When documentation and data make a difference

“We want to be the world’s best deposit system”

Senior Consultant Pia Kjær Øulée explains that Dansk Retursystem works with four central CSR objectives, which support the company’s strategic goals and extend over a five-year period.

The focus areas are:

1. Ensuring high quality in recycling, thereby creating a circular, closed loop for beverage containers.
2. Reducing CO₂ emissions and contributing to less litter in nature, meaning fewer bottles and cans in the environment.
3. Promoting well-being and diversity within the organisation.
4. Increasing safety for all employees.

“Our mission is to ensure circular economy in beverage containers, and our vision is to be the world’s best deposit system,” explains Pia Kjær Øulée.

These ambitious objectives set high demands. Many initiatives must succeed, and it is about being able to document, report, and train employees.

A platform for documentation and shared responsibility

“All our employees play an active role in delivering on the sustainability agenda,” says Pia Kjær Øulée.

“To sum it all up, it is extremely important that relevant knowledge can easily be shared in D4InfoNet, where employees register and report data, knowledge, and experiences from their daily work. It is highly effective, especially when it can be done at the very edge of the organisation.”

Two tools are particularly central to the solution:

• In the Documentation Management tool, a structure has been established to ensure that policies and procedures are described at all levels. This ensures delivery of high quality – for example, in the recycling of beverage containers. Which documents each employee must be trained in depends on department, position, or function – and is managed automatically.
• The tool for Registration and Process Management is used for many different purposes, including handling improvement proposals, audits, deviations, and checklists for training and onboarding.

Stronger systematics lead to better results

In 2024, 99.7% of all collected bottles and cans were recycled into new bottles and cans in a closed loop. This result requires systematics, documentation, and knowledge sharing across the entire organisation.

“An important CSR objective is to increase safety for all employees. This includes a strategic goal of zero workplace accidents. It is ambitious, and we are not there yet, but it has strong focus,” explains Pia Kjær Øulée.

“Our health and safety organisation is a very good example of how the model works in practice. We use D4InfoNet to ensure that everyone knows how to carry out tasks in a way that is correct from a safety perspective,” she adds.

More observations, fewer accidents

In the registration and process management tool, tasks such as workplace accidents, workplace assessments (APV), safety inspections, and health and safety meeting minutes are handled. “Especially risk observations have proved to be an important tool for all employees. In that way, their knowledge is shared, and we can prevent incidents,” explains Pia Kjær Øulée.

“To be ahead of potential accidents, we have chosen not only to talk about near misses, but about risk observations. We work with three categories: unsafe situation, unsafe behaviour, and near miss. This creates a stronger focus on safety. On average, we register 50 risk observations per week.”

”We can see a correlation between how many risk observations are registered and how many workplace accidents are recorded. The more risk observations, the fewer accidents. In that way, the forms we have built in the D4InfoNet platform truly work in practice”, fortæller Pia Kjær Øulée.

Video increases quality in training and safety

“The latest feature we have adopted is the ability to embed videos in instructions. It is an excellent supplement to written instructions, and drivers and production staff have welcomed it very positively.”

“One of the reasons we chose D4InfoNet was the possibility of including videos and video guides within the relevant procedures.”