Riksdag member Per-Arne Håkansson and our Daniel Kärrholt accompanied Nestor Thage G Peterson out to the elevator and waiting car. Per-Arne told us that he had just turned 60 and Thage, who turns 90 in September, quickly responded: "60 – these were the days." Photo: Kalle-Ville Lampi
These were the days
This time the annual meeting had been located to classic Anglais at Humlegården in the middle of Stockholm city. On this sunny Thursday morning, the 25th of the month at the party quarters around Stureplan, there were probably one or two were humming on the artist Magnus Uggla´s "king, king in the bar". "king, king in the bar".
In the hotel , however, other top food and drink was provided - coffees and lunch of the highest class. Outgoing chairman Jan Kluge welcomed everyone and especially our opening speaker Robert Johansson, personnel regional councilor Region Stockholm. Robert gave an inspiring talk about everyone who moved to Stockholm to contribute their talents. In conclusion, Robert had the honor of presenting the Swedish Textile Service Association's sustainability award to Anders Thorgaard, entrepreneur, visionary and owner of the laundry and textile service group DFD/Textilia.
He received the Sustainability Award
Customers can order and take the upcycled textiles into their businesses and contribute to a circular economy. This was also shown in the film that concluded Anders' acceptance speech.
Picture: Robert Johansson presents the Sustainability Award to Anders Thorgaard photo Daniel Kärrholt
He became the new chairman
Then the association's annual meeting took place. Jan Kluge took the gavel for the last time and was able to state, after unanimous decisions across the board, that the association has elected a new chairman – Michael Sandin, 58 years old from the city of Staffanstorp. Michael has, among other things, titles such as chairman of the municipal board and regional council position on the merit list.
Sveriges Tvätteriförbund thanks Jan for his efforts during seven good years and welcomes Michael.
This is how we make ourselves attractive
The morning then featured three speakers – Martin Stenfors, COO Renewcell, Martin Löfgren, Director Group Procurement Scandic Hotels and Mikael Jansson, Managing Director ManpowerGroup.
Martin Stenfors has more than 25 years of experience within sourcing and supply chain both as a management consultant and in operational positions. He is now making sure that Renewcell is scaling up feedstock sourcing to match the increased production capacity in the company. By 2025 Renewcell will annually produce 250 metric tonnes of dissolving pulp from post consumer and post industrial textile waste and will be sourcing equally large amounts of textile waste feedstock.
Martin Löfgren presented based on the title – "How are we attractive and take responsibility as a customer"that Scandic, by virtue of its 280 hotels with 58 rooms in six countries, is an important part in making a sustainability mark in the hospitality industry. With the new Med Scandic Go concept, Scandic's growth rate is estimated to be able to increase by 1000-1500 rooms annually.
Mikael Jansson with seven years at the then Tvättman Textil Service highlighted the importance of being an attractive employer both today and tomorrow. A clear trend is the difficulty in finding the right skills – three out of four Swedish employers cannot find the right person for the job. At the top of the list are IT and data and of the soft wishes reliability.
A political giant
From 13.30 and for 45 minutes the stage was Thage G Peterson's. He was for many years one of the giants of Swedish politics with six cabinet portfolios, speaker of the Riksdag, member of the Riksdag and state secretary. The audience listened devoutly to Thage's clear positions on current issues as well as all the memories from meetings with world leaders over the years. Above all, the meetings with Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, minister of finance Gunnar Sträng and Nelson Mandela.
Thage, who turns 90 this autumn, regularly declines all requests for speeches but made an exception especially for us.
Comprehensive program
Anne-Charlotte presented the project "Upstream cleaning at industrial laundry with the intention of minimizing the release of microplastics and effects at the water and sewage plant", a project, , in cooperation among others with Textilia, Christeyns and Sveriges Tvätteriförbund.
Image: Anne-Charlotte Hanning in full action
Caroline von Post, founder of Stormie Poodle & Beskow von Post, TexChain3 talked about the theme "From waste and end-of-life work clothes to new products". Caroline presented the work - Texchain3 with, among others, Region Skåne, Rikstvätt Bengtsfors Karlskoga, Blåkläder, the Västra Götaland region, Martinsons, Samhall and Sveriges Tvätteriförbund as participants. Among other things, eight pilot projects have been developed.
Finally, Daniel Zhang took the floor, CXO (acquisition general and multitasker) at Teqnion and board member at Textilia.
Our speaker gift during the meeting had been Daniel Zhang's book An investment thinking toolbox - now we got to meet the author himself and learn about sustainability for real.
Many thanks for all the support
Daniel received a speaker gift from our event sponsor Maxi-Press Kalle-Ville Lampi. Thanks also to Södra OnceMore and Rester for your support of the meeting.
At 16.30 the newly elected chairman Michael Sandin was able to end the meeting and a few hours later the annual meeting dinner took place.
