D I R E CTO RS’ R EP ORT
DI V I DE N D P OL IC Y
IVL is operated as a limited company and is wholly owned by the Swedish Institute of Water and Air Conservation Research Foundation (SIVL). IVL has operated as a limited company since 1982. The IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute is non-profit in the sense that no profit is distributed to the owners, rather it is reinvested in the company’s R&D operations. The owner foundation, SIVL, is responsible for the funds made available by the state for co-funded environmental research at the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute. SIVL is governed by a representative board of directors, where the business community appoints half of the members and the Government appoints the other half. The Chair of the Board is appointed by the Government. SU B SI DI A R I E S
BASTAonline AB BASTAonline AB (corporate ID no. 556719-5697) is 60 percent owned by the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and 40 percent by the Swedish Construction Federation. The BASTA system has been in operation since 2005 and BASTAonline AB, which owns and operates the system, was founded in January 2007. The system is intended to support the work of substituting unwanted substances in construction products. Manufacturers and suppliers register the products that qualify based on the system’s property criteria, with a focus on chemical content. The products are published in an open database with a public search function. The quality of registrations is verified through regular audits of affiliated companies. The system also provides digital tools for logbooks, as well as training and seminars. At the start, 55 suppliers were connected to the system, and by the end of 2020 around 500 were affiliated. The number of registered products by the end of the year totalled just over 50,000 items (corresponding to approximately 170,000 individual articles). New criteria for endocrine disruptors were implemented during the year, following an industry-wide development project, along with the potential to register information related to Circularity. Net sales for the financial year amounted to SEK 7,932,000 (7,743,000) and profit after financial items amounted to SEK 546,000 (614,000). Equity amounted to SEK 3,323,000 (2,922,000). The company has no employees. Möbelfakta Sverige AB Since 2020, the company Möbelfakta Sverige AB (corporate ID no. 559252-0810) has been 51% owned by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and 49% by Trä- och Möbelföretagen (TMF). Net sales for the financial year amounted to SEK 2,966,000 and profit after financial items amounted to SEK 163,000. Equity amounted to SEK 146,000. The company has no employees. EPD International AB EPD International AB (corporate ID no. 556975-8286) has been a wholly owned subsidiary of IVL since 1 July 2014. The company has its registered offices in Stockholm, and operations are located ANNUAL REPORT 2020
at IVL’s offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Beijing, as well as being conducted through international partners. In 2020, agreements were entered into with EPD Egypt for Sustainable Development as a new licensee. The company operates and manages the International EPD® System, a programme for third-party-verified environmental product declarations (EPDs). An EPD is an optional tool to enable companies to communicate the environmental impact of their goods and services from a life cycle perspective in a comparable and credible manner. The information is used in a range of different industries and applications, such as environmental communication between companies, green public procurement and environmental certification of buildings. The company operates globally and has customers on every continent. EPD International communicates globally about the system, maintains and develops the rules and international collaborations, and registers and publishes approved EPDs. In total, EPD International has more than 1,650 valid EPDs from around 475 companies in more than 45 different countries, published on www. environdec.com. More than 450 new EPDs were registered in 2020. The company successfully continued its growth strategy during 2020. A new “business imperative” was introduced, focusing on automation and digitalisation for continued growth. The new developments included a new digital EPD portal and a new website. An agreement was entered into with a new strategic partner to improve accessibility and reduce the cost of EPD information. S. Stiller was appointed CEO of EPD International, two board members, G. L. Baldo and S.-O. Ryding, opted to terminate their mandate, and Anna Jarnehammar was appointed as a new board member. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the 19th EPD International Stakeholder Conference was staged virtually, with more than 200 participants from all over the world. Net sales for the financial year amounted to SEK 9,524,000 (6,895,000) and profit after financial items amounted to SEK 781,000 (1,268,000). Equity amounted to SEK 3,098,000 (2,620,000). The company has no employees eBVD i Norden AB Since 2017, eBVD i Norden AB (corp. ID no. 559093-5390) has been 51 percent owned by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and 49 percent owned by the Swedish Association of Construction Product Industries. The construction sector in Sweden has accepted voluntary responsibility for declaring building products from an environmental perspective for more than 20 years. During 2013–2015, IVL performed a number of development projects to update the building products declaration and develop a digital format in collaboration with the industry. After this, the company was established with the aim of streamlining and reducing the costs of preparing and using building products declarations according to the industry standard for digital building products declarations, at the same time as contributing to a traceable digital flow of up-to-date environmental information from the materials manufacturer. At year-end 2020/2021, the company had approximately 241 (211) licensed users of the system.
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