Sustainable action requires a willingness to change

As CSO, you are the single point of contact in-house at zeb for all ESG-related topics. How is sustainability embedded in zeb’s organization?

Dr. Elke Nottenkämper: At zeb, the Internal Communications & Sustainability department is the central interface for all things sustainability. This means that we pool the necessary expertise and centrally embed the sustainability topic in the company. On this basis, we work very closely with all areas and departments to make zeb ever more sustainable.

As an administrative department, we benefit from the fact that we are in direct contact with our Managing Director Dr. Markus Thiesmeyer. This allows us to initiate decisions and changes quickly. Sustainability is always subject to change, so we never achieve the ultimate goal. In this change process, I also see myself as an ambassador for ESG at zeb thanks to my dual role as CSO and Head of Internal Communications.

Why is communication so important when it comes to sustainability?

Dr. Elke Nottenkämper: Sustainable action always requires a willingness to change. Change is uncomfortable at first, and sustainability in particular requires changes, e.g. in travel behavior. Sometimes it is easier to take a taxi to a client meeting than a bus or train.

So there has to be a certain motivation to initiate and actually implement change. A genuine answer to “why” can play an important role, create understanding and explain the reasons behind it. It is important to us to involve and convince all employees and to preferably work with incentives rather than prohibitions.

That is why we want to promote an effective exchange of information and ideas about sustainability within the company. We believe that this is the only way for us to establish a sustainable mindset among our employees and initiate a further development within the company.

We will only be able to successfully shape the sustainable transformation of our company if we all pull together.

Can you give us some insight: what is zeb currently working on as a company?

Dr. Elke Nottenkämper: In the coming weeks and months, there are many important topics on the agenda – obviously, the regulatory and legal requirements need to be implemented. For example, we need to prepare for the CSRD reporting obligation so that we are ready to report by the beginning of 2025.

Besides these mandatory topics, it is important for us to establish or further consolidate specific measures in the Environment and Social areas. This includes elements such as the already well-established fostering of women at zeb, or leadership topics and corporate volunteering, including our cooperation with LernFair, for example. And of course, this is also about optimizing and therefore reducing our carbon footprint.