Sustainability workshop

As a sustainable company, you have probably set yourself high goals: you want to protect the environment, treat your employees fairly and make a positive contribution to society. But what happens if inflation gradually and suddenly sets in at a speed you never thought possible and your costs rise? Can you then still fulfill your responsibility as a sustainable company? Or would you be better off focusing on maximizing your profits? But how can you justify this if it actually completely contradicts your sustainability goals?

This year’s Sustainability Workshop keynote by Christiane Mülder will put an end to this contradiction. Under the title “The Good in the Bad” – Sustainability and Inflation – New Perspectives from a Systemic Approach”, she will introduce you to the approaches of systemic organizational development. Especially in today’s world, companies need a systemic understanding in order to master complex challenges.

At our sustainability workshop, you will learn how to skillfully deal with seemingly deadlocked situations. And how new visions and ideas can even emerge from them. The systemic approach may be a largely unknown method for you, but we believe it is becoming increasingly important.

Christiane Mülder has many years of experience as a systemic consultant, coach, organizational developer and manager in the fields of marketing and communication. She is also a co-lecturer at con.sentio -Systemic Consulting and Development, training systemic consultants – and now also works as a yoga teacher.

Following her presentation, you will have the opportunity to put theory into practice in a mini-workshop and experience the systemic perspective in the context of organizational development for yourself.

New standards will oblige companies to take their true costs and performance into account. With Sustainable Performance Accounting, Dr. Jenny Lay-Kumar and her team have added sustainability and resilience to corporate income statements and will show in a keynote speech how other companies can also integrate their sustainability performance into their income statements. In this context, the sustainability workshop offers the opportunity to deal with this new approach and clarify open questions. The EU’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan is bringing movement to sustainability reporting: the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards have paved the way for integrating sustainability performance into accounting and business income statements. In the near future, new accounting standards and requirements will be introduced that will oblige companies to take their true costs and performance into account. We are sure that you, as true sustainability pioneers, want to move forward here and have therefore advocated that the Sustainability Workshop offers the opportunity to engage with this new approach. This new approach goes beyond a simple accounting method. It takes into account the true costs and performance of a company, not just those that are already on paper. Our economic activities have an ecological and social impact, but this is not reflected in the financial reports – and this is to your disadvantage! Because your above-average commitment in all areas of sustainability has enormous potential to have a positive impact on the figures in your financial accounts. We believe that this potential should no longer remain untapped. In a keynote speech, Dr. Jenny Lay-Kumar will therefore show you how you too can integrate your sustainability performance into your income statement. Dr. Jenny-Lay Kumar and her team are using Sustainable Performance Accounting to add sustainability and resilience to corporate income statements. They tested this in the research projects “Richtig rechnen” and “Quarta Vista”. In August 2022, Dr. Jenny Lay-Kumar retired from her role as Head of Research at Regionalwert AG Freiburg and became Managing Director of the newly founded Regionalwert Research gGmbH, with which she is now promoting these important topics throughout Germany and Europe – including at our sustainability workshop in June. She is also a member of the EFRAG (European Financial Reporting Advisory Group) task force for the development of sector-specific sustainability standards. This is the perfect opportunity for companies to get to grips with this new approach to accounting and clarify any unanswered questions.

In order to operate in a holistically sustainable manner, companies must not only ensure that their digital infrastructure is environmentally friendly – the digital processes that take place within it should also comply with the three pillars of sustainability. This means adhering to ethical standards in the development and use of digital technologies in order to avoid ecological, economic and social upheaval. Damian Paderta, web geographer & digital consultant, has been working on the concept of “digital ethics” for more than a decade, including as part of the WerteLabor, which supports companies in dealing with their ethical ambivalences in digital product and service development. As part of his keynote speech at his sustainability workshop, he will give you an initial insight into the topic. And possibly change your understanding of sustainability and IT. Digital technologies and infrastructures have become increasingly important in recent years: Every day, numerous billions of emails are sent in Germany, while hundreds of billions of minutes of films and series are streamed globally every year. Digitalization is making our lives easier in many areas. However, in times of climate change and growing social inequality, it is essential that companies take their digital responsibility seriously and commit to sustainable digitalization. Sustainable digitalization means not only implementing green IT measures, but also taking ethical aspects into account and implementing solutions that combine ecological and social responsibility with economic success. It goes far beyond the question of energy efficiency and optimized resource consumption. Companies should not only ensure that their digital infrastructure is environmentally friendly, but also that their digital activities are ethical and sustainable. Digital ethics refers to the responsibility of companies to adhere to ethical standards in the development and use of digital technologies. The duality of digitalization is evident in the promise of efficiency and potential savings on the one hand and the ever-growing hunger for resources on the other. With far-reaching ecological, economic and social disruptions: Do digital products and services cause more emissions overall than they reduce? How can companies not only deliver on the promise of efficiency, but also use digitalization in a way that benefits the common good? What role does openness play in the context of sustainable digitalization? Damian Paderta, web geographer & digital consultant, has been critically examining these questions for many years. These include topics such as open government, open data, open knowledge and the interrelationships between man, machine and space. Damian is co-founder of the Open Communities Institute.NRW, Lab Lead of the Open Knowledge Lab Bonn and active in the Open Government Partnership Network Germany. Together with Dr. Saskia Dörr, as part of the WerteLabor, he is also committed to making digital services better, more ethical and more sustainable. A think tank (allesnetz.org) was also created in this context, in which they jointly developed a “SmartCheck for sustainability”. His keynote speech invites participants to take on new perspectives and rewire the specially created connections between sustainability, green IT and digitalization in a business context. Participants in the sustainability workshop will also have the opportunity to talk openly with Damian Paderta about their own ambivalences in dealing with increasing digitalization.

The importance of forests for people and nature is enormous, yet they are often destroyed for economic reasons. A new EU regulation is forcing companies to address the issue and take measures to ensure that forests have not been cut down or damaged for certain raw materials and products sold in the EU. In her keynote speech, Isabell Rzepecki will show how companies can take the first steps towards implementing a deforestation-free supply chain and what role certifications and standards can play in this.

They produce oxygen, store CO2 and provide a habitat for countless animal and plant species: our forests. Despite their importance for people and nature, however, they are still being destroyed once and for all for economic reasons. The impact is enormous. And completely disproportionate at a time when we can no longer deny that we are in the midst of a climate and biodiversity crisis. Fortunately, the new EU regulation is finally forcing companies to address this issue and take action. In future, companies will have to ensure that forests have not been cut down or damaged for certain raw materials and products sold in the EU.

But what can this look like in practice? Can companies even ensure that their suppliers actually guarantee deforestation-free supply chains? And when does a supply chain actually become deforestation-free?

Isabell Rzepecki will address these and many other questions in her keynote speech “Deforestation-free supply chains – challenges and recommendations for action taking into account the new EU regulation”. She will show how companies can take the first steps towards implementing a deforestation-free supply chain and what role certifications and standards can play in this. The link between deforestation-free supply chains and other sustainability goals such as climate protection and social justice will also be part of her presentation.

Isabell Rzepecki studied business administration and organic farming and is currently working intensively on deforestation-free supply chains and their implementation at outdoor outfitter Vaude as part of her master’s thesis. As a freelancer, she has been part of the GfaW team for over a year and uses her skills and passion for CSR issues to support Managing Director Sophie von Lilienfeld-Toal in her public relations work. It is therefore only natural that she will also be part of the sustainability workshop as a speaker.

In order to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C or 2°C, we must not only reduce CO2 emissions, but also actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The presentation by Dr. Saskia Kühnhold-Pospischil from the Fraunhofer Institute is intended to help us find a better way of dealing with the issue. She will discuss how negative emission technologies can help us to build a climate-friendly economy and provide information on the current status of various technologies. All participants of the event are invited to contribute their opinions and questions on the topic in order to have a critical discussion together. To achieve the 1.5°C or 2°C target, in addition to defossilizing the economy, CO2 must be actively removed from the atmosphere on a large scale, even after we have reached net-zero. In other words, this also means that companies can only become CO2-neutral if they invest in CO2 sinks in addition to CO2 avoidance. At this point, it is important to understand that climate neutrality means more than just planting trees. In the public debate, the concept of CO2 sinks or negative emission technologies is often tainted with mistrust, and rightly so! After all, the capacity of CO2 sinks is limited and the consumption of resources is anything but negligible. Negative emission technologies should therefore be used when emissions cannot be avoided. Governance structures must be created to ensure that sustainable incentives are created. But we don’t have to wait for that! The presentation by Dr. Saskia Kühnhold-Pospischil from the Fraunhofer Institute will help you to find a better way of dealing with the issues of climate neutrality and negative emissions technologies: How can we pave the way for a truly climate-friendly economy? Which methods of carbon sinks are most effective? What do the new findings in this area mean for our day-to-day business? These and many other questions will be answered in Dr. Kühnhold-Pospischil’s presentation. As with all other program items of the Sustainability Workshop, this lecture will also be interactive and lively. All participants of the event are cordially invited to contribute their input on the topic. Together we can discuss this extremely relevant topic critically and take the wind out of your sails.

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