What are flagship projects for a more sustainable economy?

But how does a company find the lighthouse topics that trigger an ‘aha’ effect among stakeholders and convincingly demonstrate that that a more sustainable approach to business is being systematically pursued? Basically, you can say that less is more. Instead of many small-scale individual projects, you should concentrate on a few, easily understandable and effective projects. Stakeholders do not want to be informed in detail and in depth about countless actions, but want to quickly grasp the core idea of a few measures.

In the best case scenario, the sustainability measures communicated to the outside world therefore have to do with the company’s core business. If the service provider buys two electric cars, the cleaning service plants a flower meadow or the haulage company buys CO2 certificates, this seems implausible, even somewhat helpless in some cases.

However, if the catering service provider takes measures to reduce food waste or promotes plant-based dishes, manufacturing companies become energy self-sufficient, a food manufacturer gradually switches to products made from animal-free resources, a cleaning service reduces the use of cleaning chemicals or a freight carrier gradually modernises its vehicles – then stakeholders recognise this as a serious effort towards more sustainable business practices in the context of the respective business activity.

There are many such impressive examples in our customer base. The best known is probably Develey’s pickle brine, which has been used as an alternative to road salt since 2019. The fact that a waste product is being given a new application while at the same time saving environmentally harmful road salt and water is easy to understand and makes immediate sense as a sustainable solution. This has led to widespread media coverage and continuous reporting. Ritter Sport, for example, operates its own cocoa plantation, which ensures that no child labour is used. Klüh Catering uses AI to measure food waste and then reduce it in the form of adjusted portions. Klüh Cleaning replaces chemicals for cleaning with ozone. This cleaning method leaves only oxygen and water. The roof tile manufacturer ERLUS takes back old tiles, pulverises them and returns them to new production as part of a genuine circular economy.

All of these examples show that if sustainable measures are closely aligned with the core business, they can also be presented as flagship projects in an easily understandable way and communicated credibly to the outside world.