Celebrating Ten Years of Trust
Letter from Guntars Lagūns, Managing Director
Not sure if many have noticed, but it is ten years since ASI was established. At that time, our shareholder understood that keeping assurance processes in-house is not in line with their strategy, as their core competence is standard setting and promotion of responsible forest management. With this decision, a new highly-specialized organization, ASI, was established, with a small team and only one accreditation program.
Over the last ten years, our organization became a key partner for prominent global social and environmental initiatives. We are proud to be a prime choice for sustainability leaders seeking credible assurance that their certification system or similar initiative is being implemented consistently around the world. We now work with seven such initiatives, and are sure of our capacity to keep growing.
ASI has established a global network of assessors and experts, growing from a modest team of five (back when I joined the organization) to close to 50 – a tenfold increase over ten years. Today, our team and growing portfolio of services accommodate the demands of our customers and their stakeholders, offering innovative, collaborative solutions to global challenges in the sustainability landscape.
In November, we opened the ASI Asia Regional Office in Kuala Lumpur, to ensure our presence and availability when our expertise is urgently needed. This is our first office outside of Germany and we invite you to come around and visit the team: you are always welcome. This global expansion of ASI will continue, and we look forward to establishing our presence in other regions.
While beginning another decade at ASI, we still feel like a start-up company. This may sound a bit strange in this seemingly regulated and strict assurance industry. However, as the saying goes, it is not how old you are, but instead how old you feel. We are agile. We want to learn. We are open for growth. This desire to innovate combined with the established expertise of our people and effectiveness of our customized assurance solutions is what makes ASI special and we are proud of it.
Therefore, 2016 is special. To celebrate our Tenth Anniversary, we will develop the organization further while enjoying our youth and following our beliefs: that we can change the world and make it better. I invite all our stakeholders and customers to join our celebration and, indeed, help us to make the world better place.
Sincerely yours,
Guntars Lagūns
MD
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