Congratulations David Ekelund, Founder of ICEBUG. You are in the finals for the Award Founder of the Year!

ICEBUG is a footwear brand specializing in traction technologies and striving to lead in transforming a necessary but dirty industry. Making better footwear for people that want to get outdoors every day.

 

The company is headquartered in Jonsered, Sweden with subsidiaries in Norway, USA and Germany. Additionally the brand is sold in Finland, Baltic states, Russia until recently, Denmark, Austria, Benelux, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Canada, Spain, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong.

 

2 quick questions to david

 

WHAT ARE YOUR DRIVING FORCES? 

Uniting business development, sustainable transformation and living a good life (for me and others).

 
HOW DOES YOUR COMPANY WORK WITH SUSTAINABILITY?

What I can say is that our vision is to be a change maker towards a society where people can thrive, on a planet in balance. And our business is a means to make that change (growth and value don't have a value in themselves), but as a tool to make change and distribute value).

Our commitment is that when there is a conflict between what's good for ICEBUG short term and what's good for the planet long term, we prioritize the planet. 

An example of a "planet decision" that we made during this fall was not to fly covid lockdown delayed products so that they would catch the season, because air freight causes at least 20 times more CO2 emissions than sea freight. That cost us about 10% additional sales we could have made.

We were still stuck by the orders, and also took our share in helping our main factory in Vietnam to pay salaries to workers in lock down not being able to work.

 

The finalists were vetted out through Founders Index based on historic performance, future potential and societal value.

Now the jury will decide the gold and silver winners of Founder of the Year Medium Size Companies 2022 that will be awarded at the Founders Awards Gala at Stockholm City Hall on September 22.