Nilorn’s New Force for Sustainability ANNA-KARIN WÅRFORS, NEW HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY.
Family, background; Anna-Karin is married to
Morgan who is a wood craft teacher, and they have three children. The family lives on a farm outside of Aplared which is Anna-Karin’s mother’s family home. On the farm they have horses, sheep, chickens and a cat. Anna-Karin has a Master’s Degree in Business from Linköping University.
Why sustainability? During my time as Purchasing manager at Corporate Express (now Staples) I came in contact with sustainability issues for the first time. There were among other things major procurements for example counties and municipalities. When Gina Tricot was to take their next step in their sustainability work in 2009 I got the opportunity to be a part of it and build up the project with CSR, most importantly the implementation of Code of Conduct and audit program in the supply chain. This was an exciting time with varied work and many trips to different production units mostly in Asia and Turkey. Experience of Nilorn’s business? I have so far visited Nilorn in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, China, Portugal and Turkey. Nilorn is an exciting company, very international and with many employees with a long experience of the business. It was naturally very interesting to visit Nilorn’s brand new factory in Dhaka. I have previously visited many factories in Bangladesh that produce garments and to now work with a company that has its own production is something I look forward to.
You have just recently prepared the first Corporate Sustainability-Report. What are your thoughts about that work? It was a good preparation for us
prior to next year when sustainability reporting will become mandatory by law. We need to find methods and systems for collecting data. We need clear goals and to start measuring our impact and, in turn, enable improvements. I am impressed by our design department which, during a very short period of time, developed a nice layout and they also created a connection between the Corporate Sustainability Report and other corporate communication that I like. It is important that the Corporate Sustainability Report is something that our stakeholders recognise and want to read about.