"Customers trust the Nordic Swan Ecolabel"
Clas Ohlson offers Nordic Swan Ecolabel products – with Nordic Swan Ecolabel deliveries
The retailer from Insjön, Clas Ohlson, was one of the first to offer Nordic Swan Ecolabelled deliveries in its webshop. Since March 2023, it has been possible to Nordic Swan Ecolabel for e-commerce transports, and the first licensee was PostNord. As a customer of Clas Ohlson, you can now buy a Nordic Swan Ecolabel product and then choose to have it transported with a Nordic Swan Ecolabel delivery.
We spoke to Anna Strindberg, Sustainability & Compliance Manager at Clas Ohlson, to find out more about their Nordic Swan Ecolabel range and what the Nordic Swan Ecolabel means to them.
Clas Ohlson sells both Nordic Swan Ecolabelled and EU Ecolabelled products. What kind of ecolabelled products can you find in your range?
About 20 years ago, we started working more with ecolabelling products from our own brand, but even before that we sold other Nordic Swan Ecolabel products. Today, we have a wide range of Nordic Swan Ecolabel items – everything from beads and bead plates to batteries. It's extra fun that many of our bestsellers are Nordic Swan Ecolabelled, such as batteries, cleaning supplies, candles, printer paper and napkins. The 24-pack Varta batteries is our absolute best-selling Nordic Swan Ecolabel product!
We dug into the archives to find Clas Ohlson's first Nordic Swan Ecolabel product under their own brand, and the first was batteries, which were certified in 2002. About 10 years later, Nordic Swan Ecolabel cleaning products with microfiber were introduced, and almost at the same time, the candles were certified.
Why did you choose the Nordic Swan Ecolabel?
Today, it is quite difficult for customers to make conscious choices – there is a jungle out there of information, labels and "ifs and buts"! We want it to be easy for our customers to do the right thing. The Nordic Swan Ecolabel provides credibility and has a holistic approach. It also means that we need to constantly improve as the requirements are tightened.
What does the Nordic Swan Ecolabel mean to you today?
It means a lot, because it gives a credible and clear message to the customer. We get indirect traceability and control of ingredients, but in the form of a third independent party having received all the information. I think it's also important for manufacturers, who own the recipe and the knowledge of ingredients, to be transparent with third parties without having to show all that data to us. Otherwise, the protection of business-related information is difficult in relation to the desire and need for a high degree of transparency.
Anna goes on to talk about how the Nordic Swan Ecolabel has affected Clas Ohlson:
The Nordic Swan Ecolabel is very easy to communicate, it has a high level of credibility and is something that our customers are familiar with. The requirements are available to everyone and are very product-specific, detailed, and updated regularly. This saves us a lot of documentation work internally. So, it helps both us internally and our customers!
Is there any type of product that you wish you could Nordic Swan Ecolabel?
The more products the better! If I had to choose one area, I would probably say electronics, as there are not many ecolabels available in this product category.
As a customer, you can now buy a Nordic Swan Ecolabel product and then choose to have it transported with a Nordic Swan Ecolabel delivery from PostNord. How does that feel? Great!
For many years, we have been working together with our logistics partners to jointly reduce transport-related emissions. That's why we're very pleased to be able to offer our e-commerce customers Nordic Swan Ecolabel deliveries together with PostNord. Clas Ohlson does not own any transports of its own, so in order to reduce emissions and offer our customers more sustainable alternatives, it is only together with good partners that we can make a difference.
Why did you choose the Nordic Swan Ecolabel for your delivery options?
It has been difficult for our customers to make environmental choices when it comes to deliveries, there has been no easy-to-understand information in the industry. Now that the Nordic Swan Ecolabel has taken note of this and developed criteria for transports, it feels great to now be able to offer our customers this choice. Customers trust the Nordic Swan Ecolabel and the Nordic Swan Ecolabel has a very high level of brand awareness.