Our experience confirms this every year: There is nothing as valuable as the personal exchange with practitioners and sustainability pioneers. Once again this year, the participants of the “Living Sustainability” working group met at the anthroposophical center in Kassel to discuss important issues relating to the sustainability standard – CSE. Due to the current coronavirus situation, the meeting took place in a smaller group than planned. The event was recorded and the recording is available to all CSE companies.
This year’s working group meeting focused in particular on the topics of climate neutrality and ethical finance.
The latter is already firmly anchored in the very first CSE standard from 2011. However, as there is currently a lot going on in this area, further details are now to be included in the standard. Marcel Heyken from CP-Consultingpartner gave an overview of the latest developments in the financial sector and current practice in financial institutions. This was followed by a discussion on the possibilities and limitations of implementing further criteria from the field of ethical finance in the standard. Climate neutrality is also increasingly finding its way into the everyday practice of companies. What exactly climate neutrality means and to what extent it can also be a “free-for-all” had to be clarified in detail this year. Inka Sachse from soil&more provided valuable input on the topic of measuring and reducing emissions in agricultural value chains. As many companies audited according to the CSE standard process agricultural resources, there is great potential for reduction here. However, company-related emissions must also be reduced or offset. The topic was explained in great detail by the working group participants and a proposal for the CSE sustainability standard was developed.
The term “climate-neutral company” is now precisely defined in the standard, as is how a CSE company deals with emissions.
As usual, there was also room for an open exchange of experiences. The current CSE-STAR software was also discussed, which enables sustainability to be recorded, measured and evaluated digitally and simplifies the CSE audit. All participants expressed their satisfaction with digitalization and the associated simplifications in sustainability management. Despite the difficult conditions, the working group meeting was fruitful as usual. The discussions and contributions helped to ensure that the CSE standard is up to date and at the same time applicable in practice. Next year, the working group will take place again in spring.
