Sustainability Payoff

Sustainability is THE challenge of our age. As problem solver, we offer both, strategic advice and hands on operational support to our clients, comprising.

  • Understanding the complexity of sustainability:
    What does it really mean for the business, where are adjustments possible and how?
  • What must be considered on regulatory and stakeholder (investors, customers, suppliers, societies) changing requirements?
  • What are the key drivers on the business (dual materiality analysis)?
  • How can a sustainability report been carried out so that a double win by gaining short-term improvement insights (“low hanging fruits”) and long-lasting transformation can be ensured?

ESG Sustainability Reporting

Increasing awareness of climate change impact within societies have reached the investment industry. This new demand on sustainability forces “real-economy” companies to position themselves and to report on their progress towards minimizing their detrimental impact on the environment as well as on societies. In many jurisdictions, this topic has been picked up in increasing disclosure requirements. Incumbent major players in financial information services have picked up the new demand and a vast variety of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance)-initiatives of reporting beyond the financial have been kicked off. Many of them seem to be motivated from a perspective of creating a new business (more information requirement means more business for information brokers, auditing firms, and the likes), rather than from the perspective of really doing good (for more details, see Vieweg, S. (2021): AI for the Good, Springer).

But it is not all that bad: if there is a real intent towards greening the business (rather than green washing), there is really a lot to gain – in most cases even from the economic perspective!

Technical standards (and tools such as software from specific vendors) alone provide a vast variety of aspects that can be picked up … with the real risk that either the reporting organization is entirely lost in a multi-year program leading nowhere, or an isolated partial view not really helping the business to improve.

We help organizations to maneuver within the new requirements and craft initial ESG-reports, typically within a few weeks project and focused interactions with subject matter experts minimizing their precious time.

Since 2017, we work with the very pragmatic, though holistic approach of the German Sustainability Code, that is

  • very pragmatic and focused in concentrating only on those aspects that are key to the reporting organization and its stakeholders
  • compatible to regulatory requirements such as the EU Directive on Non-Financial Reporting, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), EU Taxonomy, and the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichten-Gesetz)
  • Picks up core aspects from incumbent and widely accepted technical standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS)
  •  Complies with the reporting requirements being cascaded down to an increasing number of companies by size / revenue, starting 2023, within the next few years.

We are a fully recognized trainings partner of the German Sustainability Code and as such provide consulting, coaching and training (both inhouse and open. For open trainings, please see here).

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ESG Maturity Assessment

Often, organizations know that they want to do “something” about sustainability for many reasons such as

  • Better alignment to the organization’s vision
  • Better attractiveness for all stakeholders ranging from customers to employers
  • Simply: a requirement within the value chain, as regulations and business customers may request ESG to be considered
  • Generating economic contributions with increasing Greenhouse Gas Emission costs such as taxes or CO2 eq certificates
  • Better reputation
  • …

Though, change is hard, and the ultimate question is: Where to start?
We often hear from clients: “We are not ready yet…”

We help with pragmatic approach to identifying the adequate starting point and potential quick wins.

In a direct (remote and free of charge) INITIATION SESSION we will discuss your objectives, context and advisory needs.

Based thereon, we typically offer to carry out context-specific ESG MATURITY ASSESSMENT with an individual baselining of your organization to identify those “sweet spots”:

The proven and very efficient approach comprises:

  1. Identification of relevant ESG topics ⇒Heatmap

  2. Data gathering online survey

  3. Analysis and prioritization

  4. Qualitative interviews: Incl. external perspectives (Scope 3)

  5. Validation sustainability concept

  6. GO / NO GO Decision

  7. Implementation of the ESG-concept

For higher efficiency, we suggest an agile working mode with biweekly client-participating reviews on predefined deliverables and flexible agile contract. This enables quick feedback and adjustments as necessary.

In other words, the typical approach is

  • Structured and focus (cost)-efficient approach
  • Delivering tangible results continuously
  • Low risk, as the agile contract ensures required skill capacity and allows for adjustments as required.
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Sustainable (Green) Energy Solutions

Energy is crucial for life, as is for businesses. Geopolitical fragility shows how dependent societies are on affordable and stable energy supply. With the global climate crisis, the overarching challenge is to enable the above in a climate supporting, harmless way with renewable sources.

Although this is a key challenge by its own, not everything that looks great and environmental-friendly on the first spot really is: Very often rare earth elements (REE) are required to produce e.g. batteries, solar panels, powerful windmills etc. Responsible and sustainable management does need to encounter the long-term effects. E.g., the disposal (or dismantling) of solar panel after their typical useful life of some 25 years is not ensured, though it requires decision makers of today to avoid a “déjà vu” of previous generations: E.g., in the 1960th asbestos, the former super-powerful but cancer causing fiber, went into a broad range of products from concrete for houses down to baby skin cream… The decontamination took decades.

Our support comprises

  • Identification of current energy consumption and related Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions
  • Projection of future energy needs, based on tangible process improvements
  • Identification of alternative energy sourcing (e.g. hydrogen, thermal, solar, wind, water)
  • Configuration and independent business case development
  • Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) according to ISO 14040/14044

How does this work out for me?

In a direct (remote and free of charge) INITIATION SESSION (1h) we will discuss your objectives, scope, and context.

Depending on your needs and your own capabilities, we will provide you a support concept that fit neatly into your approach. It may comprise just specific technical questions or up to full orchestrating the energy transformation which typically comprises

  1. Baselining of specific issues
  2. Setting objective on new energy solution
  3. Concept development and configuration
  4. Vendor / builder screening and shortlisting
  5. Implementation supervision

For higher efficiency, we suggest an agile working mode with biweekly client-participating reviews on predefined deliverables and flexible agile contract. This enables quick feedback and adjustments as necessary.

In other words, the typical approach is

  • Scaled to your real needs
  • Delivering tangible results continuously

Low risk, as the agile contract ensures required skill capacity and allows for adjustments as required.

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