Oliver, as QMB and as the person in charge of sustainability at Polytives: You have been dedicated to the topic since 2022, so you could say that you lay focus on sustainability. But you’re not obliged to produce a report, are you?
Due to the size of our company, we are still exempt from the reporting obligation. However, we are not primarily addressing the issue due to legal expectations, but because the topic of sustainability is important to us personally on the one hand and is also part of our long-term corporate strategy on the other. For us, sustainability is considered throughout company scaling and product development and is an intrinsic part of how we identify topics and potential.
It was important for us to establish this procedure as early as possible in order to then gradually approach the day-to-day circumstances and the legal framework. For the latter area in particular, a quick start made sense to get a feeling for which data and key figures could be collected. The effort involved in starting from scratch naturally increases as soon as a company is larger at a later stage.
That sounds understandable. Have there also been any external inquiries, although you are not obliged to report?
There certainly were. Being exempt from the reporting obligation does not mean leaving the topic completely unaddressed. Larger companies pass on inquiries within their supply chain and even in the run-up to a prospective collaboration, the players are increasingly focusing on sustainability.
As we are already somewhat active in this field, we can therefore react quickly and purposefully and provide appropriate answers. I think we can definitely say that our customer-centric way of working also creates small competitive advantages for our customers and for us.
If you have been reporting since 2022: What has changed over this period, what have you learned and what is your conclusion?
It was clear to us from the outset that our first report would not be “textbook”. Rather, it was a stocktaking exercise and showed what was possible in a short space of time and with little effort. We were still missing too many data points for in-depth reporting and the dimensions of sustainability had not yet been explored in depth. With the next report, we then knew where we needed to start with improvements and had also found new ways to close gaps. We are still mainly focusing on the ecological and economic aspects of sustainability, as our work and our products can have a significant impact here. For example, in 2023 we had already dealt with carbon accounting for the first time, which is an indispensable part of the report.
Our goal will ultimately be a report that meets a fully-fledged standard in terms of content – there is still a lot to do before then, but the methodology of small improvement steps will also lead us there. For example, we are currently using the VSME model as a guide.
It is generally advisable to start early in all areas, but not too ambitiously, and to grow organically. For example, consulting, networking and general information events have helped us to develop the right speed.
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