Customer story: Rexel

Jennie Källström, Quality and Environmental Manager at Rexel: “SustainLab is very flexible and has helped us with customized solutions tailored for our needs.”

The Swedish energy technology distributor Rexel has 756 employees and 60 stores across Sweden. They drive the development within their industry toward an energy-efficient and fossil-free Sweden with technology and services in energy efficiency, solar cells, and electric car charging. Rexel has the ambition to take the lead within sustainability for themselves, their customers, their suppliers, and our planet. When they needed a solution to improve and streamline their sustainability reporting, they turned to SustainLab.

Sustainability has been a top priority for Rexel for a long time. However, like most companies, they have faced challenges in sustainability reporting due to the rapid development of new sustainability legislation, which continues to evolve with, for instance, the EU regulation CSRD coming into effect in 2024.

Humaira Baneryd, Sustainability Manager at Rexel

Humaira Baneryd, who joined Rexel as a Sustainability Manager in spring 2021, has the responsibility of setting the long-term strategy for Rexel's sustainability work. As she had grown slightly impatient with manual processes, she recognized the need to improve and streamline processes related to sustainability reporting.

"We had an administrative-heavy workload in gathering data for sustainability reporting, consistently requiring us to reach out to different individuals to acquire the necessary information. Consequently, we recognized the need for a sustainability platform to streamline the data collection and visualization process."

As Humaira Baneryd started to scan the market, she looked for a partner and solution that would understand and fit their specific needs – until she unexpectedly found the perfect match.

"At just that moment, we happened to meet SustainLab at a speed dating event at Ignite, which aimed to connect startups with established businesses. Shortly after, we had some issues with our transportation data and met them again. At that time, we also looked into other platforms but ended up choosing SustainLab as they understood the many complexities we faced and could tailor their solution to our needs."

With many new legislations and a wide range of different data sets, reporting can be complex, especially for companies with large infrastructures. Jennie Källström joined Rexel three years ago and took on the Quality and Environmental Manager role in August 2023. She works a lot with ISO certifications and recalls the difficulties in collecting and managing the data.

"We collected data from many different systems, and I saw the potential problem this could lead to when the demands for sustainability reporting become more frequent. With SustainLab, we can trace it more easily, integrate different systems, share dashboards, and better understand the big picture. There are also other great features, such as, for instance, automated alerts and calculations which lower the risk of human errors."

While they are off to a great start, they haven’t yet completed their mission. Humaira Baneryd and Jennie Källström are two ambitious individuals, and together with Rexel, they aim to become sustainability trailblazers within the industry. Humaira Baneryd shares her vision for the future.

Jennie Källström, Quality and Environmental Manager at Rexel

"We still have a long way to go. In five years, we hope to have integrated the API connection with our waste and energy companies and have more circular products, thereby reducing waste."

As all companies have their own digital infrastructures and business models, small tweaks are not uncommon to be needed within a sustainability platform. Jennie Källström explains that this is one of the benefits of working with their personal team at SustainLab, who knows them well and is agile when changes are needed.

"SustainLab is very flexible, quick to implement changes, and always has the latest input. We also have a lot of complex data, so we really appreciate that they’re so responsive and can tweak the solution to our needs."

Looking ahead, Humaira Baneryd and Jennie Källström are excited to follow the future of sustainability. Jennie Källström highlights the importance of having a great partner to adapt to new changes.

"We’re curious about the development of new sustainability legislation and how the data can be collected, and we are glad to have a great partner in SustainLab. We aim to use the data externally to provide valuable insights to our customers. We’re excited!"