Corporate social responsibility and sustainability report

The Group has prioritised three of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals set out in the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. SSG sees the following goals as particularly significant to its business and the solutions the Group can contribute to:

Self Storage Group fulfils its corporate responsibilities by developing and running its operations profitably, and in a manner that is consistent with fundamental ethical values and respect for individual people, society as a whole and the environment. For Self Storage Group it is important to maintain a dialogue with the Group’s most important stakeholders and review how they are affected by the ongoing business and how they will be affected by new decisions. This dialog makes the Group able to continue to improve the business and build trust with the stakeholders.

The Group has conducted a stakeholder and materiality analysis which identifies the economic, social, climate and environmental consequences of the company’s operations that have the greatest impact on stakeholders’ assessments and decisions.

As a basis for these analyses the Group has identified the groups, organisations and individuals that are impacted by the Group’s operations or which have an impact on the Group’s strategy and goal achievement. Further, this analysis has been used to identify and understand factors that are important for the business strategy and for the stakeholders. Material items are defined based on the management’s experience of areas stakeholders have shown most interest for in during regular stakeholder dialog over the last years, and managements knowledge of the Group’s impact on economic, social and environmental areas.

The model below shows which groups of stakeholders that are regarded as most important for Self Storage Group:

The model below specifies the degree of importance for SSG’s stakeholders, as well as what is important and relevant for Self Storage Group:

All the focus areas have either economic, social, or environmental impacts and are of great significance for Self Storage Group. Health and safety, integrity and human rights and employee wellbeing have all main significance for the company’s social impacts. Resource efficiency has most significance for the company’s environmental impacts and some for the economic impact. Customer satisfaction has main significance for the company’s economic impact since satisfied customers stay longer, returns when similar needs arise and are ambassadors for SSG.

The Group works continuously with health and safety matters for employees, customers and third parties. A safe and healthy working environment is fundamental to develop a sustainable business model and to attract and retain qualified employees.

To enhance wellbeing and reduce absence due to illness all full-time employees are part of a health insurance program. One of the benefits from the program is rapid and easily accessible free health treatment specialists for full time employees. Management supervises all facilities at a regularly basis to ensure a safe environment, with severity and number of injuries being the most important measure. The absence due to illness for the Group in 2023 was 3.0%. This is a decrease compared to earlier years which were affected by the pandemic. A team member had a bicycle accident while commuting to work, sustaining injuries. As a result, the employee had graded sick leave throughout 2023. Due to few employees in some of the countries, figures are shown at group level in order to anonymise the employees.

All employees visiting construction sites are required to wear protection equipment. Injuries on employees are reported, measured, and followed up. There were no fatal or high consequence injuries in Self Storage Group in 2023. No fatal or high consequence injuries from customers have been reported.

Self Storage Group has implemented “suppliers declaration” for HSE, minimum wages etc. Currently this has been required for all new suppliers of a certain size related to facility management. This increases the control on working conditions at SSGs suppliers.

Resource efficiency is essential when aiming to develop a business model that is sustainable with low carbon footprint. The Groups operations are not considered to have any material impact on the climate and the environment. Resource efficiency is nevertheless a prioritised focus area that also has an economic impact on the Groups financial results.

Self-storage is a product that helps people store their belongings instead of throwing away for later to buy new belongings. In addition, SSG provides self-storage facilities close to where customers live, thus reducing the need for transportation to the facilities for the customers.

SSGs business model focuses on buildings and materials with long lifetime and storage of customers belongings in climate-controlled environments. SSGs facilities are eighter new purpose built buildings according to strict Nordic regulations or converted old buildings not suitable for offices or housing that risk being demolished. If suitable, fit-out in good condition from closed facilities is dismantled and moved to new facilities. Self-storage buildings have a long, expected lifetime, and common renovation as in an office building is not needed. The Group requires recycling in the building process and on office facilities. In the building process the management focus on combining sustainable and green solutions with long term profitability.

Caretakers of the properties are hired locally if it is a suitable solution. This reduces the need of transportation to the different facilities across Scandinavia.

The Group has focus on energy management on all levels and is continuously focusing on reducing the energy consumption in the portfolio. SSGs buildings are equipped with few technical installations, and reducing the energy consumption is mainly done by keeping the temperature in climate-controlled environments at a low level, installing heat pumps and upgrading to LED-lightning with movement sensors. LED-lightning use less energy, has long lifetime, and has movement sensor in each lamp. As of December 2023, 84% of the owned facilities have full LED-lightening and 4% have partly LED-lightning. In 2023 the first facility with solar panel for heating was opened and results are tracked to gain experience. In addition, SSG has continued to instal LED-lightning and heating pumps on selected facilities during the year, including energy optimising of the largest self-storage facility in Norway. Earlier years opening of a facility with a green roof, installing of heating pumps, upgrading to LED-lightning on existing facilities and investments in a ventilation system powered by solar panels have been initiated. All new facilities are equipped with LED-lightning. In 2024 we plan to perform energy mapping on several of SSG’s facilities to identify which investments should and can be made to improve the building.

The purchase of energy for all Norwegian freehold properties is documented 100% renewable with power from hydro, wind and solar energy. Energy consumption is measured and KPI’s and actions plans are established.

SSG has calculated greenhouse gas emissions for 2023 based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative (GHG protocol). For the Group, scope 1 includes emissions from fuel from vehicles owned by the Group and gas used to heat facilities. Scope 2 includes emissions from electricity and district heating used at the facilities. The market-based emissions from electricity documented 100% renewable are 0 CO₂e. In scope 3, emissions from air travels and fuel from vehicles owned by employees used at work are included. When employees travel by air, the Group always buys emission quotas. To allow users of the report to compare performance year to year with consistency, emissions in the development face of establishing new facilities are not included.

The general level of climate risk for SSG is considered relatively low with no medium-term impact expected from climate change. The highest environmental risk for Self Storage Group operations both on short and long term relates to water. More extreme water with heavy rain increases the risk for flooded buildings and SSG has high tension on roofing and other water related issues. Selected storage rooms on already opened facilities and all storage rooms on new facilities are equipped with special mats on the floor to reduce the risk of water damages for customers. Risks connected with water and climate are considered when acquiring new facilities. A risk map related to flooding for each facility is under preparation.

Integrity and human rights are of great significance for the Group, and no violations on these are accepted. Most of our stakeholders do not assess this as a risk in Scandinavia. The Group has implemented ethical guidelines as a part of the corporate governance framework to maintain a high ethical standard in its business concept and relations with customers, suppliers, and employees. These guidelines ensure compliance with arm’s length distance principles and minimise the risk for corruption. The Group pays tax to the local country and are not involved in tax planning.

The Group attempts to maintain a working environment with equal opportunities for all based on qualifications and irrespective of gender, age, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, or any other protected status. At year-end 2023, women held 22% of the positions in the Group. When recruiting for new positions we aim to increase diversity. The Management group consists of five members, of which two is female. Female employees made up 40% of the Management team and 20% of the Board of Directors. The organisation is set up with a flat and unformal organisation model. Approximately a total of 15 different nationalities are represented in the Group.

The employees are essential for the operation. At year-end 2023, the Group had 72 (84) employees, of which 56 worked fulltime. Details about the employees are listed in the table below, and there are no significant variations in these details from year to year. No assumptions are made in the below numbers. Due to few employees in some of the countries, figures are shown at group level in order to anonymise the employees.

The employees have different roles in the organisation, such as customer service, operation, facility management and administration. The Group is founded based on the two companies OK Minilager and City Self-Storage and has acquired four companies with employees since 2017. Several measures have been taken to integrate the different working cultures to one. Company awards are used in the Group to premiere good role models for the values set.

Self Storage Group needs a range of competence in the different roles in the organisation. It is important that the employees have the knowledge and competence to perform their role in a correct and safe way. All new employees are given necessary training to conduct their work. A start-up plan is normally made for new employees to ensure that they receive the necessary information and training related to their role. For customer service most of the training of new employees are performed side by side with experienced employees starting with the most basic tasks. New employees have a designated college available for questions and manuals to check when questions arise. Self Storage Group are proud to have high quality customer service employees that are available in person at manned facilities and on chat and at the phone at unmanned facilities to help the customers.

Many of the employees work on different facilities, and the intranet is important both for information to the employees and as a social platform where employees in all roles can communicate easily. The Group has turnover of 19% in 2023 and the average number of years an employee is employed is seven years (full time employees). All employees are free to be part of collective bargaining agreements. No employees are part of collective bargaining agreements as of December 2023.

In Self Storage Group annual employee appraiser interviews with all employees are conducted. This gives the employees an opportunity to discuss relevant items and to be followed up in a structured way. The Group has an annual employee survey, and the results for 2023 were overall positive with a score of 4.5 (5.3) out of a total 6.0. The survey was distributed after the information about organisational changes had been shared with the organisation, which explains the slight decrease in result from the previous year.

SSG aims to offer competitive remuneration to all employees, based on qualifications and experience, and irrespective of gender. The positions in the Group can be divided into three levels: the management group, middle-management, and operations. There are less than five employees in some of the levels when divided into gender. Detailed information on salary for different levels divided into gender is therefor not presented.

Some leading positions at middle-management level can achieve a bonus in addition to salary when reaching certain KPI-targets. The management team and key employees were part of a long-term incentive program based on share performance which were crystallized in December 2023 and paid out in the event of the delisting of the company.

Three employees (two male and one female) were in maternity leave in 2023. The average length of maternity leave was 15 weeks for the male employees, and 27 weeks for the female employee.

Self Storage Group offers a service most people need at some point in life, and the goal is to be the preferred self-storage provider in Scandinavia. The Group has many customers, mainly in the private consumer market (80%), but also in the business market (20%). In the private consumer market moving, refurbishment, downsizing, need for additional storage, and student storage are the main reasons for demand, but in the business marked inventories, relocation, refurbishment, archive storage, and last mile storage are the main reasons for demand. Most of the business customers are in the private sector.

The customer’s satisfaction is important of many reasons. Satisfied customers stay longer, returns when similar needs arise and are ambassadors for the company. The Group’s vision is to enable people to take care of their belongings and organise their lives by being the leading Scandinavian self-storage provider with safe, smart and accessible solutions. To adapt to different customers’ needs Self Storage Group offers both manned and unmanned facilities. In this way both customers wanting personal service and customers wanting a self-service can be served.

As of December 2023, Self Storage Group has 144 facilities in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark through the concepts City Self Storage, Dit Pulterkammer and OK Minilager, ensuring high availability for many existing customers and potential customers. The Group offers the customers 33 400 storage rooms. The average customer moving out had a rental time of 12 months.

City Self-Storage is member of the Self-Storage Associations in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and a representant from the management serve as member of the Board in some of the associations. The membership requires City Self-Storage to follow the industry standard and contribute to raise the quality for the customers.

Trustpilot is actively used to gain understanding and experience about the customers satisfaction and customer journey to continuously improve the self-storage service. The figures presented below are accumulated as of 31 December 2023. The description is Trustpilots own classification.

The Group seeks new solutions to continuously improve the customer service. By focusing on digital solutions, the customers’ ability to help themselves are increased. New solutions are intuitive and easy, thus improving the customer’s experience.

The CRM-system developed for OK Minilager has been upgraded and improved since 2018 to tailor the system to the Group’s specific needs. During 2023 Group migrated CSS-facilities in Sweden and Denmark to the new CRM system. The focus on modern CRM is essential for efficient operations which is easy to scale up when new facilities are added to the portfolio. The management works close with operation and customer service to develop new solutions.

Self Storage Group mainly works with local suppliers both when establishing new facilities and in the daily business. Currently some IT- and marketing services are acquired from other European countries and self-storage fit-out for new facilities are acquired from abroad. The Group’s suppliers vary between administrative services like marketing and IT-service, suppliers that are involved in caretaking and control of facilities in use, to construction workers on new facilities. The work performed by suppliers is not a significant part of the daily operations.

Timely deliveries from suppliers are essential for the Groups operations and growth. To ensure that all suppliers follow laws and regulations the Group uses a supplier declaration. The declaration focuses on hired labours salary and rights, recycling, use of subcontractors and quality systems. There has not been any significant change in suppliers or the supply chain in 2023.

Self-storage is a business with little traffic and limited pollution. Approximately 80% of the customers are individual customers, who rarely visit their storage room. Some facilities offer volunteer organisations discounts on storage.

Self Storage Group provide the local community a service that local residents and businesses often are in need for. As a contribution to the sharing economy some of SSGs facilities provide trailers and transportation cars for rent, reducing the need for each customer to have their own car.

Self Storage Group has a tradition to donate funds to a voluntary organisation. The employees of SSG choose the voluntary organisation, and in 2023 the receiver of current year’s donation was the voluntary organisation “Foreningen for hjertesyke barn”. The organisation helps all children with congenital heart disease in Norway to have a good life.

The Group follows all required reporting guidelines according to regulatory deadlines.
Financial reporting and legal compliance are focus on both Management and Board Meetings. This ensures that enough resources are allocated timely.