PROBLEM STATEMENT

At a global company with several locations, sustainability was seen for years as something that had to be complied with.

For several years all reports such as, CDP, Ecovadis, SAQ4.0, REACH, Conflict Minerals, IMDS were done by centrally pulling information from the organisation. This no longer worked.

The massive increase in expectations and requirements from Customers and the European law changes was forcing the organisation to think differently. The approach towards the Suppliers was inadequate and risk management had to be established.

Internally, apart from ISO14001, ISO45001 and ISO50001 certification there was no roadmap, no initiative or direction to broaden the understanding and engagement with Sustainability.

TASKS and ACTIONS

The primary task was to establish an organisation centrally for coordination and then engage with the production locations to enable them to get on-board and become proactive and engaged on the ESG topics.

A Sustainability Model and content was needed as a basis to build 5-year roadmaps for the organisation to understand and follow.

The exteral requirements such ESRS, IFRS, LkSG (Germany) and new Customer requirements needed to be understood.

External service providers were needed to enable progress on new complex topics.

An internal and external marketing plan was necessary.

Training and awareness was needed to drive the acceptance throughout the organisation.

On a pragmatic level, the continuous improvement process and employee suggestion scheme needed to integrate ESG elements.

The excutive team and regional leaders needed to be brought on board and their buy-in was the critical success factor. A small Budget was needed.

RESULTS

After preparatory work lasting six months, the roll-out and kick-off was achieved. A roadmap, an ESG model, priorities, functional tasks and next steps were all explained to site teams consisting of a leader and ESG segment owners.

All sites, without exception, focused on the compliance and social elements effectively bringing awareness into the day-to-day operation.

Internal reporting through ESG related KPI’s was improved and expanded on, for example, a global company Roll-up was possible for CO2 Scope 1 and 2. Waste management and Health and Safety metrics were likewise established. For each KPI an action plan was available at each location. e.g. Green Energy purchase or Waste reduction. Projects were designated „Sustainability related“.

A Product CO2e calculation tool was established to ensure a competitive offering for new business.

External partners for SCOPE 3 risk management (Suppliers) were defined and nominated.

An internal website was created with support materials and updates.