Major changes don’t come without their challenges and have highlighted new needs for Ekopak. To manage its explosive growth and create a stable environment for future success, Ekopak can’t continue operating on the same fundament.
To protect the company’s purpose and the wellbeing of its employees; Ekopak needs a framework that doesn’t separate business from sustainability strategy but integrates both to form a guiding light for the entire company, and for its growth. “There is only one way to make sure your growth will create the positive impact that you want to, and that is when sustainability is baked into the business strategy”, explains Pieter Loose. “The process started with holding up a mirror to ourselves and really seeing who we are. Otherwise, we couldn’t possibly define what sustainability means for our company, exactly, and how we could integrate it in every aspect of our business and organization.”
Pieter Loose, CEO EkopakThere’s only one way to make sure your growth will create the positive impact that you want to, and that is when sustainability is baked into the business strategy.
This strategy provides Ekopak with a framework for its operations and with both social and environmental KPIs for the short and the long term. “We are all very aware that this is really only the beginning of our journey”, says Loose. “It is a process of continuous development. In the next few years, we must implement the plan that is on the table, while we must constantly evaluate to find out how and where we can do better. This thing we have started – this journey towards an ever-growing positive impact on our world – it will have no ending. We will keep raising the bar.”
Step by step
While Ekopak has succeeded in establishing a strong corporate culture with a clear mission, values and principles, this now needs to be formalized and integrated. In recent years the company needed to focus all its efforts and attention on its rapid growth.
In 2022, Ekopak will make it top priority to create the structure the company needs to build on. Formal policies will be drawn up to protect the company’s culture and everyone’s rights within its organization: standards, a code of conduct and a written policy for safety, ethics and health are all a part of this.
This also applies to the existing baseline measurements: they, too, need to be complemented and formalized. Ekopak is well aware of this and therefore further formulation and implementation of these baselines will also be a strong focus for the company in the coming years, so that it can get a firm grasp on its current state and measure its improvements.
We invite you to check back in with us a couple of months from now, or perhaps in next year’s report – so we can show you the next steps we have taken.
