Milestones include increased use of renewable energy sources, U.S. EPA Safer Choice product certifications, and more offerings to renovate rather than replace flooring surfaces
Bona, a global, sustainably-driven company that supplies products for installing, renovating, maintaining and restoring premium floors, today released the results of its 2021 Sustainability Report. The report highlights Bona's most significant sustainability milestones for the year focused on its commitment to betterment for home, health, and humanity.
"Our commitment and responsible approach to the environment, people and society has remained steadfast for more than 100 years," said Kerstin Lindell, Chair of the Board, Bona AB. "This past year presented some challenges, including supply chain and raw materials shortages, yet Bona stayed flexible and focused. Thanks to our fantastic team, our promise to deliver the best products and systems to our customers never wavered and we continue to identify more sustainable solutions. The ability to quickly shift, work together, and develop products and offerings despite changing market conditions has been key to our success."
Sustainable development on the agenda
In 2021, Bona made some significant investments in its commitment to a sustainable future. The first was the introduction of an electric truck to Bona's transportation fleet in Limburg, Germany. The electric truck will contribute to lower nitrogen dioxide levels in the city of Limburg and to global decarbonization. In Sweden, Bona invested in a geothermal system that will provide Bona's Malmö facility with geothermal energy offsetting 20 percent of the yearly energy use at the facility. Another significant milestone last year was the purchase of 26,000-square-meters of land to build a new facility in Monroe, North Carolina, USA. The project, which will be completed in 2022, supports more efficient operations and increased internal capabilities allowing Bona US to operate in a more environmentally friendly way.
Björn Johansson Global Environmental Manager at Bona, said, "We continue to take important steps forward by increasing our use of renewable energy, smarter materials and packaging that uses less virgin plastic, and exhaustively researching new and better ingredients for our products. While we still have work to do, 2021 was a year where we made good progress."
Highlights of the year
Bona's core offering encourages care, maintenance, and renovation of hard flooring surfaces such as wood and resilient rather than replacing these materials thereby safeguarding the earth's finite resources. In 2021 Bona produced finishes, stains, and sealers to cover more than 43 million square meters of wood flooring, saving a forest area equal to approximately 32 million square meters. By not cutting down the forest, the same number of trees encapsulates 28,917 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), calculated as 9-ton CO by hectare and year.
Also in 2021, Bona initiated the use of 90 percent post-consumer recycled (PCR) material in its microfiber pads designed for the Bona Spray Mop and Bona Microfiber Mop. Aligning to the company's goal to use less virgin plastic, this shift is helping divert over 217 tons of plastic waste from being incinerated or going to landfills.
In the autumn of last year, Bona received the Safer Choice Partner of the Year Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its work innovating better ingredients in its floor cleaning solutions. Since becoming a Safer Choice partner in 2020, Bona has certified 13 products, six of which were certified in 2021.
Other key facts
Additional notable facts from Bona's 2021 Sustainability report include:
- Five years ago, Bona moved its adhesive product from buckets to a tube packaging called "sausages." In 2021 Bona reduced its environmental footprint by using sausages rather than buckets and over the past five years Bona has avoided using more than 258,000 buckets which is a carbon savings of 243,281 kg.
- An innovative ergonomic tool was launched 2021 as a new addition to the Bona FlexiSand Pro System. The Bona ErgoEdge is a machine attachment that allows flooring contractors to achieve smooth, efficient sanding in corners and edges of a floor without kneeling or bending by attaching to an existing, standing machine. This innovation saves time and offers a more ergonomic experience for the contractor all while providing a premium floor sanding experience.
- In 2021 Bona released several new products all of which were formulated with Bona's commitment to greener chemistry including amplified formulas of its Bona Hardwood Floor and Bona Hard-Floor cleaning solutions. The formulations are water-based, biodegradable, meet the U.S. EPA product standards, and are Safer Choice Certified.
- Since 2016, Bona has collaborated with Hand in Hand, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that fights poverty with grassroots entrepreneurship, to increase the quality of life for three villages in India. With the organizations Village Upliftment Program, Bona's partnership has helped improve living conditions for women and children through education and the creation of new jobs.
About the framework of Bona's 2021 Sustainability Report
For the fifth year in a row, Bona reported the company's sustainability work in accordance with Swedish law and standards. The 2021 Sustainability Report aligns to the UN Sustainability goals and summarizes the sustainability information in the four areas of environment, social conditions, personnel and respect for human rights and the fight against corruption. View the full report at bona.com/sustainability
About Bona
Bona is a family-owned, sustainably driven company that supplies products for installing, renovating, maintaining and restoring premium floors. Founded in 1919, Bona was the first in the industry to offer a full system of waterborne hardwood floor finishing and floor care products. Today, Bona offers products for most premium floor surfaces including wood, tile, vinyl, resilient, rubber and laminate. Bona's turnover is 3.1bn SEK (EUR 307 million) 2021. The head office is in Malmö, Sweden, and the company is represented globally by its 17 subsidiaries, 70 distributors, 4 production units and 600 employees. For more visit www.bona.com.
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Contacts:
Heather Lindemann Bona
+1 (800) 872-5515
heather.lindemann@bona.com
