Social responsibility (in the Cradle to Cradle context called ‘social fairness’) is a fundamental value at Troldtekt.
For several years, we have been investing heavily in improving the physical environment at our production facilities which dominate the town of Troldhede. In particular, we are focusing a lot on dust and noise. Partly because it has a direct and positive impact on our employees’ working environment, but also because it has a bearing on our surroundings.
Challenges are bound to arise when large production facilities are sited in an urban context. However, we have a clear goal of keeping any inconveniences for our neighbours to an absolute minimum – and we attach importance to having a close dialogue with them.
In recent years we have invested millions of kroner in reducing the amount of dust and noise, among other things by storing waste wood, ash dust and sawdust in sealed containers and tanks – and by installing noise screens around exhausts, motors and switching to a quieter technology (for example electric pumps).
A second and important aspect of our CSR work is that we are consciously taking responsibility for inclusion in the labour market. We have several times job-trialled a number of unemployed men and women – and have subsequently offered them permanent employment as flexitimers.
We cooperate with the Danish Association of the Hard of Hearing and the Castberggård job and development centre, which both want to see more people who are hearing-impaired in work. People who are partially deaf, in particular, need to work in environments with good acoustics – and so there is an obvious link between hearing problems and Troldtekt acoustic solutions.
In 2018, we took on a deaf colleague in a position on completely normal terms. Since then, we have had other deaf colleagues in trainee periods and project employment.
In addition to our focus on inclusion, we also help to educate young people and prepare them for working life. In Denmark, there is generally a shortage of apprenticeships and traineeships, and this may be storing up problems for the future both for us and other Danish companies in the form of shortages of competent, skilled workers.
At Troldtekt, we continually employ apprentices and adult apprentices in our production, and we regularly employ office trainees at our head office.
