Digital Tool for Production Units to Drive Sustainability
At Seco, we aim to make manufacturing fast, easy and sustainable across our entire value chain. An important part of this mission is setting ambitious targets within our operations to drive environmental and social sustainability at the core of manufacturing.
Seco has committed to significant goals: achieving 90% circular waste by 2030, Net-Zero operations by 2035, enhanced supplier documentation, a reduced environmental footprint and a safe, healthy and inclusive workplace embedded in our culture. While all these areas are vital, it can be challenging for local operational sites to fully understand sustainability, compare their current position, align with Seco’s global ambitions and determine where to focus their efforts.
When Seco’s sustainability strategy was introduced, areas such as health and safety were already well established at many sites, while newer areas such as circularity and Net-Zero required fresh approaches and new tools.
In 2021, this challenge inspired the creation of the Industrial Sustainability Assessment – a tool designed for Seco production units to assess their current sustainability level, making it easier to identify priorities and take action toward impactful improvements. The tool defines six levels: Level 1 represents compliance with minimum legal requirements, while Level 6 reflects best practices. Levels 2 to 5 offer a structured, progressive pathway for improvement.
The assessment covers the following key focus areas:
People and Communities: including health and safety, diversity, inclusion, equity, working environment and community involvement.
Climate, Biodiversity and Circularity: focusing on resources, emissions and waste.
Site Specific: evaluating how sustainability is integrated into production processes, facilities, building infrastructure and development work.
Suppliers: assessing how local sites manage responsibility within their supply chains.
Throughout 2021 and 2022, this methodology was co-developed with sites in Sweden and the Netherlands, with feedback from other global locations to ensure it was practical, relevant and created for the sites, by the sites.
In 2023, the first version of the tool was launched in Excel for all production sites. User feedback quickly highlighted the need for a more efficient solution. This led to the development and digitization of the tool in MyPages, creating a more streamlined and user-friendly platform.
Since 2024, the Sustainability Assessment Tool has supported sites in tracking progress toward Seco’s global sustainability goals. It addresses key challenges such as understanding current sustainability performance, setting improvement priorities, monitoring progress over time and enabling the sharing of best practices across locations. The tool is mobil
e-compatible and allows users to create action plans focused on key development areas. It also provides a clear overview of each site’s progress across social, environmental and strategic aspects of sustainability.
Seco has also initiated work to explore an externally adapted version of the tool for stakeholders and customers who may find this approach valuable. For more information, please contact:
Adrian Cox, Head of Global Quality Assurance, adrian.cox@secotools.com
Shaelyn Meyers, Sustainability and Environmental Specialist, shaelyn.meyers@secotools.com
Tove Jensen, Sustainability & EHS Coordinator, tove.jensen@secotools.com
For the latest innovations and cutting-edge products, visit secotools.com.
About Seco
With its origins in Fagersta, Sweden and presence in more than 75 countries, Seco is a leading global provider of metal cutting solutions for indexable milling, solid milling, turning, holemaking, threading and tooling systems. For nearly 100 years, Seco has driven excellence throughout the entire manufacturing journey, ensuring high-precision machining and high-quality output.
