The Swedish Textile Services Association’s (Sveriges Tvätteriförbund) Autum Meeting is taking place on 24 October at the Profilhotels Nacka, Stockholm. As one would expect from a trade association from a country, the name of which is synonymous with sustainability and inclusivity, it is not hard to guess the thrust of the agenda. However, there is a lot more to learn. Daniel Kärrholt of the Swedish TSA takes LCNi through the day’s highlights:
The agenda is topped by keynote speaker Allan Larsson, Sweden’s former Socia Democrat Minister of Finance and Director General.Larsson has published ‘Memory pictures – instead of memoirs’, a new form of memoir writing. He describes in pictures and a short text 51 key events from his childhood and his long life in public activities.
The memories range from the eight-year-old’s fear that the nuclear weapons tests in 1946 would blow up the whole world; his first meeting with Olof Palme in 1956; his work as a journalist at Arbetet, Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, SVT and Tidningen Vi, and; his experiences as one of ‘Tage’s Boys’ (Premier Tage Erlander’s ‘The Boys’ were a group of young Social Democrats who served as personal staff to Prime Minister Erlander in the 1960s). He followed this with six years as AMS director and subsequently five years in the Government and the Riksdag in the 1990s.
Larsson describes Sweden’s path to the EU, ‘From metal speech to membership’, and how in the 1990s he came to collaborate with Jacques Delors and Jean-Claude Juncker on a European employment strategy and was special adviser on the European Pillar of Social Rights. In a commemorative picture, he compares the experiences from his work for four prime ministers: Tage Erlander, Olof Palme, Ingvar Carlsson and Stefan Löfven.
Other speakers will include:
Agnes Palinski, deputy Mayor and 1st vice chair of the Environment and Urban Planning Committee, who is also a member of the municipal council in Nacka.She is passionate about working at the intersection of politics, business, and society, focusing on important issues and assignments that make a difference.
Lisette Hallström, Board member of MoveByBike and former CEO of MoveByBike, with extensive experience in logistics has, among other things, worked as operations manager for established logistics companies such as Jetpak, NH Logistics, PostNord and others. Today she is commercial manager at Early Bird.
MoveByBike is the Nordic region’s leading logistics operator for citysmart last mile. With efficient delivery flows, with electric bikes, MoveByBike delivers faster, more efficiently and greener than what is possible with an electric van. Their vehicle has an electricity consumption that corresponds to one tenth of the electricity consumption of an electric van with the same load capacity. All this combined with advanced software and dedicated drivers creates city-smart logistics for the future.
Roos Mulder, project manager, The Loop Factory will talk about the Texscale project to drive systematic change through scaling up
Project participants: Rester, Sysav, Tväteriförbundet and others
The project’s main goal is to increase the resource-efficient use of textiles by bridging the gap between nonwoven production on a pilot and industrial scale, optimising logistics and increasing the knowledge and ability within the industry to convert to a circular economy.
Simone Fuchs, head of legal & sustainability @Eniro. Eniro exists for companies that want to achieve success and growth in their market. Today, Eniro optimises the opportunity for companies to create local presence, searchability and marketing digitally.
Jan Nicolay, head of business development, sewts. sewts is pioneering the century of physical AI, accelerating the development of agile robotics perfectly tailored to bridge automation gaps in the textile service industry. Delegates will hear how sewts’ brain-in-a-box approach to building advanced robotics spins out intricate and new use cases, positioning sewts as the go-to company to address complex automation tasks in the future.
Yvonne Augustsson, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, will expand on the theme ‘Textiles – an area in change’. She will focus on three pieces of legislation, which will affect the members of the Swedish TSA.
Two pieces of legislation that have been decided:
• Eco-design for sustainable products, and
• Separate collection of textiles from other waste, plus
• Ongoing negotiations regarding possible producer responsibility.
Michael Bo Jensen, Senior Fellow, Alumichem, has worked with water treatment for more than 30 years. He was the owner of one of the leading Danish companies serving the municipal and industrial wastewater treatment market with a solution-oriented approach. For the past 20 years, he has implemented solutions for industrial laundries and continues to do so. More recently, he has worked with sludge solutions for land-based fish farming facilities, so-called Recirculating Aquaculture Systems.
