Is Nord an ethical manufacturer?

[mitya]

Hi, all

I contacted Nord via the Feedback form some weeks ago (it was the only way I could find to e-mail them, rather than my local distributor) to ask whether, as a company, they manufacture ethically and generally have ethics policies in place. I never heard back.

There's nothing at all about any of this (that I could find) on nordkeyboards.com - not even a Modern Slavery policy, which is pretty poor, never mind information on supply chain management, conditions/pay for those who ultimately make the machines and their parts etc. How about toxic chemicals policies, recycling etc?

This is important to me as someone looking to buy a stage piano, and I know it's important to a lot of other potential customers too.

So does anyone know if Nord has any content on this that I somehow didn't find?

Many thanks

[DJKeys]

I believe that Nord's only responsibility is to make great instruments for musicians.



-dj

[FZiegler]

I'm interested in sustainable production, too. But I don't see there would be something like a Fairphone in the music business. And if there were, it would be something like a Nord because of the not so bad possibilities to get something repaired.

Did you ask the same question to Roland, Yamaha, Kawai or Kurzweil? What was their answer? I don't think, Nord is in the position to run an environmental certification process - neither of their Swedish production nor for their supply chain. Too small, even if they might sell fairly well at the moment.

[analogika]

FWIW, I'm 99.9999% sure they don't do testing on animals.

[catosim]

Almost impossible to answer on their behalf, but as a Scandinavian firm I believe they in general have high etic standards.
I also believe much of the instrument-assembly is done in Sweden, and the conditions for all Skandinavian workers are in general very good.
As for for the supply-chain from other countries, it would be just speculations.

[analogika]

I found a bit of history on Nord's website - see the link. It includes a brief description of Nord's factory in Stockholm and staff and subcontractor/supplier approach. It appears that Nord manufactures as much of of there products possible is manufactured and built, by hand, in Sweden. Probably, aside from the commodity electronic components and the keyboard assemblies, everything in the products is built by Swedes, who, based on the price of Nord's products, are fairly paid for their efforts. Commodity components such as fasteners and, especially electronic parts are likely to be manufactured in other countries where workers may be underpaid or unfairly treated, but that will be true of any electronic instrument maker. Sweden and Stockholm's environmental regulations and laws likely constrain Nord's impact on the environment. After thinking about all this and noticing that most of my other keyboards are made in China, I feel more comfortable, rather than less, about buying a Nord. If the leaders of Nord are spending money and attention local production and product improvement rather than hiring a VP of Ethics, I'm comfortable with that, too. https://www.nordkeyboards.com/about-us/company-history

[deenigewouter]

The keyboards are built like tanks, no cheap plastic shells here. And unlike most current consumer tech, there is no planned obsolesce. They are also fairly easy to repair, the shop where I bought mine do repairs themselves. Do they have an impact on the environment? Definitely, but way less than manufacturers that built stuff that lasts for years instead of companies that design their products to fail. I haven't heard of workers that built parts for Clavia going on strike yet. Unlike another company that sells boatloads of gear for cheap, and allegedly exposed their workers to formaldehyde three to ten times the recommended safe level.

”There was a fellow who set his Nord Electro on top of the roof of his minivan while loading speakers/amps, forgot it was there and headed on down the highway. Not even a gig bag to cover it. When he got up to highway speed he heard it come crashing off. Keyboard was a real mess, with the bottom octave and a half completely destroyed, all the front panel knobs ground away to varying extent, just a few with bent pot stems, some end cheek damage, but the instrument powered up and played just fine.” ~ source

I passionately dislike companies that use societal issues as part of their marketing. "Buy from us, we're against racisms and our contractors in South-east Asia are compensated fairly (please don't look at our contractor's subcontractors though)". Many claims and certifications that companies flaunt with are often hollow and occasionally borderline BS. I prefer Claviá's current course, they seem pretty passionate about creating quality gear instead of churning them out on a factory line with lackluster quality control. But yeah, they could put a small statement on the origin of their parts.

[cphollis]

Is Nord an ethical manufacturer? Yes.

[Elias]

I passionately dislike companies that use societal issues as part of their marketing. "Buy from us, we're against racisms and our contractors in South-east Asia are compensated fairly (please don't look at our contractor's subcontractors though)". Many claims and certifications that companies flaunt with are often hollow and occasionally borderline BS. I prefer Claviá's current course, they seem pretty passionate about creating quality gear instead of churning them out on a factory line with lackluster quality control. But yeah, they could put a small statement on the origin of their parts.

Exactly, the Wokenomics scam-

-dj

[JayDee]

Designed and manufactured in Scandinavia. In general, those standards would be higher than ours (US)