Over the past year, our skilled Key Account Managers have been in contact with several hundred leaders and subject matter experts interested in our environmental documentation solutions. Here, one of our KAMs shares their reflections on customers’ interests, priorities, and issues related to environmental documentation and EPDs.
Bjørn Flagestad is one of our KAMs. He has a diverse background in selling solutions to the business market. Bjørn has a long history with Telia, TDC, and Telenor from a Nordic perspective. In addition, Bjørn has many years of relevant experience in the energy market. This makes Bjørn quickly realize where “the shoe pinches” for our customers.
About our solutions
Our environmental documentation solutions will strengthen the business processes for effective reporting of climate impact. The solutions can contribute to increased innovation—both in business processes and in end products. Generally, there is a significant growth in demand for solutions, but especially industries that traditionally have had a large climate footprint, such as the construction and construction sector, stand out with extra great interest in EPD.
The growth opportunities at LCA.no are inspiring
– The motivation to start at LCA.no was the growth opportunities. Being able to contribute to strong customer and sales growth was crucial. Furthermore, the solutions of LCA.no contribute to a more sustainable world and circular economy. I am strongly driven by being able to achieve results in collaboration with good colleagues, customers, and partners, says Bjørn.
Bjørn reports great interest in prioritizing environmental documentation in the market. Maturity is on the rise. Our customers are increasingly focusing on sustainability and lower carbon emissions.
What benefits do customers get from LCA.no’s solutions?
– Our main product, which is EPD, is delivered as software that customers can use to develop EPDs themselves. A software in itself does not provide any benefits. It must have relevant data and high user adoption. In collaboration with the customer’s internal IT department and partners, we ensure that the solution has access to relevant, quality-assured, and updated data that can be used to get the EPD approved by a verifier. We ensure that the customer receives thorough training. We are present for the customer throughout the product’s lifecycle and contribute with ongoing support, consulting, and further development of the solution to meet changing customer requirements. This helps customers more easily meet external requirements. They improve their competitive situation by being able to document their climate footprint better than competitors. Our solution also contributes to increased innovation and more efficient internal processes through the introduction of our modern, cloud-based software. This often replaces many manual processes and missing data capture. Customers will also achieve an improved reputation in the market, points out Bjørn.
What are the main challenges customers face in environmental work?
– Many customers today find that the requirements from authorities and clients are not clear enough. Clients often fail to set clear objectives and requirements.
There is currently too low ordering competence. Many buyers still place too much emphasis on price. It is also challenging to create good specifications in environmental work. There is a rapid development within the regulatory area—both nationally and in the EU. We also want to help buyers create better requirements for their suppliers. We can help both suppliers and customers with knowledge and the ability to document well, tells Bjørn.
How does LCA.no’s expertise contribute to improving customers’ understanding and handling of environmental documentation?
– We have accumulated industry knowledge. We collaborate closely with many industry associations. This gives us early insight into the industries’ challenges, what management has on the agenda, and the regulatory conditions they operate under. We use this as important input in our product and service development.
LCA.no has systematized things. We have worked for many years with lifecycle analyses, climate accounting, transport calculators, EPD, and software development. Our Customer Success department receives ongoing feedback about users’ experiences, what they find challenging, what works well, and what they want from further development. We have this feedback readily available in our CRM system, which all employees have access to and actively use. This ensures us a 360-degree customer view. I must also add that I believe we have a user-friendly tool that provides a good basis for high user adoption, explains Bjørn.
Observing Industry Shifts: The Evolving Approach to Environmental Documentation and Sustainability
We asked out experienced KAM about changes across industries regarding sustainability: – There are several industries where we experience a change. The industry we have seen the most significant development in within construction, civil engineering, and infrastructure. Cement production alone is in third place in the world when it comes to CO2 emissions, after energy production and transport. Fortunately, there is now a sharp focus on new and more sustainable solutions for cement production. There is an interest in assembling materials with low CO2 emissions. Suppliers are concerned with short transport distances, the right choice of machines, and equipment for construction. Increased reuse of materials is central. Products should preferably go through several life cycles.
In recent years, we have also seen that the goal of increased competitiveness and increased earnings is driving the demand for digital solutions for environmental documentation such as EPD, explains Bjørn.
More collaboration and joint solutions in the future
We challenged Bjørn to look 5 years into the future. Where are we then when it comes to environmental documentation? – There is a rapid technological development with AI, cloud services, and low-code platforms. Leading solutions have well-developed APIs that make it easy to integrate different systems, both internal and external IT systems. This has a significant impact on the market. There will be more joint solutions (tools) for both clients and providers. We will see more collaboration and digitalization in value chains, analyzes Bjørn.
Start now—don’t delay the work
Finally, we asked Bjørn to give advice to companies that want to improve their climate footprint? – If I am to give just one piece of advice, it is not to postpone this important work. The work of developing EPDs provides you and your company with valuable experience and insight throughout the value chain. You can use this to develop more sustainable products and increase your competitiveness. If I were to give another piece of advice: Contact us—regardless of how far you have come in the process of preparing environmental documentation. We can help you move forward, says Bjørn.
Concluding our inspiring discussion: A special thanks to Bjørn for his insights on the vital sustainability efforts of LCA.no.