not that hard to accumulate data today. I’m of course again oversimplifying it, but with a lot of the smart technologies that we have, you probably have an FSM system in place, you know, these kinds of things. Asking for another set of data to go in there might not actually be as hard and difficult as you think.
So I would challenge the listeners to try to measure some of the efficiency gains into what it also have done in terms of reduction of carbon footprint and see if they can make that into actual tangible measurements. Because if they are equipped with that, then they can also go to their customer base and present this as a part of their service solution and say, not only have we done that, we’ve also done these measurements to become more sustainable.
And this is also where we are in terms of carbon footprint for our standard services, for example. And I think it’s very important to start that conversation. It cannot really sit for too long because it’s going to be, I mean, as I said, there’s so many regulatory pressures and net zero targets that we have that it will drizzle down. And at some point that the production line won’t be able to do much more in the short term that we will turn our focus to, you know, the in-house services and also then of course, our aftermarket services, which also still to cater for these equipments over a long time span.
It’s also a moneymaker. The service function is a moneymaker often. At least it should be. It should not be a cost center anymore. That means that it’s a great way of making sure that you use this for your competitive advantage and a competitive edge.
Nina Roper Yearwood (45:05)
Okay, Lisa, one final thing to those who are listeners who are wondering where to start, feeling stumped about it. I also want to give you the space to talk about our upcoming event this December. Just tell our listeners what they can gain from being part of the event and what it is all about.
Lisa Hellqvist (45:18)
Yes, so basically it’s very straightforward. It’s basically an aftermarket event, but what we will do is that we will focus on efficient practices that are also helping us being sustainable, right? So we will take all of these aspects like things that we have learned through the pandemic or thanks to the pandemic or even before we had a more rapid digital adoption.
But leveraging these technologies and these kind of change in business models, we’ve learned how to be more careful and resourceful. And that has also led to that we can have great accomplishments when it comes to sustainability. So that’s one of the key sort of fundamental hypothesis on where this discussion lies for the upcoming event.
But then, of course, how you can have sustainability as driving profitable growth in services. We have a session from Kalmar on that, for example. And then we have a session from Tomra on how enhancing circularity, sustainability, and inclusiveness in every service interaction leads to driving a resource revolution. And I know they have an aim of being having no technicians in the field, I think it’s just in a few years from now, right? So it’s a very…
Nina Roper Yearwood (46:55)
2035, as what they’ve said.
Lisa Hellqvist (46:56)
2035, yeah, yeah. So, you know, that feels extremely close, right? So it’s one of those that’s awfully ambitious. And I actually think they will make it because they’re also, you know, very, very strong on driving this agenda internally. They got awarded just recently for their sustainability practices as well.
So just to name a few, but I mean, the ideas of course is still a Power of 50 format, which means that the aftermarket leaders that will be there, have a huge interest already. So it’s already booking up quite quickly to have all these aftermarket and service leaders, you know, gather in this round table formats and exchange multiple times, you know, their ideas and their, you know, knowledge throughout the day. And then everybody meets everybody. That’s one of the beauties with this format.
Lisa Hellqvist (47:47)
So I think there’s a lot of insights to be taken from this event. Again, I’m quite little bit baffled over the response in the market. It’s always like that when you’re trying to launch quite a specific discussion topic, if that makes sense, into its own event. Sometimes it needs a lot of explanation, but this one has kind of thrived on its own. So I’m very happy and I’m very eager to see what we can build out of this, to be honest.
Nina Roper Yearwood (48:20)
Very exciting times both for Copperberg and sustainability initiatives for different aftermarket organizations. Once again, thank you very much, Lisa, for sitting with me today to talk us through sustainable practices in aftermarket. Lots of nuggets here to chew on.
Lisa Hellqvist (48:40)
Thank you, Nina. Thank you for having me.
