Many companies are already taking various measures to become more sustainable. But after a few years, there is no sustainability strategy, but a large, often wild, collection of topics and measures. All these measures certainly contribute to making the company more environmentally friendly and socially valuable. However, these colourful collections of different sustainability measures harbour some dangers for the company...Read More

Implementing a sustainability strategy is often even more complex than with other strategies. Ideally, more stakeholders need to be involved and the range of problem areas to be addressed is usually more diverse. In addition, social, political and natural conditions are currently changing very quickly. Therefore, the sustainability strategy must also be adaptive in its implementation. In this article we have...Read More

If your company would like to develop a sustainability strategy, you can find out how to design an effective sustainability strategy here: Clearly analyse the status quo (motivation, responsibility, potential), define a clear core of vision, positioning and focus - and consistently dovetail objectives, governance, measures and KPIs. As a company, it is worth developing a sustainability strategy that is truly well-founded and authentic....Read More

Colleges and universities are places of innovation, research and social transformation - but when it comes to climate protection, universities sometimes lack data, structures or action plans. We have supported some universities in their climate protection efforts. We would like to report on one of our projects here: How the Technical University of Nuremberg (UTN), newly founded in 2021,...Read More

Climate change, social inequality, scarcity of resources and geopolitical uncertainties - the challenges of our time are no longer abstract future scenarios, but real business risks. At the same time, regulatory pressure and social expectations are increasing rapidly. Anyone who sees sustainability as a compulsory task or an addition to existing structures in this mixed situation is missing the opportunity for strategic renewal. Sustainability and innovation are mutually dependent and...Read More

There is a lot of talk about sustainable business models, but very few companies take the steps to reorganise their existing business models to make them more sustainable or even to develop new business models for sustainability in parallel. What we often see are smaller or larger ecological or social improvements to the existing business model. However, sustainability usually remains an on-top issue and is often...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