As managing directors at plant values, Michael Jenkner, Toni Koç, Franziska Kramer and Matthias Damert are long-standing experts in strategic sustainability consulting. They also contribute their experience in their role as jurors for the German Sustainability Award (DNP) in various sectors - Germany's most important award for ecological and social commitment. In this interview, Micha and...Read More

Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that originally prepared for sustainability reporting in accordance with the ESRS or a voluntary DNK report are currently facing a turning point: the new Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for SMEs (VSME) is a voluntary standard that provides for a significantly simplified procedure. A formal materiality analysis is no longer...Read More

The VSME standard (Voluntary ESRS for non-listed Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises) is becoming the central basis for voluntary sustainability reporting in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It sets a clear cap for sustainability information that companies subject to CSRD reporting requirements may demand in their upstream and downstream value chain. This makes the VSME standard relevant for all SMEs that voluntarily provide sustainability information...Read More

The dual materiality analysis is a central component of the CSRD reporting obligations and a challenge for many companies. In our consulting projects, we repeatedly encounter similar questions: How do we delineate the value chains in a meaningful way? How do we identify material impacts, risks and opportunities? Which stakeholders should we involve? To provide clarity, we have summarised the most frequently asked questions along the...Read More

Together with the municipal utility network ASEW (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für sparsame Energie- und Wasserverwendung), we supported over 60 municipal utilities in carrying out a double materiality analysis. Based on the individual double materiality analyses of the participating municipal utilities, combined industry results were compiled and more than 25 value chains in 9 clusters were analysed.Read More

Before reporting comes the double materiality analysis - Around 13,500 German companies are expected to have supplemented their traditional financial reporting with a sustainability report (non-financial reporting) by 2027. Comprehensive information on the topic of sustainability will thus become part of the management report subject to mandatory auditing. The reason for this is the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), as part of the "European Green Deal", which...Read More

Sustainability KPIs (key performance indicators) are key figures and are suitable for monitoring corporate goals and the achievement of sustainability strategies and for measuring a company's sustainability performance. Sustainability KPIs are also known as sustainability ratios, sustainability indicators or performance indicators. But which sustainability KPIs are important and exciting for my company? How can I measure sustainability and compare myself with other market players and competitors?Read More

According to the German Climate Protection Act, Germany must be greenhouse gas neutral by 2045 in order to achieve the Paris climate protection targets. At the same time, companies are increasingly advertising that they are climate-neutral or CO2-neutral. Three different terms that are often mixed up and used as synonyms in political debates and everyday discussions, as the difference between the properties is not entirely clear. Companies use...Read More

Scientists and politicians agree: global climate change has become an existential problem for us as humanity and our environment. The increasing pressure to act therefore requires more and more concrete action at both a social and an individual level. In previous articles, we have already looked at how companies can systematically calculate their carbon footprint...Read More

We know that our way of working raises some questions; sometimes we do too 😉That's why we're answering the questions we're asked most frequently here. Why are you doing this? We take sustainability seriously and want to make a difference. The motivation comes from within. We infect others with fire. So it can also be with...Read More