In 2018, Camfil achieved another good year with growth in all regions and business areas. We asked CEO Alan O’Connell (AOC) and CEO Designate Mark Simmons* (MS) to comment briefly on Camfil’s business model and the company’s view of sustainability.
AOC
The short answer is we help clean air. As clean air is important everywhere, we supply air filters and clean air solutions to almost every industry available. This is part of the fun of working at Camfil – we get involved in so many industries. There are always new challenges to face and air to clean.
MS
The market is growing quickly as our customers become more and more aware of the positive impact clean air has. We work to help protect people, processes and the environment from harmful air pollutants.Briefly described, this means we work with buildings where people spend their days, such as schools, offices, malls, sports facilities and, of course, residential buildings. We work with the biggest life science and food and beverage customers to ensure their processes are safe and they get long shelf life for their products. We also work with nuclear facilities and biosafety labs to ensure nothing harmful escapes into the environment. These are just a few examples of our many customers.
AOC
As Mark mentioned, it’s difficult for us to talk about sustainability without talking about the business and vice versa. We were green and sustainable already 55 years ago, but at the time these words were not established terms.
MS
In addition to being the core of the company, we see sustainability as a competitive advantage. We can differentiate ourselves from the competition by providing products with better performance and lower pressure drop. The pressure drop is directly related to energy consumption for the fans in the air handling units of building ventilation systems where our filters are typically installed, so lower energy usage is a cost saver for the customer and has a positive impact on the environment.
AOC
We have always focused on sustainability from the customer’s perspective. We can still improve internally within the Camfil Group,and we do every year, but the biggest sustainability impact we can have is helping our customers shrink their environmental footprint.As Mark mentioned, we can accomplish this in many ways: filtration solutions create products with longer shelf life, which reduces food waste, for example.
MS
As I mentioned, I think sustainability is good for us in all possible ways. At Camfil, we need to focus even more on this. We identified the UN Sustainability Development Goals where we think we can make an impact, and we need to work more with them and provide value for our customers, Camfil and society.
AOC
We will continue to work with our own operations to ensure we constantly fulfil ISO, REACH and other important requirements. Today, all our factories are ISO 9000-certified, and the majority are also certified to ISO 14000. We will challenge our R&D team to continue to deliver top notch products. We already have many products that are A+ certified by Eurovent, but for each revision of Eurovent, energy and filtration efficiency requirements get tougher, which is why we must always strive to improve our products for customers.
MS
We have selected UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 3 as one of the four we will focus on. Goal 3 is about Good Health and Well Being. We are not medical doctors but looking at the latest information about air pollution from the World Health Organization, I think this area is starting to get the attention it deserves.This is a true win-win situation where we can make people feel better, be more productive at work, and reduce costs for sick leave and healthcare. I think this is one of the things really motivating people to work here at Camfil: we can run a healthy business and do good at the same time. To me, this is definitely one of the reasons I want to work here.
*Mark Simmons officially succeeded Alan O’Connell as President of Camfil AB and CEO of the Camfil Group on January 1, 2019.
France