Who am I?
Most of my free time is spent being a good dad and being involved with my children and their interests. I also spend a lot of time in the forest, orienteering, hunting and skiing. These are hobbies that I share with many of my Holmen colleagues, but do I do anything that stands out? I’m cutting my carbon emissions and I’ve more than halved my carbon footprint in two years but I haven’t hit my target yet. It’s high on the agenda in our family and we’ve changed the important aspects such as travel, food, housing and use of resources, all without losing out on quality of life.
My Department
At Forest and Land, Västernorrland Jämtland we manage approximately 400 000 hectares of forest land, which is an area bigger than the county of Blekinge. Our job is to manage this forest in the best way, thinning and harvesting at the right time. We also have to manage the forest so that it’s sustainable in the long term, facilitating biodiversity, and this is my particular area. I support colleagues in making good nature conservation decisions, take responsibility for nature conservation and make sure that we set aside forests to preserve and develop their high conservation value.
A working day
Today I was running a forest training course. 150 people are spending 6 days learning about the natural and cultural environments in the forest. It’s about why we manage the forest the way we do, but also about how we make our nature conservation decisions. I’m an accredited trainer but I’m not a teacher and all the preparation has taken a lot of time and energy. Have I thought of everything? Will these training days be good and will people learn a lot?
At the end of the second day, I had some heart-warming feedback: ‘Kristoffer, you did this really well, you were well prepared, you explained things so we learned from them, and we saw interesting things.’ I’ve heard that the best feedback is feedback you ask for but I think spontaneous feedback is even better. This is something we have been working on at Holmen for many years now, being better at giving and receiving feedback. Creating a feedback culture.
Am I needy for confirmation? Yes!
Why Holmen?
So how does cutting my carbon emissions tie in with working at Holmen? If I want to live sustainably, I also want to learn sustainably. If I look at our assignments at Holmen Forest, i.e. growing forest effectively and sustainably, I’m in the right company. The sun sends its rays down into the soil, green needles and leaves turn carbon dioxide into biobased products. It feels right to keep that in mind every day at work. And getting to recharge my batteries in the forest when I'm out in the field consulting with other actors or with friendly colleagues, is important to me.
Not that I don’t have to make difficult decisions though. Sometimes I have a great deal of responsibility for measures that may have major financial consequences. This is why I have a job, of course. If everything was easy and went well all the time, there would be no need for my job. Feeling that the decision I made is the right one, even though it often feels difficult, solving problems and tackling challenges is fun and gives added value in my job.
Conclusion
In conclusion I’d like to say thank you for reading and thank you for asking me to write this blog. At the moment the sun is shining so it’s going to be a good day to get a bit of fieldwork done! Goodbye!