Corporate social responsibility and sustainability report

Introduction and management approach

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. The Group focuses on lean operations and automations. At the same time SSG aspire to offer industry leading customer service. The Group aims to develop a business model that is sustainable with low carbon footprint, and believes that it is important that the Group engage in how it can make a difference for costumers as well as for its employees. The Board of Directors emphasises the importance of sustainability as an integral part of the company’s operations and development.

Sustainability is an integrated part of SSGs business. Sustainability is on the agenda in the management and board meetings to ensure continuously improvements. Even though the self-storage industry in general has a low carbon footprint, SSG still has potential related to sustainability. Management has evaluated how the Group can improve and integrate sustainability in the daily operations, and policies, targets, responsibilities, and action plans are established to continue the journey in a more formalised structure to achieve these potentials.

The Norwegian Transparency Act came into effect 1 July 2022. The Act requires companies to make sure human rights and decent working conditions are respected in their operations and supply chains. The Group entities work with suppliers and sub-suppliers with a risk-based approach to address potential violations of human rights and labour conditions. SSG follows with the Act and will publish a stand-alone report for its compliance with the Norwegian Transparency Act before the deadline 30 June 2023.

Reporting standards

The Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Report has been developed in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative Standards (GRI). The GRI Standards, applicable to all industries, include both relevant disclosures for a range of economic, environmental, and social topics as well as reporting principles related to the reporting process.

Contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

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:

Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth

Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth

SSG has a strong focus on employees and to provide a safe, productive, and positive work environment. To secure quality in deliveries and decent pay and working conditions for hired employees the Group requests suppliers and contractors to sign a declaration. Investments in new properties and expansions are made to increase lettable area available for the customers. Cost focus at all levels is considered vital to ensure profitability and further economic growth.

Goal 9: Industry, innovation, and infrastructure

Goal 9: Industry, innovation, and infrastructure

In the building and renovation process, the Group takes into consideration possible innovative environmental solutions for its properties and building projects to lower the energy consumption. SSG also focuses on using products of high quality to reduce negative environmental impacts throughout the lifetime of the buildings. By providing self-storage facilities close to where customers live, the customers can choose to live in smaller apartments with less storage space. Proximity to the facilities reduces the transportation-distance. As a contribution to the sharing economy and a sustainable sociality, some of SSGs facilities provide trailers and transportation cars for rent, reducing the need for each customer to own their own car.

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

The Group is continuously focusing on improving customer service, with staff and/or new technology. Self-storage is a product that let people store their belongings instead of throwing and purchasing new items.

The Group often converts old buildings not suitable for offices or housing that risk being demolished to self-storage. In the building process there is focus on sorting waste for recycling. Building’s life cycle economical cost and life cycle environmental impact is emphasised when considering different solutions and choice of building materials. In the planning process efficient use of the building is essential.

Stakeholder and materiality analysis

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:

stakeholders2x

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

screenshot-2023-05-10-at-14.07.20

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.

SSG’s defined main focus areas

Health and safety

Health and safety

Resource efficiency

Resource efficiency

Integrity and human rights

Integrity and human rights

Employee wellbeing

Employee wellbeing

Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction

Health and safety

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 2022 was 6.6%. This is an increase compared to earlier years mainly related to the pandemic. 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 2022. No fatal or high consequence injuries from customers have been reported.

Work-related injuries 2022 2021
Staff Customers Staff customers
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
1 0 0 0

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.

Targets for 2023

  • No injuries leading to sickness absence among employees and hired personnel
  • Assessment of potential risk areas with focus on further reducing the risk for injuries
  • Further develop the policy for use of suppliers’ declaration and tracking system of suppliers with declaration

Resource efficiency

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 buildings purpose built 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 2022, 84% of the owned facilities have full LED-lightening and 4% have partly LED-lightning. In 2021 SSG opened its first facility with a green roof and several facilities with heating pumps. In 2022, new initiatives are SSG’s investments in a second ventilation system powered by solar panels on a property in Denmark, a pilot project with solar panels on a property in Norway and upgrading to LED-lightning on several established facilities. All new facilities are equipped with LED-lightning.

Freehold facilities in operation (climate controlled) 2022 2021
Part of facilities with full LED-lightning 84% 71%
Part of facilities with partial LED-lightning 4% 12%
Part of facilities without LED-lightning 12% 17%

In 2022 the majority of the energy agreements are gathered at one supplier to monitor the energy consumption for all Norwegian facilities. The purchase of energy from this supplier is documented 100% renewable with power from hydro, wind and solar energy. Energy consumption is measured and KPI’s and actions plans are established.

Emissions

SSG has calculated greenhouse gas emissions for 2022 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 CO2 e. 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.

Greenhouse gas emissions GHG emissions intensity 2022 2021
GHG Scope 1 Emissions (annual tonnes CO2e) Direct 60.0 54.1
GHG Scope 2 Emissions (annual tonnes CO2e) Indirect/location based 115.0 84.3
GHG Scope 3 Emissions (annual tonnes CO2e) Indirect 30.3 8.1
GHG Scope 1 and 2 location based (kg CO2e /CLA /year) 0.9 0.8

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.

numberbuildings2x

Targets for 2023

  • Evaluate action plans for each facility to reduce electricity consumption
  • Install LED lightning with movement sensors on all freehold investment properties
  • Piloting solar panels on a property
  • Project for energy optimising on the largest self-storage facility in Norway
  • Establish a risk map related to flooding
  • Consider 0- emission alternatives when company cars are to be renewed
  • Buy emission permits when traveling by plane
  • Ongoing assessment of sustainable retail assortment
  • Establish climate accounts for SSG

Integrity and human rights

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 2022, women held 21% 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 40% 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.

December 2022 December 2021
Number of employees % Number of employees %
Female 18 21 26 29
Male 66 79 63 71
Total 84 100 89 100

Targets for 2023

  • All transactions are to be made on armlengths distance
  • Formalised recruitment procedures to increase diversity
  • Increasing equality and number of female employees

Employee wellbeing

The employees are essential for the operation. At year-end 2022, the Group had 84 (89) employees, of which 53 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.

Number of full-time employees and part-time as of December 2022 broken down by country, employment type and gender
Country Full time employees Part time employees Total
Women Men Women Men Women Men
Norway 11 28 3 12 14 40
Sweden 2 3 1 7 3 10
Denmark 0 9 1 7 1 16
Number of full-time employees and part-time as of December 2021 broken down by country, employment type and gender
Country Full time employees Part time employees Total
Women Men Women Men Women Men
Norway 13 28 5 10 18 38
Sweden 3 2 2 7 5 9
Denmark 0 8 3 8 3 16

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. In 2022 SSG performed a manager training course for all employees in a manger role.

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 16% in 2022 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 2022.

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 2022 were overall positive with a score of 5.3 (4.9) out of a total 6.0. The management has analysed the results of the survey and measures to increase the employee satisfaction further will be implemented in cooperation with the employees.

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. The figure below shows an overview of Full Time Equivalents (FTE) and average salary divided into the three levels.

Full Time Equivalents (FTE) and average salary divided into levels 2022
Country FTE FTE in % of level Average salary
Women Men Total Women Men Women Men
Level 1: Management team 1.3 4.4 5.7 23% 77% 1866668 102296538
Level 2: Middle- management 5.0 10.2 15.2 33% 67% 668588 721021
Level 3: Operations 7.4 26.7 34.1 22% 78% 456787 484048
Total 13.7 41.3 55.0 25% 75% 663228 599921
Part time employees 2.6 8.7 11.3 23% 77% 410809 377572
Full Time Equivalents (FTE) and average salary divided into levels 2021
Country FTE FTE in % of level Average salary
Women Men Total Women Men Women Men
Level 1: Management team 1.0 3.6 4.6 22% 78% 1875736 1012652
Level 2: Middle- management 4.2 9.0 13.2 32% 68% 623027 725268
Level 3: Operations 11.9 20.4 32.3 37% 63% 426172 515842
Total 17.0 33.0 50.1 34% 66% 559393 626795
Part time employees 3.1 10.9 14.1 22% 78% 380558 359192

For operations, the average salary of women is slightly below the average salary of this level. Salary at the operation level is mainly impacted by experience and how many years the employee has been within the company. At the middle-management level, the average salary of women is below the average salary level of this level. At the management team level, the average salary of women is higher than the average salary level of this level. The salary at the middle-management level and management group level is mainly impacted by the degree of required formal competence and experience necessary for the different positions in addition the seniority. The female part-time employees had on average a slightly higher wage-level than the male part-time employees.

Some leading positions at middle-management can achieve a bonus in addition to salary when reaching certain KPI-targets. The management team and key employees are part of a long-term incentive program based on share performance.

One employee (male) was in maternity leave in 2022. The average length of maternity leave was 15 weeks.

Targets for 2023

  • Measuring employee satisfaction by using annual employee survey
  • Use the results to implement new measures if/where it’s needed
  • Formalise training of customer service for both new and experience employees
  • Continue to formalise ranges for salary based on seniority and competence for operations to ensure equal treatment
  • First aid training for all employees

Customer satisfaction

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 2022, Self Storage Group has 135 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 31 100 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 2022. The description is Trustpilots own classification.

City Self-Storage (CSS) OK Minilager (OKM)
CSS Norway CSS Denmark Dit Pulterkammer CSS Sweden OKM Norway
Description Excellent Good Excellent Excellent Excellent
Rating 4.5 4.2 4.6 4.4 4.7
Number of reviews 510 336 542 76 813

Targets for 2023

  • Continue the use of Trustpilot to measure customer satisfaction
  • Increase the focus on advantages when choosing Self Storage Group as self-storage provider
  • Actively analyse areas where Self Storage Group can make the service provided more sustainable or help the customer to choose more sustainable

Other

Innovation

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. The acquired companies Minilageret, Minilager Norge and Eurobox have successfully been migrated to the new platform. All new CSS-facilities since 2018 are also added to the new CRM system. During 2021 the Group migrated remaining CSS-facilities in Norway to the new CRM system, and in 2022 a new ERP system was launched for the Group’s Norwegian entities. The new ERP system will be launched for the Swedish and Danish companies in 2023. The migration of Dit Pulterkammer and CSS-facilities in Sweden and Denmark to the new CRM system will start in 2023.

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.

Suppliers and business partners

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 2022.

Local community

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 2022 the receiver of this years donation was the voluntary organisation “Fattighuset”. The organisation supports disadvantaged people with food, clothing and other support.

Timely reporting and legal compliance

The Group is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange and follows all required reporting guidelines. All reporting has been made according to published financial calendar and regulatory deadlines. The goal is to continue to deliver timely reporting with high quality that contains all required information.

Financial reporting and legal compliance are focus on both Management and Board Meetings. This ensures that enough resources are allocated timely.

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