The Swedish tech industry has long been working on sustainability issues, both in the private sector and the public sector. This work is now more important than ever, and active sustainability work is a prerequisite for being able to live up to the sustainability requirements of legislation and the market and contribute to meeting the global sustainability goals in Agenda 2030.

The industry strives to enable and facilitate sustainable behavior in all parts of society that use tech industry services and products.

The term 'sustainable development' encompasses economically, socially and environmentally sustainable development.
The acronym ESG is commonly used and stands for Environmental, Social and (corporate) Governance and is not least commonly used in the financial industry but is now spreading to more industries. This concept includes both environmental and social sustainability.

This is a collection of questions and answers linked to the tech industry's sustainability work. The content is continuously updated with the support of TechSverige's Sustainability Council.

Energy, energy efficiency and carbon emissions are an important part of the environmental impact of IT and telecom products. According to a research report, the IT and telecom sector accounts for 3.6% of global energy consumption*.

The largest environmental impact from the IT and telecom sector arises from the production of ICT products, but a large part of the environmental impact is due to electricity consumption during the operational phase. In Sweden, energy consumption is almost entirely fossil-free and the industry is actively working to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions throughout its life cycle.

*) https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093027 Table 6

Information on the chemical content of products aims to create the conditions for risk reduction by providing all stages of production and handling with sufficient information to contribute to the development of products in accordance with the Environmental Code and in line with the environmental quality objective "non-toxic environment". Manufacturers of products and services are responsible for meeting all applicable legislation. For products, this includes requirements on electrical safety, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), connection to the telecommunications network, chemical content, etc.

Swedish environmental legislation is mainly contained in the Environmental Code, but other laws are also important in the environmental field. In addition, EU environmental regulations apply to us in Sweden.
In recent years, environmental issues have become increasingly important in the political debate and on the political agenda. This work is often guided by the UN's 17 global goals for sustainable development within Agenda 2030.

By placing climate change on a more general agenda, environmental issues are often discussed within the broader concept of 'sustainable development', which encompasses environmental, economic and social issues.

As part of the EU's Green Deal efforts to become the world's first climate-neutral continent, a Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) has been developed that specifies a number of key activities for which the European Commission will present proposals affecting the industry in the coming years. These include proposals on product passports and the right to repair. In the context of the EU's work on sustainability issues, a need has also been identified to improve the rate of recycling of used products to ensure future access to raw materials.

In the area of resource efficiency, energy consumption and energy efficiency are playing an increasingly important role both as a strategic aspect (access to energy) and in meeting the EU's climate commitments on CO2 emissions. There is an increasing focus on the energy consumption of products, which will also result in new requirements under the EU Ecodesign Directive.

In addition to the environmental legislation developed at EU level, the European Commission can then mandate, for example, CEN (European Committee for Standardization) to develop standards to support compliance with these environmental laws.

The scope for taking environmental and social considerations into account in public procurement has gradually increased and the need for public authorities to take greater responsibility for sustainability has become clearer in recent times. Through political decisions, sustainable development has become a priority objective and a guiding principle for EU policy and legislation. Sustainability requirements, like any other requirement in a procurement, should be proportionate and linked to the subject matter of the contract. In addition to environmental requirements, requirements for sustainable supply chains and social requirements are now also common.
The European Commission has defined Green Public Procurement (GPP) as a procedure for the procurement by public authorities of goods, services and works with a lower environmental impact over their entire life cycle, compared to goods, services and works with the same primary function that would otherwise have been procured. The private sector sets requirements to the same extent.

Environmental requirements are mainly described below and for other sustainability requirements please refer to the section Social sustainability including conflict minerals.

An ecolabel is something that can be communicated directly to the customer and provides an opportunity to make environmentally conscious choices. Ecolabels such as the EU Ecolabel, the Nordic Swan, the German Blue Angel, TCO Certified and ENERGY STAR, among others, mean that the 10-30% most environmentally friendly products and services in a particular area are rewarded with an ecolabel. Ecolabel criteria are available for monitors, computers, printers, copiers, remanufactured toner cartridges and office paper.

Producer responsibility means that producers are responsible for collecting and taking care of end-of-life products and/or materials. Producer responsibility is a policy instrument for achieving environmental objectives. The idea is to motivate producers to produce products that are more resource-efficient, easier to recycle and do not contain environmentally hazardous substances.
Producer responsibility exists in several areas related to IT products. For example, producer responsibility covers electrical and electronic products, batteries and packaging.

Producer responsibility for e-waste was introduced in Sweden as early as 2001, at the same time as "Elretur", a collaboration between El-Kretsen and the municipalities, was launched. Elretur means that the municipalities arrange manned reception stations, usually at recycling centers, where households can leave their e-waste free of charge. El-Kretsen arranges for the end-of-life electronics received to be collected and transported to one of El-Kretsen's contracted recycling companies, where pre-treatment and recycling are carried out in an environmentally sound manner in accordance with current laws and regulations.

Elretur covers both electrical and electronic products and portable batteries (Ordinance on Producer Responsibility for Electrical and Electronic Products (SFS 2014:1075) and Ordinance on Producer Responsibility for Batteries (SFS 2008:834). Sweden has 290 municipalities and a few thousand producers are registered. Read more at elkretsen.se