environmental, social, and governance

ESG at A&CO

Environment

  • We contribute to the shift from goods to services, which has a friendlier environmental footprint. More than 4/5 of the companies are within service, food or entertainment.
  • We develop digitally enabled concepts located near our customers. This results in shorter travel distance for our customers - if they have to travel at all.
  • We push the companies to focus on sustainability in operations and sourcing. Some examples are green electricity, recycling waste and re-using when building new locations. For the food companies, we push for things like biodegradable food packaging and giving leftovers to companies such as ToGoodToGo.

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Social

  • We create jobs and pay well. So far, we’ve created hundreds of jobs, and we always strive to pay at or above industry average.
  • We clean up dirty industries. Many of the industries we’re entering struggle with poor working conditions and illicit work.
  • We create great experiences for our customers. The average NPS (Net Promoter Score) for the companies ranges 70-90, which is best in class for their industries.
  • We drive innovation by helping entrepreneurs succeed. 20%+ of the population want to become entrepreneurs, but few actually do. With us, more people dare to try.
  • We invite all employees in A&CO and the companies' management to invest, with an employee share program for A&CO full time employees and access to all other transactions for everyone. We also push the companies to invite all employees to invest in their company.
  • We strive for a meaningful gender and age diversity. Currently, ~40% of CEOs, 0% of non-CEO cofounders, ~60% of companies’ management&support, ~33% of A&CO interns, ~40% of A&CO core team and ~11% of A&CO partners are female. Our colleagues’ span from age 18 to 60, although the majority falls between 25 and 40.
  • We have a family friendly parental leave policy. We pay the gap between your salary and what you get from the government, and your vesting runs during leave.
  • We push the companies to do good, e.g. working with organizations to provide free medical or dental care to people in need who would otherwise lack access to proper care.

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Governance

  • We build strong ownership from core management in the companies. Our CEO's own 1/7 of the company’s shares as a starting point.
  • We are deeply committed to the companies through share ownership. A&CO employees and partners own as a starting point ~70% of the companies we start.
  • We have a transparent culture where everyone gets heard. One tool is our quarterly anonymous satisfaction survey where everyone at the HQs can raise any concerns and score A&CO on a set of criteria we want to deliver on.
  • We pay our taxes. We’re organized in a way where Askeladden & Co AS functions as a consultancy, with profits and associated taxes.

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