First Cargo has been working with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 since 2011, both because customers demanded systematic work with quality and the environment, but also because it was a natural extension of our way of doing business. Nowadays, it is a natural part of our work, and in recent years we have also been able to verify our business with a greater focus on social sustainability, thanks to the ISO 26000 system. In fact, we were the first transport company to achieve this verification in 2022.
Our management team works with our ISO issues according to an annual plan. We conduct internal audits annually and update the system. Through SWOT and target group analyses, we have produced a good analysis to start from. It shows that we have little or very little impact on such aspects that involve ownership of real estate or vehicles, simply because we rent our offices and do not own any transport vehicles ourselves.
This means that even though we are aware that our largest environmental and climate impact is greenhouse gas emissions, these emissions occur indirectly in Scope 3. We cannot therefore influence them directly, but we are working to get our suppliers to reduce their emissions, to get our customers to be willing to pay for fossil-free freight and finally – to buy shares in technology that significantly reduces emissions from oil extraction (so-called insets).
Our goals going forward are to work with completely fossil-free domestic transport by 2030. Long trips to and from the continent would also like to influence people to drive fossil-free, but we are not there in the next few years and it may take longer than 2030. We still want to be able to offer our door-to-door solutions on the road, and therefore take other measures to keep emissions down, such as ensuring that our suppliers have Euro 6 engines, approved tyres and that they use eco-driving.
When it comes to our more direct emissions, we have a company car policy that only allows fossil-free cars, including a shared car for business matters that is a plug-in electric car. We sort our waste in the offices in all the fractions possible, and have a green electricity contract through the property owner.
We also work a lot with social aspects of sustainability and quality. At First Cargo, the drivers are not unknown figures, but here they are welcome to use the facilities for laundry and showers, gym, relaxation area and kitchen – to be rested and fresh when they leave again. Many of our customers need responsible door-to-door transports of goods such as expensive furniture or clothes throughout the European continent. They don’t want to take risks with less scrupulous players.
We influence our suppliers – the hauliers – to ensure that drivers and other employees have fair conditions and compensation. And in our offices, we work for an even gender distribution and good conditions.
We don’t transport just anything for just anyone! It happens that we do not undertake transports if we notice ambiguities and suspicious behaviour from the client. We also have a partnership with the Swedish Customs, inviting them from time to time to inform and update us and our suppliers on what we should be extra observant of.
“When things are going well for the business, you want to give something back to your society”, our CEO usually says. In addition to being careful to pay taxes and otherwise always doing the right thing for us, First Cargo supports a number of initiatives aimed at giving less fortunate people better conditions. This may apply to young people in vulnerable areas, homeless people, victims of bullying or people with rare diagnoses. We also have collaborations with various hauliers to offer free transport for the vulnerable, for example war zones.
In short, we do what we can.
And we hope that we can inspire more people to do more.
Gothenburg, January 2024