The sustainability agenda is a priority for many businesses, but how can organisations drive positive change? ISS' Tilde Löfgren and Isabella Liljeström explain why working with a facilities management partner is like “stepping into a spaceship” when it comes to innovation—and how ISS is supporting EY to educate employees, advance sustainability goals and get results.
As concerns over climate change and environmental impact grow, along with new EU sustainability regulations, effective sustainability practices have never been more important. Aside from the effects on people and the planet, genuine sustainability efforts can enhance a brand’s reputation, boost consumer loyalty and strengthen talent attraction and retention.
For many businesses, a lack of resources, knowledge and the speed at which the landscape is evolving are key barriers to moving the sustainability dial. For Isabella Liljeström, Key Account Director for the EY Nordics contract at ISS, the biggest challenge companies face is with their data—whether it’s figures on waste handling, energy usage or plastic bag consumption.
“Companies might say that they have control over their data, but we often find errors in the reporting because they are not asking the right questions in the right way,” explains Isabella, who oversees a team of account managers in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. To prompt progress in sustainability, having access to the right data, the capacity to analyse figures and an understanding of what it is telling you is essential.
“That’s where facilities management comes in,” Isabella adds, explaining that providers like ISS can help clients overcome the challenges they are facing in this area. Whether it’s helping to launch awareness campaigns in the office or providing procurement or waste expertise, Isabella says that “working with a facilities management provider is like stepping into a spaceship: it allows you to innovate more quickly”.
A collaborative partnership: “everyone at ISS and EY is trained in the same way”
One example of effective collaboration can be seen between ISS and EY. Now in its sixth year, the partnership provides facilities management services to EY’s workplaces across the Nordics, with sustainability at its core.
Underpinned by Vested, a business model, methodology and mindset, the firms work within a ‘two in a box’ structure—where a colleague from both ISS and EY takes equal responsibility for various aspects of the partnership—to ensure organisational alignment and mutual outcomes. The Vested model includes a business mapping toolkit aimed at advancing sustainability efforts, aligning with the latest EU sustainability regulations. These regulations, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), emphasise shared responsibility for addressing environmental harm and bring a sense of urgency to transform. To comply with these directives, collaboration between clients and facilities management providers will be essential.
Tilde Löfgren, Nordic Sustainability Lead for EY Nordics at ISS, works across the contract, supporting EY to make workplaces in this region as sustainable as possible. From Tilde’s perspective, this trust-based business model creates a culture of sustainability for both parties. “With Vested, everyone at ISS and EY is trained in the same way and knows what our sustainable goals are—that makes it much easier to get projects going from all sides,” Tilde says.
Since the start of the partnership, sustainability has been a core focus. As EY’s policies and targets have evolved over the years, sustainability has accounted for a greater proportion of the overall KPIs in the partnership, increasing from 15% to 25%.
