Sustainability
Our Offering
Through our offering we enable healthy lives and promote
well-being in societies. To ensure the future of health, we
emphasize the importance of research and development as
well as collaborations with strategic partners.
Our Offering is characterized by aspects related to business
acumen such as our Code of Conduct and how we act in business
situations, development of sustainable offerings and sustainable production processes as well as responsible collaborations
and supplier relationships. The overall and long term goal of our
offering is to create the future of health. By offering innovative
products, we are enabling good health and well-being for people.
Quality-Assured Products
A majority of the Group’s products are developed by BICO’s in-house development team, which means they are meticulously tested and quality-assured before production begins. The majority of production takes place in the Group’s own manufacturing units, which means good control over the production chain from a quality perspective, but it also makes it possible to ensure a safe and secure work environment. When working with external providers for products, we ensure that they are compliant with various quality and safety standards in the field and uphold the same level as our own products. Several of the BICO companies works actively with the international standard ISO 9001:2015 to meet specified requirements of a quality management system. The Group’s products, such as the BIO X bioprinter or the I.DOT, are Underwriter Laboratories (UL) certified. Underwriter Laboratories (UL) is a safety certification company that certify products, facilities, processes, or systems based on industry-wide standards. Efforts to quality assure products is led by each company and the objective is an efficient use of resources throughout
the production chain.
Safety
As a part of our internal Code of Conduct, we strive for a safe
work environment for our employees as well as safe products.
It is vital for us to focus on the quality of the products and thus,
we do not ship any products which cannot be considered safe.
We want to ensure the highest possible safety for both our
employees and our customers, during usage of our products. A safe process throughout is vital for the future of health. As a
result, it is important that our suppliers uphold the same level
of safety as us, and thus, as a part of our standard agreement,
we ensure that they, too, are compliant with our Code of
Conduct. The Group is ensuring this further by working with
various demands for certifications or standards, from suppliers.
For instance, ensuring that they are compliant with the REACH
standard or various ISO standards.
During the year, the Group performed 52 internal Supplier
Quality Audits (SQAs) to ensure that our demands were
upheld by our suppliers. Collectively, the number of accidents
for the Group and the year amounted to 37 accidents, where
the majority consisted of minor injuries, near misses or safety
routine deviations. Each group company has their own routines
for follow up and corrective actions. Two of the accidents
resulted in lost time and they were both cut injuries. As a
result, our lost time incident rate (LTIR) is 0.33 per 100 fulltime employees. A low LTIR is something that we will strive to
maintain through our continuous focus on safety.
Customer Survey
It is always BICO’s top priority to have great products and
satisfied customers. Based on our annual customer survey, our
customers are very satisfied with our products and the quality
of the products. In fact, based on the customers asked in our
annual survey, we received a net promoter score (NPS) of 18.
Our NPS score is based on a scale from -100 to +100 where 20 is
considered to be preferable. Further, they also rated our customer support as a reason for a great score. Customer satisfaction
has always been key for BICO and through our focus on quality
as well as customer service we have managed to increase our
customer base over the years.
Animal Testing
In the US alone, 100 million animals die every year from
animal trials. These animal lives could be spared by replacing
animal testing with, for instance, printed human tissue. Therefore we are working towards reducing animal testing. During
2021, CELLINK started working together with the Swedish
3R center to increase well-being for animals. The Swedish 3R
center is established around 3 principles – replace, reduce,
and refine. Replace is aimed at replacing animal trials. Reduce
is aimed at reducing animal trials and Refine is focused on
increasing the welfare of trial animals. The BICO Group has
managed to save 95,000 animal lives during 2021, through
our various technologies and cutting-edge instruments.
Except for the fact that our offering is enabling reduced animal testing, it is also contributing to a better result for the individual. By testing on human tissue, the validity of the results
increases and the progress of the research accelerates. For
instance, this enables people to receive drugs, that are fully
adopted to their needs, much faster. In 2021, BICO furthered
its efforts to reduce animal testing by launching a campaign
to help pass the FDA Modernization Act of 2021, legislation
in the United States that would remove the mandate for new
drugs and cosmetics to be tested on animals.
Our Approach through the Value Chain
BICO’s impact throughout the value chain derives from various operational activities. Our process starts at R&D and is followed
by numerous activities in purchasing, manufacturing, sales, delivery and installation, service, and end of use. Within the value
chain there are risks linked to climate, human rights, corruption, products and occupational safety. Many of these risks, especially
risks related to human rights, corruption can arise in our business relationships and production facilities.
1. R&D
Our development process is vital part of our agenda to grow.
Therefore, it is vital to include the sustainability mindset at
an early stage of the R&D process. Furthermore, it is also
essential to do so without compromising on our focus on
quality, safety or price.
The BICO Group will focus on integrating sustainability with both design and R&D. Already today we are enabling reduced plastics usage among our customers through our offering. For instance, the C.WASH or the I.DOT, where the user can reduce their need for plastic compared to manual labour.
Risks
Products not meeting the objectives and requirements in terms of control and safety.
Failing to cope with the transition to the targets set in the sustainability agenda, to use 100% renewable energy by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2040.
Risk management
Continuously analyze and improve product efficiency to reduce the number of components in our products.
Continue to work with strategic partners.
2. Purchasing
We are working actively to create a more transparent supply chain. As we are in an innovative market, suppliers are often scares in numbers and small. That increase the difficulty in
placing demands on them in terms of their environmental
impact.
During October 2021, we implemented a new Code of Conduct for our suppliers and third parties, which is a mandatory aspect of any new standard agreement for three of our companies. As a result, 14 percent of the Group’s suppliers have signed the Code of Conduct. We are aiming to expand this to the other companies within the Group.
Risks
Lack of assurance that suppliers support and meet our quality and safety standards and our human rights and anti-corruption requirements.
Risk management
Continue the implementation of our internal Code of Conduct in the standard agreements for all Group companies.
Ensure that all third parties have knowledge and access to the whistleblowing system and encouragement to report all irregularities.
3. Manufacturing
The majority of the production is done in-house. The structure of having in-house production offers great insight into processes where improvement areas are easier to spot, and flexibility is
possible based on customer needs.
The BICO Group will continuously work with these processes to find improvement areas and to reduce their environmental footprint, while maintaining our focus on quality and user-experience as well as a safe work environment for our employees and safe products.
Risks
Lack of compliance with the Code of Conduct and implications of violations of social, ethical and human rights.
Increased compliance costs and regulations on existing products.
Disruptions to operations, transport and risk associations with locations as a result of global warming.
Risk management
Continue to educate new employees in the Code of Conduct and policies such as the Global Policy.
Standardize the processes and reduce the number of products as not to generate unnecessary consumption in our business.
Continue to increase transparency in the value chain and the emissions it generates.
Monitor changes in policy and legislation to ensure compliance.
4. Sales
We will have a continuous focus on our customers and users throughout our whole value chain. By our continuous focus on quality and customer support, our sales team are always striving towards giving our customers the best solution for them.
With our focus to offer products within all fields of the next generation Tissue Engineering, Cell Line Development, Multiomics and Diagnostics, we continue to develop our product offering.
Risks
Not measuring customers’ requirements for product power and safety.
Corruption.
Risk management
Continue to engage in dialogue with customers regarding the product design.
Ensure that distributors support and meet our quality and safety requirements.
Strengthen the control function for anti-corruption.
5. Delivery & Installation
Our focus within logistics and installation will foremost be on quality and safety. Quality in terms of a safe shipment for the products as well as quality and safety in terms of installation and set-up.
As a result of this focus, we will reduce the waste of components damaged during transport, but also number of travels necessary by our installation teams, further, over time. Our companies differ in terms of offering and structure, and we believe them to be best fit to determine the details of their delivery and installation.
Risks
Failure to inform customers about product use in a sufficient manner.
Emissions from transports.
Risk management
Measure our emissions and establish action plans with structures and processes to reduce these.
Encourage the usage of environmentally conscious transportations.
6. Service
BICO are striving towards a long lifecycle of our offering and therefor, our focus on quality is essential. Great service and user experience are always focus areas. BICO is working actively with partners and customers to retrieve feedback
and to develop our product and service offering.
As we are working towards reducing our environmental impact, we are also striving to reduce the travels necessary for our service staff and are offering guides and service through remote functions in several of our companies.
Risks
Too many travels to perform on-site service.
Risk management
Reduce the number of service trips and reduce the number of returned products.
Establish global service capacity at business area level.
Further reading
