Transparency and trust in critical infrastructure

Client

Sysav is a leading waste management company that receives, processes and recycles waste from households and industries. Currently, over 98% of all waste that reaches Sysav is recycled. Sysav is also an important sustainability actor that works for a society with circular flows, sustainable production and consumption, where unnecessary waste is not created. The company runs communicative campaigns with a focus on everything from correct sorting to lowered consumption. They organise study visits for schools and visitors from around the world, refines and develops new technologies - most recently a textile sorting facility that is the first of its kind in the world - and much more. The vision is to create the world's most sustainable region for this and future generations together with its customers, partners and the residents of the 14 owner municipalities in southwest Skåne.

Background

While most of the waste that arrives at Sysav is recycled, they also have a waste incineration plant – something that is both critical for society and environmentally impactful. Sysav’s waste incineration plant in Malmö is actually the city’s largest single source of CO₂ emissions. In addition to residual waste from Skåne, large amounts of imported waste from Europe are also incinerated. Thanks to this, the combined heat and power plant at Spillepengen can produce much-needed district heating while at the same time treating European waste in a good and safe way. It is not common in the rest of the world for waste incineration plants to be located so close to a city center. The location would hardly have been possible if it were not for the fact that Sweden's inhabitants have such great trust in public institutions (which also includes municipal companies like Sysav).

Historically, Sysav has worked with a high degree of openness as a way of building trust and legitimacy. Study visits, insight into processes and transparent communication have been central parts of their work. Sysav is now facing a possible security classification. This could mean that parts of the operations can no longer be publicly displayed in the same way as before. Study visits may need to be limited or stopped, and more information may be subject to confidentiality. This creates a potential conflict between two important values: security and transparency.