Karin Gäbel appointed Sustainability Manager for Thomas Concrete Group
Gothenburg, December 20th 2019
Karin Gäbel, currently responsible for the sustainability team at the consulting company AFRY (ÅF Pöyry) in Gothenburg, has been appointed Sustainability Manager for Thomas Concrete Group. In this newly created position, she will report directly to the company's President and CEO, Hans Karlander.
Karin Gäbel has wide experience within the raw materials industry, including spells as: Head of Communications for Heidelberg Cement in Northern Europe; Secretary General of the European Expanded Clay Association in Brussels; Environmental Manager at Heidelberg Cement in Brussels, and in the corresponding position for Cementa, Stockholm.
Thomas Concrete Group will now have its first Sustainability Manager, enabling the Group to take a firm grasp on all related issues throughout its operations. Under Karin Gäbel's leadership, the Group will enhance sustainability work that has been on-going for many years. This includes milestones such as when the company launched concrete products in 2012 on the Swedish market with a significantly lower climate impact, as well as the introduction of CarbonCure technology, which was rolled out in the US from 2016. The technology allows carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to be mixed into the concrete, further optimizing the properties of the concrete while reducing its carbon footprint.
Thomas Concrete’s rapid growth underscores the need for a Group-wide sustainability manager. In the last five years alone, the Group has acquired some 40 factories in the USA, Germany, Poland and Sweden. Earlier this year, in Germany, a larger raw material business was also acquired with the aim of creating a safer and more sustainable supply of raw materials and enabling even better customer service.
“Sustainability issues are of great and growing importance for the Group's continued development,” says Hans Karlander, President and CEO of Thomas Concrete Group. “We have been working on these issues for many years. While concrete has always been a very sustainable building material, we feel a genuine responsibility to do even more to develop the entire Group from a sustainability perspective.
“Karin Gäbel is highly qualified in both sustainability work and communications, which is an optimal combination for us. I greatly look forward to working with Karin in the Group's continued development.”
Karin Gäbel will take up her role as Sustainability Manager for the Thomas Concrete Group on February 17, 2020. She will be based at head office on Södra Vägen in Gothenburg.
For further information contact:
Hans Karlander, President and CEO Thomas Concrete Group AB
hans.karlander@thomasconcretegroup.com | Phone: +46 10 450 50 00
About Thomas Concrete Group AB
The Thomas Concrete Group is a Swedish family-owned business which produces and distributes high-quality concrete for site-cast construction. The company was established in 1955 in Karlstad, Sweden, by Martin Thomas and today operates in the USA, Poland, Germany, Norway and Sweden. The head office is in Gothenburg. The Group has 2,150 employees and produced 5.3 million cubic meters of concrete last year, with sales in excess of SEK 6.6 billion.
www.thomasconcretegroup.com
