Thank you to Ambassador Cederin from the SACC and its Board

Dear Ambassador Henrik Cederin,

We would like to express our sincere gratitude for your remarkable contribution and support to the Swedish Australian Chamber of Commerce (SACC) and the Swedish-Australian business community. Your conscientious work with the SACC and member organisations have supported the SACC in bringing many Swedish and Australian industry representatives and companies together to maintain and to further develop business and trade relationships while supporting the SACC and the Swedish and Australian businesses in introducing new connections, finding opportunities and new areas of collaboration.

The SACC is very thankful for the close cooperation and opportunities we have had working with the Embassy of Sweden and Business Sweden under the TEAM SWEDEN initiative. We especially would like to highlight and thank you for hosting the very successful launch event of the SACC Sustainability Committee in April 2022. These joint efforts have further developed Swedish-Australian business relations and have been invaluable for the SACC and its members.

Thank you for your devotion as an Honorary Member of the SACC board, you will be greatly missed, and we wish you and your family all the best in the future.

Best wishes,
The Swedish Australian Chamber of Commerce Board

Event images from the top left:

  1. May 2022 SACC Executive Forum and Business Networking Event in Sydney, Petra Andrén, Head of HealthTech Investments, Tattarang, HE Henrik Cederin Ambassador of Sweden to Australia and Jan Gardberg President of SACC
  2. November 2019 Launch Event of the SACC Brisbane QLD Chapter, Chapter Chair and Vice President of SACC Teresia Fors and HE Henrik Cederin Ambassador of Sweden to Australia
  3. March 2020 Nordic Open Golf Day Sydney HE Henrik Cederin Ambassador of Sweden to Australia with the winning team from Elekta
  4. May 2022 Nordic Open Golf Day, HE Henrik Cederin Ambassador of Sweden to Australia and Mikael Dahlgren, CFO Alfa Laval and SACC Board Member
  5. October 2020 Virtual Executive Forum, HE Henrik Cederin Ambassador of Sweden to Australia and Marcus Wallenberg, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, SEB
  6. April 2021 Sustainable Mining Event in Perth WA, Chapter Chair Figge Boksjö, Brent Steedman, Partner at Grant Thornton, Chapter Board Member Joseph Olsson, SSAB, HE Henrik Cederin Ambassador of Sweden to Australia, Lisa Jahrsten Honorary Consul of Sweden to Western Australia, Peter Campain, General Manager Plant & Procurement  Barminco, Martin Melin, Senior advisor automation at Scania and Stuart Evans, Global EHS Vice President, Sandvikwith partners from Scania and Sandvik
  7. April 2021 SACC Business Networking Event in Melbourne
  8. April 2021 Company visit to Epiroc Western Australia 
  9. May 2021 SACC Executive Forum in Sydney at Telstra Customer Insight Centre, Vicky Brady, Chief Financial Officer and Group Executive, Strategy & Finance at Telstra, Emilio Romeo CEO, Ericsson Australia & New Zealand and HE Henrik Cederin Ambassador of Sweden to Australia

SWEDELINK Newsletter Winter 2022

Winter news from SACC, with info and registration details for the Innovation, Tech and Design Summit 2022, Business Award Entries, upcoming events, links to recent events and more…

https://www.swedishchamber.com.au/?na=view&id=15

NEW CORPORATE MEMBER – Sinch

Sinch is a telecommunications and cloud communications platform. Sinch enables businesses to send text messages to large numbers of customers and to make video and voice calls. With its headquarter in Stockholm, Sweden, Sinch also has offices in over 30 cities worldwide, including Atlanta, London, Madrid, San Francisco, Singapore and Sydney.

See website and video below for more information on Sinch

Contact:

Liam Schmit, VP, Sales APAC

Guillaume.Schmit@sinch.com

https://www.sinch.com/

The Embassy of Sweden hosted art exhibition to highlight the problem of plastic pollution – 13 May 2022

Beyond Borders: People, Plastic and Pollution &

Swedish Institute’s Re:waste – how Sweden is rethinking resources

 

Over two weekends in May the Embassy of Sweden, together with the Australian National University (ANU) School of the Art & Design, hosted the art exhibition “Beyond Borders: People, Plastic and Pollution”. The collaboration with ANU School of Art and Design invited students to investigate plastic pollution through a creative lens. Two installations, ”Bedroom Plastic” and “PHYT!” were created to evoke thoughts and provide a platform for a discussion around the major environmental problem of plastic pollution.

On Friday 13 May the exhibitions opened with a multi-stakeholder panel discussion on “how to combat plastic pollution”. The opening was framed in the the spirit of the major UN environmental conference Stockholm +50 that took place a few weeks later. A representative of the Australian Department of Environment gave opening remarks followed by a discussion around the importance of a whole of society approach, addressing challenges throughout the whole life cycle of plastics and collaboration between government, industry, academia and civil society.

Following the discussion, guests were able to view the exhibition was created by ANU School of the Art and Design students and the Swedish Institute exhibition “RE:waste – how Sweden is rethinking resources”. RE:waste is giving a Swedish perspective of the waste hierarchy, recycling and waste management,

With the event the embassy wanted to engage Australian stakeholders in a discussion around plastic pollution and highlight Sweden and Swedish solutions in terms of sustainability. The Swedish government is a strong proponent of a global agreement to combat plastic pollution. Multilateral negotiations on a global agreement will start this year.

In June 2022, it was 50 years since the first conference on the human environment was held in Stockholm in 1972. To commemorate this, and to accelerate the discussions on the need for urgent action, the UN mandated conference Stockholm +50, “a healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity” was held in Stockholm. The conference focusing on how to accelerate and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, tackle the planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.

 

  

   

SWEDEN – WINNERS OF THE NORDIC OPEN GOLF DAY 2022

The 2022 Nordic Open Golf Day at Moore Park Golf, Sydney turned out to be a fantastic day with 76 players from the Nordic and Estonian Chambers and more guests arriving for the post game lunch.

This year Sweden took home the trophy with team SignUp Software, the first runner-up was Norway with team 8×8, the second runner-up was Sweden with team EQT Group and the third runner-up was Finland with a mixed team.

We were pleased to welcome the Ambassador of Sweden to Australia HE Henrik Cederin, who participated in the tournament and celebration lunch.

Volvo Car Australia sponsored the HiO with a Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric, no lucky/skilled HiO winner but on the green. 

This annual golf day is a great networking and social event in a relaxed setting but the competition for the trophy is on and with the help of the Golf app players could follow the interactive scorecards and live leader board which added to the comp.

The Nordic Open Golf Day Trophy winner for 2022 was Sweden by corporate team SignUp Software, with Magnus Perri, Graham Rout, Lachlan Jones and Gareth Thomas. Runner up was Norway with team 8×8, Brend Johnston, Brendan Maree, Tim Williams and Vahe Hamparian. Second runner up was taken home by Swedish team EQT Partners with Sam Franklin, Harry O’Neill, Harry Brynes Howe and Hyebin Ko. The third runner up team was Finland with Eero Toivanen, Joona Puhakka Joakim Westerholm and Anssi Paatero. Congrats to the overall winners!

The Individual prizes for Nearest to Pin were won by Camilla Bowhill, Sandcaslte Finance and Mikko Mannerkorpi, Wärtsilä. The individual prizes for the Longest Drive went to Hyebin Ko and Harry Brynes Howe both from EQT Partners. Congrats all, fantastic effort!

All players had a chance to win a brand new Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric with a hole-in-one on hole 10. No players were lucky or skilled to hit the hole in one but there were some close attempts. Team Fiskars won the Corporate team draw prize, sponsored by Amire Strategic Digital Marketing. A Harahorn G&T was handed out to everyone who hit the green on hole 15 and there were many great lucky door prizes to be won by all.

New for the Nordic Open Golf Day 2022 was the Putting Competition which took place in front of the club house throughout the day for golfers and lunch only participants. The winner for the 2022 Putting comp was Joona Puhakka from Coredo, runner up was Fredrik Avellen from Optimity and second runner up was Mikko Mannerkorpi from Wärtsilä.

Well done to you all as it was not easy to get close to that pin and thanks to all who took part in this new comp.

The Ambassador of Sweden to Australia HE Henrik Cederin, enjoyed the participation in the golf tournament again this year, playing in a SACC corporate team together with Mikael Dahlgren, Alfa Laval, Jussi Ylinen, Flick Anticimex and Michael Calvert, ABB.

Danish Connect was represented by their President David McLellan, Minna Monaghan and Anssi Paatero represented FACC, EACCI by President Marianna Jolla, NACC by President Sophia Demetriades Toftdahl and SACC by President Jan Gardberg and Camilla Jennings General Manager, SACC. Thank you for your support and contribution to making this event happen.

We would like to express a huge thank you to all Event Sponsors; Volvo Car Australia, Elekta, Finnair, Fiskars, Iagon, Paradise Charnock O’Brien, SignUp Software and Wärtsilä. A big thank you also goes to all Prize Sponsors; Amire Strategic Digital Marketing, Caddie Snacks, Ecope, Euro Drinks, Harahorn Gin, Iittala, Kopparberg, Nordic Fusion, Marimekko, Milla’s Vineyard Wines, Moore Park Golf, Voss and 8×8. A final thank you to all participants and to the Nordic and Estonian Chambers for kicking off this event for the 6th year and to Moore Park Golf Club for hosting this annual event. Read the full event summary here.

We look forward to next year’s Nordic Open Golf Day, which is planned to be held the first week in March 2023. We welcome new event ideas, feedback and if you would like to get involved please contact us:
sacc@swedishchamber.com.au

 

The SACC Sustainability Committee Launch Event on 6 April at the Embassy of Sweden in Canberra

The Swedish Australian Chamber of Commerce launches Sustainability Committee to inspire and accelerate sustainability actions across corporate Australia

7 April 2022, Canberra: The Swedish Australian Chamber of Commerce (SACC) today announced that it has launched its sustainability committee to advocate for corporate Australia to champion best practice in sustainable business practice and take an active stance on the transition to a net zero economy. The SACC Sustainability Committee was officially launched at an event hosted by the Embassy of Sweden, in Canberra, officiated by His Excellency, Henrik Cederin, Ambassador of Sweden to Australia.

The SACC Sustainability Committee consists of fourteen global companies with long standing presence in Australia, recognized within their respective industries as being in the forefront of sustainability. These companies include ABB, Alfa Laval, AstraZeneca, Getinge, H&M, IKEA Australia, Sandvik, Serneke, Tetra Pak, Volvo Group Australia, BCSD Australia, Embassy of Sweden, Business Sweden and the Swedish Australian Chamber of Commerce.

Carin Varverud-Hardin, Chair of the SACC Sustainability Committee, said: “Swedish companies are leading the way in how they actively respond to climate change. The aim of our sustainability committee is to share global best practices with corporate Australia so that we can inspire faster and greater action, and create a platform where companies can learn from each other”.

Camilla Jennings, General Manager of the Swedish Australian Chamber of Commerce said: “Sweden is recognised as one of the most sustainable countries in the world. The Swedish government has set ambitious goals for sustainability, including going fossil-free by 2045 and 100 percent renewable energy”.

“This ambition extends to the Swedish corporate sector as well, and so we are seeing a lot of innovative practices that are driving real and tangible results in achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals such as reduction of carbon emissions and driving equality in the workplace,” said Ms Jennings.

Some of these best practices include:

ABB has committed to becoming carbon neutral across its own operations and enable its customers to reduce their CO2 emissions by 100 megatons per year through its technologies.

Alfa Laval collaborates with cleantech pioneers to accelerate the energy transition, such as Australian start up RayGen building the world-first ‘hydro-solar’ thermal storage power plant in Victoria. Alfa Laval also set itself the target to become a climate neutral company by 2030.

AstraZeneca has partnered with Greening Australia to plant 25 million trees in Australia by 2025, as a result of the ‘AZ Forest’ Global initiative.

Getinge is transforming its corporate fleet to hybrids and electrical vehicles and switching to renewable energy sources in production.

IKEA uses more renewable and recycled materials than ever to eliminate waste in its operations and to change how they design products. They have set a goal to become climate positive by 2030.

Sandvik has ambitious sustainability targets that take a holistic approach that includes customers, suppliers and their own operations in its scope which are in line with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). They have committed to become the leaders in battery electric trucks, loaders and drills which feature zero underground emissions, produce less noise and heat and help their mining customers reach their Net Zero targets.

Tetra Pak is working towards delivering the world’s most sustainable packaging, made solely of responsibly sourced renewable or recycled materials, fully recyclable and carbon-neutral.

Volvo Group’s long-term ambition is to lead the industry towards net-zero emissions. The Group have committed to net-zero emissions across their value chain by 2040. More than 35% of vehicle sales will be electric by 2030.

Read more about the Committee Members and their Sustainability Initiatives here

About the Committee, Vision and Focus

For further information, contact:  

Carin Varverud Härdin, SACC Sustainability Committee Chair and Vice President of Marketing Communications, Volvo Group Australia

Email: carin.varverud-hardin@volvo.com

Camilla Jennings, General Manager Swedish Australian Chamber of Commerce

Email: camilla@swedishchamber.com.au

 

SWEDELINK Newsletter Autumn 2022

Autumn news from SACC, with New Member Presentations, Innovation, Tech and Design Summit 2022, upcoming events, links to recent events and more…

The NEW DATE for the Nordic Open Golf Day is 6 May 2022

The annual Nordic Open Golf Day at Moore Park Golf, Sydney was set to take place on 4 March but we had to postpone the event due to recent wet weather in Sydney. After some reorganising of groups and help from Moore Park Golf, we are now very pleased to confirm the new date which is Friday 6 May 2022.

This event offers unique opportunities to meet members and business contacts of the Nordic & Estonian Chambers in a relaxed but COVID controlled setting. It enables great networking opportunities while offering you a chance to promote your Company and Services. There will be some fantastic prizes including a brand new Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric for the lucky/skilled Hole-in-One shot, sponsored by Volvo Car Australia. New for this year is the Nordic Putting Comp for lunch participants.

The event was fully booked for the initial date in March but with the change of date spots for players or lunch participants might become available. If you would like to take part please contact us chamber@finland.com.au or sacc@swedishchamber.com.au

We are looking forward to a great event and let’s keep our fingers crossed for a sunny day!

 

The Cost for Players: Members: $155, Non-Members: $170 (per player) or register as a Corporate Team/Event Sponsor with the option of 2 players for $750 or a full team of 4 players for $1,200 and contribute to the prize pot (all prices incl. GST.)

      • Green Fee
      • Complimentary range balls
      • The Nordic Open Golf Day participation kit (with some sponsor surprises)
      • Bacon & Egg roll with tea/coffee (in the morning)
      • Golf Cart (2ppl /cart)
      • Drink Cart at the course (drinks/snacks to be purchased by players)
      • “19th hole Celebration” Lunch at the Clubhouse.

The Cost for Lunch only Participants: Members: $65, Non-Members: $75

      • Participation in the Nordic Putting Comp
      • Complimentary driving range balls for practising
      • Lunch

Schedule:

      • 07:00 am – 07:40 am – Registration & Breakfast
      • 07.40 am – Welcome & Player Briefing
      • 08:00 am – Shotgun start for 18 holes, Ambrose scoring via MPG app
      • 12:00 pm – 12:30 pm Nordic Putting Comp (lunch only guests)
      • 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm 19th Hole Celebration Networking Lunch and Prize Ceremony

SACC Sustainability Committee Official Launch at the Embassy of Sweden Canberra 6 April 2022

For many of us this year has been marked by a lot of changes and for the Sustainability Committee, it has meant a postponement of the date for the official launch. The new date is now 6th April, and we are very much looking forward to finally launching our committee officially at the Embassy of Sweden in Canberra. We are planning an insightful day with inspiring keynote speakers from both the Government and industry. There will be an interactive Q&A and a site visit to ACTEW AGL Hydrogen Refuelling Station Fyshwick.

In connection with the launch, the Sustainability Committee will also meet in person for the first time and through Alfa Laval’s network, we are planning to make a site visit to BentSpoke Brewery Co. allowing extra time to socialize and become acquainted.

With the solid foundation created by the committee, we will continue our work within the sustainability arena and through external communication, we will share knowledge, best practices and sustainability strategies with organisations and the Australian audience.

During the year, the committee also plans to continue arranging different events and several interesting ideas are being discussed, so please watch this space.

If you would like to find out more about the SACC Sustainability Committee please contact Committee Chair Carin Varverud Härdin or SACC General Manager Camilla Jennings.

Swedish – Australian Innovation, Technology and Design Summit 28-29 September 2022

Swedish – Australian Innovation, Technology and Design Summit 28-29 September 2022, University of Technology Sydney

This two-day Summit held at the University of Technology Sydney is a new initiative organised by the Swedish Australian Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with UTS, the Embassy of Sweden, Business Sweden and partner companies. The purpose to highlight Swedish-Australian innovation, technology and design, raise the profile of Sweden and Australia as innovative nations.

During the 2 day Summit, we will present examples of innovative cooperation, knowledge exchange, R&D and creative business development between Sweden and Australia. Highlight key initiatives and new areas of cooperation to drive innovation and sustainability in the future.

Partner companies and organisations will showcase and inform about their innovation initiatives within tech, sustainability and design. Offer demonstrations and informative topic presentations to students, business contacts, special guests and clients. Facilitate master classes for students, thought leadership talks and thought-provoking conversations to share expertise and spark new ideas. There will be on stage in person and hybrid talks, presentations, panel discussions as well as smaller group sessions on specific topics. The Summit also offers great networking opportunities and ends with a Gala Dinner on 29 September.

Keep an eye on Socials and the SACC website for partner and event updates.

Contact us for more information on sacc@swedishchamber.com.au