Zone System’s sustainability work: “At the forefront of its industry”

With an innovative investment in sustainability, Zone Systems takes the lead in its industry. The company will now use the global EPD standard to show the exact climate impact their products have. 

The EPD, Environmental Product Declaration, is an independently verified document that can be compared to the list of contents on a milk carton. You can therefore see exactly in numbers how big a climate impact different materials and manufacturing methods have.

Traditionally, documents like this have been produced manually, but it takes a long time to see how much impact a change has on the climate. With an EPD generator, you can see in advance how big a difference a change makes, and which changes give the most.

In the EPD generator, which they are now developing with the help of Tyréns, you can see exactly how big the differences in carbon dioxide emissions between different materials are used..

Andreas Forsfjäll, development manager at Zone Systems, initiated the project to become more transparent in how their signs affect the climate. With his background from work with climate declarations in the construction industry, where there were major requirements to report climate impact, he brought the same thoughts to Zone Systems.
– Currently, there are no such requirements in our industry. But we want to take this step now, before the industry or our customers demand it. Partly to be prepared, but above all to be able to work internally with our climate footprint, and ensure that we at Zone Systems take steps towards improvement and climate neutrality, as far as possible.

Climate-friendly for real – not just empty words
When you build a property, you must show the climate impact on the building. What is inside the property, on the other hand, does not yet have the same reporting requirements.
– We want to be at the level that is already standard in the construction industry. We have raised the bar to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It shouldn’t just be a bunch of empty words. We check, de facto, how much carbon dioxide our products emit, it becomes more honest that way.

Zone Systems has already made some concrete changes. They now offer customers sign products with more climate-friendly materials. But also reuses old signs instead of making new ones.
– Many of our customers are climate conscious and appreciate that we rebuild, restore, repaint and repair the signs that already exist. Our goal is to have eight recycling projects in 2024 – twice as many as last year.

Invests seriously in sustainability work with comparable values
Tyréns, a leading player in civil engineering, has helped Zone Systems develop an EPD generator. This tool provides detailed information about the products’ environmental impact, which facilitates product development with reduced climate footprints. Anna Pantze, LCA and climate specialist at Tyréns, praises Zone Systems for their climate initiatives.
– Here, Zone Systems is at the forefront and is one of the first in its industry to dare to invest in maintaining an international standard. We are of course very happy for all customers who choose to invest seriously in their sustainability work. There are many who communicate that they work sustainably, but the difference with starting from EPDs is that the values are comparable and third-party verified. We notice that Zone Systems is passionate about how they can develop their products to become more climate friendly. They are really interested in finding the right fit for their customers. It is very gratifying that they want to change and make an investment like this. If everyone did that, it would make a big difference.