New partner

Apurgo new silver partner to the Ingeborg network

– We first became aware of the Ingeborg network during VVS dagene in 2019.

– “Their stand was always full and we saw countless ladies wearing pink t-shirts and being visible everywhere,” says Lise Marie Nergaard, General Manager of Apurgo AS.

– We have been following the network behind the scenes for a long time and our colleague Iren e B. Ytterdal Larsen has had a dialog with
the local team in Trondheim since before the corona.

The members of the Ingeborg network are forward-thinking and prepared for the future, which is why now is the right time for us to step in as a partner.

Lise Marie Nergaard, Lene K. Vaagan, Irene B. Ytterdal-Larsen and Heidi Fossland. Photo: Apurgo

Everything has escalated around the Ingeborg network after the pandemic. Activity, media coverage, the membership agreement, the number of partners and their activity in collaboration with the network.

– We look forward to being part of this great company,” says Lene K. Vaagan, Administration and Marketing Manager at Apurgo AS.

Apurgo works with the hottest topics in the Norwegian pipe industry today – energy efficiency and water quality.

– In a more or less conservative industry, you have to work to change the way things are done. We hope this is one of the reasons why Apurgo has looked in the Ingeborg network’s direction, to contribute to change,” says manager Eli H. Heyerdahl Eide.

– Apurgo is committed to sustainability and complies with the desire for good gender balance in its own company. Equal pay for equal work is a matter of course for Apurgo, something we hope others in the pipe industry will be inspired by. Because even though we’re an industry at the forefront, incredibly we’re still not at the point where all women receive the same salary as their male colleagues – for the same job. That’s why we think it’s great that our new silver partner Apurgo is focusing on the challenge so that more people become more aware of the issue.

– We encourage Apurgo and other partners to join the network and contribute with talks and activities that bring together and promote the industry’s women – we believe this will benefit us all,” concludes Eide.

Lene K. Vaagan, Irene B. Ytterdal-Larsen, Lise Marie Nergaard and Heidi Fossland. Photo: Apurgo

– We’re celebrating our 15th anniversary this year and have grown slowly but surely all the way. When I started in 2018 there were five of us, now we are 19 employees. Four women and the rest men,” continues Nergaard.

– We have a female chair of the board in Heidi Fossland, who works in the NTNU Energy Transition Initiative on a daily basis. Irene B. Ytterdal-Larsen is Team Leader R&D and Lene Vaagan is responsible for administration and marketing in addition to me as General Manager.

– What we haven’t succeeded in doing so far is getting women into technical positions. It’s high on the wish list,” smiles Nergaard.

Gender equality is an important part of our sustainability strategy. When we recruit, like many others in the industry, we want to increase the number of women in the organization. It also includes women with a multicultural background.

A multicultural work environment is important to us, but is always weighted against our competence needs.

The combination of gender and ethnicity affects culture and work environment. It has been incredibly enriching to have many nationalities in the company. It has done something to the culture and understanding that we are all unique through our personalities.

Inclusion is about embracing differences and playing well together! For our part, we hold a themed lunch every quarter, where one of us talks about a topic of interest. It can be subjects, culture, food, water in other countries and continents.

We learn something every time, create understanding and establish that each and every one of us is unique and different. At the same time, we learn how we can strengthen each other on that basis.

– We also work closely with NAV, which is very rewarding. We have a goal of getting people back to work, which is well anchored in the board. The value of making good choices matters to us,” continues Nergaard.

This places demands on the company in the form of individual adaptation and facilitation of good work processes. It can be demanding for the organization, but it has a positive impact on the working environment.

We have found several stars among those we have recruited in this way. We also have examples of employees who have advanced to management positions internally.

– It’s good for society, good for the person being recruited and very positive for the company. It has allowed us to grow faster than if we hadn’t,” Vaagan adds.

– A healthy mix of recruiting ourselves, via NAV and with the help of recruitment agencies when appropriate, has proved to be a recipe for success for us.

– The Ingeborg network does a fantastic job of promoting women in the plumbing industry and the trades. We believe that being part of the network will also promote Apurgo as a brand. says general manager Lise Marie Nergaard. Photo: The Ingeborg network.

The Ingeborg network has achieved more than other networks, both in concrete terms, such as the fact that you had a major impact on female changing rooms at construction sites, but also through soft values. You have simply made it better to be a woman in the pipe industry.

The female plumbers we know of who are members of the Ingeborg network show that women can be (are) more detail-oriented than many of their male colleagues.

Women are generally more detail-oriented. Women prepare, train, think and dare to learn. We see this in the women who install our systems, the result is aesthetically beautiful. Everything from sewage pipes, hammering, to choice of couplings and screwing together

– When we recruit for technical positions, far too few women apply. “The gold partners of the Ingeborg network have succeeded to a greater extent, which we largely attribute to the network,” adds Vaagan.

Climate, environment, energy and water are our focus areas. Based on various surveys and reports, we find that women are more concerned with these values.

We may be thinking more about our children and future generations right now, but we know that younger generations of men in particular are also on their way.

– Apurgo will be the market leader in digital water treatment, which is our specialist area. We have a digital solution for all our water treatment systems for both consumer water and closed energy plants,” says Nergaard.

– We have spread from legionella protection to closed energy systems, which gives us another leg to stand on. Together with our other products, it helps to save more energy in buildings.

The “forgotten area” of buildings, namely saving energy on the water side and heating, is an area where we are strong. Our strength is the monitoring center, all our products are monitored 24/7 through Apurgo Cloud, our unique monitoring system.

The ladies in our conservative industry are important to us. They easily adopt new technology, find new solutions and paths to goals. Through our partnership, we would like to help the ladies become even better at all things knowledge.

The Ingeborg network does a fantastic job of promoting women in the plumbing industry and the trades. We believe that being part of the network will also promote Apurgo as a brand.

– Being a partner of the Ingeborg network simply gives us a seal of approval. Now we too are proud Ingeborgers,” concludes Nergaard.

APURGO AS is a wholly owned Norwegian company founded in 2009. We offer solutions for effective prevention of bacterial growth and legionella in consumer water, utilizing low temperatures and energy-efficient operation of the heating and sanitation system.