Hi, welcome back to the Tobii Dynavox podcast. I'm Tricia Pepper from the company's marketing team, and today I'm reuniting after one year with Mikael Bäckström, our Chief People and Sustainability Officer, and we're going to talk about, wait for it, people and sustainability. Hey, Mikael. Hello, Tricia. It's almost exactly a year ago since our last sit-down, if you can believe it, when you had just recently joined Tobii Dynavox. Yeah, time flies when you're having fun. It certainly does around here because there's always so much happening and so much progress. For listeners who didn't join us for our podcast a year ago, or for those who just want a recap, can you tell us briefly about what Tobii Dynavox does and what this company focuses on in terms of sustainability? Let's start by tackling the first part of your question. Tobii Dynavox is the global market leader in assistive communication. What that means is that we make solutions that empower people with disabilities to communicate. We're talking about people with conditions such as cerebral palsy, ALS, and autism, right? Or anyone who cannot use their voice, and in many cases cannot use their hands either. Our solutions can be accessed by both eye gaze and touch. Yes, there's so much that can be done with this type of access. We have the privilege of getting to tell the stories of the types of people who use our products, and they're always so powerful. For example, there's a German man named Marco, who's living with ALS and has lost the use of his hands and his voice. He used one of our devices to write a storybook to leave to his daughters after he passes. Believe it or not, the book went on to sell thousands of copies. Exactly. Our solution don't just enable people to speak. They allow much broader forms of communication, too, and they help people with disabilities to live richer lives. When you talk about solutions here, you're not just talking about hardware, are you? No, our solutions include everything from, our purpose-built devices and software to complete language systems, to expert, help on getting funding to pay for these devices, to training and support on how to use the devices, and more. What you're saying is full-service assistive communication solutions. Why is that so important? Well, if we just sold devices, it wouldn't help our customers to be successful in the long run. Right. Because unless you have the right support, it can be complicated to get a device funded, and people need expert guidance with this process, don't they? Yeah. Once they get their device, they need help to get used to it and get the most out of it. Again, we have professionals who are trained to teach and support our customers. Ultimately, with assistive communication, these are the kinds of services needed to be successful over time. There are so many more success stories like Marco's, and I think we could do a podcast just about people like him. Maybe in the interest of time, it's time to move on to today's topic. Yeah, let's get back to sustainability. Can you tell us what is unique about Tobii Dynavox with respect to sustainability? I'm glad you asked that, Tricia, because we recently published our annual sustainability report, and I'm excited to be on this podcast to talk about the high-level takeaways. Yep, everyone loves a high-level summary, myself included. Just to let our listeners who want a deeper dive with all the facts and figures know, a full report can be found on investors.tobiidynavox.com. Mike, what's the first high-level takeaway from the report? Well, it's hard to pick a place to start because sustainability is a meaty topic, and our business engages with it on many different levels. Why don't we zoom out then and look at the big picture first? Why is sustainability so important to Tobii Dynavox? Okay. ESG, which, as most people know, stands for environmental and social sustainability, as well as governance, is, for many companies, just a box that needs to be ticked to secure investments, which is why there is a growing cynicism about it. Yes, that there is, but it's actually the core of what we do. Right. We are the S, or the social sustainability in ESG. Our entire business, our mission, in fact, is based on social sustainability and the promise of helping vulnerable and marginalized people to take part in society. Yeah, of course, because communication is central to being part of society. Yeah, assistive communication is about more than just basic communication. It's about having a richer life. It's about doing what you once did or never thought possible. Yeah, that's our mission. Yes, it is. That is the big picture you just described to us about business and social sustainability. Why don't we start zooming in now a little bit on the other areas of sustainability that are important to us? Can you talk to us a bit about our environmental footprint? I'm not claiming that we're moving mountains here, but since last year, we have made small, consistent, meaningful changes that add up. It makes an impact and align with our goals. Can you give me a few examples? For starters, we made changes to the way we're shipping our devices. Compared to last year, we ship more by surface rather than air. How has that affected the wait times of our customers? You know, it's one thing to have to wait a bit longer to receive a T-shirt that you've ordered online, but when you're waiting for a voice, the stakes are obviously a lot higher. We are always thinking about getting our solutions to our customers in a timely manner. While we need to balance the need to reduce our environmental footprint, what that means is to build up just the right amount of inventory. Going forward, we'll invest more in this kind of business intelligence to help us plan better and ship earlier. Like you said earlier, small steps that are adding up. Do you have any other juicy nuggets to share about progress on our environmental footprint? Yeah, we have made, and we'll continue to make changes to our packaging. I've seen our packages. I've seen them packaged up and ready for delivery, and some of them are rather large, aren't they? Yeah, naturally, because some of our devices are quite large. Take our flagship product, for example. It's a purpose-built computer that a person can mount on a wheelchair and control completely with their eyes. Sure, for what it is and what it does, it's pretty light and sleek. Yeah, given it's very sophisticated piece of technology, it needs careful packaging. That definitely makes sense because, of course, if it breaks, the customer is without a voice for even longer. Yeah, we have started this year to reduce the amount of plastic in the packaging and produce smaller boxes, and that reduces our footprint overall, and we'll continue to make such improvements. It's not just about shipping and packaging, is it? We're paying really close attention to designing our products for durability and allowing repairs when they do show wear and tear, so they can be used for as long as possible. Right. We build products that are meant to last for as long as possible, even though they are used for many people all day long, even if they're dropped, or even if they get wet outdoors. Can you tell us about the next highlight from the sustainability report? I'm dying to talk about workplace sustainability, well, which is, of course, naturally near and dear to my heart, working in HR. For sure, and since I work in this workplace, it's important for me, too, so why don't we take a dive in? What has made us a more sustainable employer since we last met? We're constantly working to strengthen diversity. We are already a workplace with employees from all over the world. We have a rather even spread of gender and ages, for example, across all levels of the company. Don't forget, we have several people with disabilities employed across the company, too. Yeah. Representation matters to us because our customers are all over the world, so it helps us better understand the people who use our product. That's very true. I have the good fortune to work with one of those people. I'm referring here to Victor, as you know, a very sociable, highly engaged young man with cerebral palsy, who works on our customer support team. At any time, if one of our customers calls our support team with a question, they might get Victor troubleshooting with them, usually without even knowing that he's a 24/7 user of our devices. If anyone is interested, Reuters just did a great story and documentary about him. All you have to do is search reuters.com for Tobii Dynavox or The Power of a Voice, which is the name of the documentary. Well worth watching. Guaranteed to be the best seven minutes of your day. That's so true. You mentioned that representation matters for us to be a more sustainable employer. Does it matter also from a product development point of view? Most definitely. For example, we have the largest library in the world, of what are known as PCS or Picture Communication Symbols. Maybe we can take a pause here to let our listeners know that PCS are visual symbols that help people who cannot read to express themselves, and naturally, they are found in our own proprietary software. Yeah, also in some big tech software. Right. There are millions of people around the world who use PCS as part of Microsoft products, for example. Exactly, we invest a lot in PCS. This year, for example, we have not only added more to our library, but we also added them to be representative of more languages and cultures. We now have over 50,000 PCS, that can be used in over 20 languages, and we'll continue to add more. It's actually a really impressive library. Mm-hmm. Representation is also more than just language and culture, though, right? That's why it's also very important to us to make sure that all our customers can see themselves, represented in our symbols. Since last year, it's now possible to customize symbol features, such as skin and hair color. Right, of course, when we talk about creating more sustainable products with respect to representation, that means that we try to make products that meet the needs of as wide a spectrum of disabilities as possible, too. Isn't that right? Yeah. For example, in the past year, we added a couple of new products to our offering, including a device geared towards non-speaking autistic kids and older people with aphasia, because it's small and light and can be carried around in a pocket or a small bag. Right, that's true. Not to mention the new custom synthetic voices created through our subsidiary, Acapela, which was developed for people with ALS or those who know that they will lose their voice soon. Yeah, that one, and then enables them to rather easily create a synthetic voice that mimics their natural one. They will be able to talk and sound like themselves after their voice is gone. Like you said earlier, so much progress, especially on the sustainability front. Yes, what we discussed here is just the tip of the iceberg. As you mentioned, this is just a high-level summary. Right. The full details, including our ESG strategy and contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, are outlined in the sustainability report that you mentioned earlier. It was just recently published, along with our annual report. I have one last question for you. Big picture, what, if any, are the challenges ahead for Tobii Dynavox to remain a sustainable business? I think besides Tobii Dynavox, it's all over the industry, the biggest challenge that I can see is building awareness among those making healthcare policy decisions, as well as clinicians. Having the ability to communicate should be a basic human right. It's a contributor to good overall health and well-being, and it's just sound economics. When people with disabilities are included in schools, in workplaces, and out in communities, there is a net gain to society. That's so true, Mike. Thank you so much for coming to talk to us today. Thank you. Again, if our listeners are interested in learning more about our sustainability report, we encourage you to head over to investors.tobiidynavox.com.