Resource use and circular economy

Management of impacts, risks, and opportunities

Description of the process for identifying and assessing material impacts, risks, and opportunities related to resource use and the circular economy
The conducted materiality analysis included a comprehensive review of the group's inflows and outflows of resources, as well as waste generation throughout the value chain. The analysis involved mapping the product categories sold by the companies and their role as either distributors or producers.

Furthermore, the analysis assessed negative impacts within the value chain, focusing on the materials contained in identified product groups. The process was carried out through interviews with internal stakeholders. However, AddLife has not conducted consultations with affected local communities within the scope of this analysis.

The entire business is dependent on a stable inflow of key materials, including metals, minerals, plastics, chemical compounds, textiles, and ceramics. These resources are essential for the group's distribution and production, though the group's overall consumption of these materials is relatively low compared to other industries such as the construction sector. 
AddLife efficiently manages the group's inventory, ensuring that products from suppliers are quickly distributed to customers, thereby optimizing cash flow. As a result, nearly the entire resource inflow is converted into outflow, although some products are discarded.

However, the consumables provided by AddLife, often single-use products, significantly contribute to waste generation. The healthcare sector, which is a primary market for these products, is not among the most waste-intensive industries, but the environmental impact of such waste is still considered significant.

As consumables represent a substantial portion of AddLife's revenue, the group is sensitive to measures implemented by the EU to achieve the goals of the Green Deal, particularly regarding decoupling resource consumption from economic growth.

To ensure the long-term sustainability of the group's operations, AddLife needs to reduce dependency on revenue from disposable products and identify new business models. One opportunity is to develop circular business solutions that help the group's customers reduce material use and waste generation, which in turn could generate new revenue streams.

Circular services within the medtech sector generally have strong margins, but the market is currently relatively small in the short and medium term. In the long term, however, demand is expected to grow, in line with EU initiatives for a circular economy gaining momentum.

The transition to circular business models must be undertaken in collaboration with AddLife’s customers, which poses a challenge as public procurement currently neither promotes nor enables circular business models to any significant extent. Resource use is primarily concentrated in the early stages of the value chain, where extraction and processing of materials require large amounts of resources before products are subsequently sold to the healthcare sector, elderly care, and research institutions. Similarly, the negative environmental impacts of resource consumption are most significant in these early stages of the value chain.

This concentration of resource use also poses a financial risk, particularly in the form of increasing material costs, further underscoring the need for strategic measures to address these challenges.

Policies for resource use and circular economy
AddLife’s Code of Conduct currently addresses environmental issues from a broad perspective but does not include specific aspects such as the transition from primary resources to secondary, recycled, or renewable resources. However, several of AddLife’s subsidiaries have their own policies regulating resource consumption and circular economy.

So far, AddLife has not prioritized active management of its subsidiaries' resource consumption and circular initiatives, as these areas have not had sufficient strategic significance for the group's business model. However, AddLife recognizes the growing importance of resource efficiency and circular economy and is therefore working to integrate these aspects into the group's sustainability strategy, in line with evolving market expectations and regulatory requirements.

AddLife also clearly sees that a more resource-efficient operation will contribute to achieving the group's future climate goals, given that a significant portion of the group's emissions originates from resource use in the supply chain. Based on this, AddLife plans to update both its group-wide Code of Conduct for all employees and the Supplier Code of Conduct in 2025 to include guidelines for resource use and circular economy.

Measures and resources for resource use and circular economy
AddLife currently does not have a group-wide action plan for resource use and circular economy, for the same reason that the group lacks a group-wide policy (see above). However, AddLife recognizes that this area will become an important part of the group’s efforts to reduce its climate impact and therefore plans to integrate it into the group’s future transition plan.

AddLife’s subsidiaries are aware of the importance of optimizing resource use. However, the ability to change material use is limited by strict regulations and the need to ensure product efficiency and safety.

As part of their environmental management systems or equivalent, the subsidiaries undertake various initiatives to reduce resource use. These efforts have primarily focused on reducing the amount of packaging material, minimizing production waste, reducing the disposal of expired products, and ensuring proper waste management.

For electronic products, which often have a long lifespan, service agreements are in place in many cases to further extend the product's usage time. However, the ability to influence the design of these products is limited, as this is determined by the suppliers.

Since 2015, HC21, one of AddLife’s subsidiaries, has been operating one of the first large-scale centers for the decontamination and reuse of healthcare products. The company delivers products and solutions for primary care and home healthcare that promote independence for the elderly and people with disabilities. The team handles everything from electric beds and powered wheelchairs to lifting devices, toilet aids, and pressure-relieving mattresses and cushions. This is a clear example of a circular business model within the group that extends product lifespan and reduces resource consumption.

Measurements and targets

Objectives for resource use and circular economy
AddLife currently has no group-wide objectives for resource use and circular economy. During 2025 and 2026, AddLife plans to include this issue in the group’s sustainability strategy, with the goal of developing common group objectives for increased resource efficiency and circular economy.

Some subsidiaries have their own objectives for resource use and circular economy, adapted to their specific operations. However, at the group level, there is currently no tracking of these initiatives. Nevertheless, subsidiaries, where relevant, monitor their efforts within the framework of their environmental management systems or equivalent processes.

Resource inflows
AddLife’s products can be broadly categorized as follows: electronic products, plastic products, metal products, textile products, ceramic products, biological materials, and chemical products. Packaging materials mainly consist of plastic and cardboard. At present, AddLife lacks data on the group’s resource inflows. Collecting this information is a complex task given the group’s extensive product portfolio, which includes approximately 18 million unique products. During 2025, AddLife plans to develop a method for estimating resource inflows to the group’s subsidiaries. This method will be further developed and refined in the coming years.

Resource outflows
For the products distributed by AddLife, the group’s subsidiaries rely on suppliers to determine the expected lifespan of instruments. Suppliers provide a lifecycle plan for the instruments, including maintenance schedules, which often follow industry standards. However, the group’s subsidiaries may establish their own lifespan expectations in their service agreements, sometimes deviating from those of the suppliers to ensure high service quality.

The repairability of the group’s products varies significantly. Smaller products are often non-repairable and replaced when defective, whereas larger products allow for extensive repairs using spare parts from the supplier.

At present, AddLife lacks data on the proportion of recycled materials in the group’s products and packaging materials, but is working on developing a solution for this in 2025. Many subsidiaries actively work to reduce packaging waste, although this is challenging due to the need for temperature-controlled shipping for certain products. The group’s subsidiaries also attempt to influence suppliers to reduce excessive packaging, but changes require validation to ensure product safety during transport, which presents a challenge. The same applies to the increased use of recycled materials in products, as this may require products to undergo regulatory approval processes again to obtain market authorization in Europe, which is a complex process.

Waste
In 2024, AddLife generated a total of 878 tons of waste, of which 618 tons were diverted from disposal through recycling. Of the recycled waste, 255 tons were hazardous and 363 tons non-hazardous. None of the waste was sent for preparation for reuse or other recovery methods beyond recycling. AddLife had no radioactive waste in 2024.

A total of 260 tons of waste were sent for final disposal, of which 24 tons were hazardous and 236 tons non-hazardous. The majority of hazardous waste was managed through incineration (21 tons), while a smaller portion was sent to landfill (3 tons). For non-hazardous waste, 101 tons were incinerated and 135 tons were landfilled.
The proportion of the group's total waste that was not recycled amounts to 30 percent.

AddLife’s waste reporting is based on data collected through the group’s sustainability system, where subsidiaries report their waste volumes. Primary data sources include invoices from waste management providers and records in internal systems such as financial systems or ERP systems. In some cases, data is estimated based on the value of discarded products.

Disposal methods have either been reported by the group’s waste management providers or estimated based on national statistics for each respective country. AddLife only discloses waste categories relevant to its operations.

Currently, the data quality is assessed as low, and AddLife will actively work to improve both the coverage and accuracy of the group’s future waste reporting. The group’s calculations have not been validated by an external party.

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The waste generated within AddLife primarily consists of products that must be discarded once they pass their expiration date and can no longer be guaranteed as effective or sterile. The group’s operations also generate household waste, but the volumes are considered insignificant. The waste largely consists of the same materials as the input resources described above, including electronic waste, plastic waste, metal scrap, textile waste, ceramic waste, biological waste, and chemical waste.