19 years in motion

NET was registered 31 January 2007. The world looked different then. The financial crisis was just around the corner, globalization still bore the mark of optimism, and concepts such as resilience, preparedness and security of supply rarely featured in public debate.

Like many businesses, we started with a good idea, expertise and no money in the bank. Our experience came particularly from the plastics industry and the industrial community around Statoil and Borealis in Bamble. This gave us a thorough understanding of material properties, production processes and how quality is achieved in practice.

Since then, both the world and our field have changed dramatically. The last 19 years have been characterized by terror, financial crises, pandemics, war in Europe and increasing geopolitical tension. At the same time, the transport of dangerous goods has gone from being a niche field to becoming a central part of society's infrastructure.

It's no longer just about spare petrol cans in the boot of a car. It is about batteries, chemicals, medicines and ammunition boxes that support national and international preparedness.

In this landscape, packaging has taken on a new and clearer role. Not as a consumer good, but as a critical interface between risk and control. Between accidents and safe transport. Between loss and reuse.

Plastic has acquired a poor reputation, often for good reason. But there is an important distinction between single-use products and carefully designed, durable packaging. Reuse depends on packaging that can withstand stress, time and repeated use. In this context, quality is not an environmental problem: it is a prerequisite for sustainability.

NET has grown in step with this realization. From nothing in 2007 to becoming a Nordic leader in dangerous goods packaging. Not through quick shortcuts, but through professionalism, independence and respect for the role of regulations in an increasingly complex world.

19 may still be youth in an institutional context. But it is also long enough to know who you are and what you stand for.

We enter our last year as teenagers, issuing our 1000th UN certificate, in a world that reminds us again why understanding materials, quality and integrity matter. That brings responsibility – and motivation.