Do you know your company’s CO2 footprint? Are you convinced or driven by politics when it comes to sustainability in your company? Franz Schabmüller, Chairman of the Ingolstadt Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry Committee, addressed the entrepreneurs at its most recent meeting with stirring questions. During the discussion, it became clear that it is often legal regulations or customer requirements that set the ball rolling and oblige companies to act.
“Sustainability in the company has many faces and concerns us all,” explained Schabmüller. “Sustainable action and the regulatory requirements that usually trigger it can help to develop new business areas. We experienced this today with Reinhard Büchl as an example. The safety container for the transportation or storage of high-voltage lithium-ion batteries from electric cars is a highly innovative product. However, sustainability can also cause existing business models to falter, as they may no longer be financed by banks due to EU regulations.”
Reinhard Büchl, shareholder of the Büchl Group, and his sustainability officer Michael Tretter were met with great interest by the entrepreneurs as they explained the Group’s sustainable orientation. “With our Cero2Waste climate strategy, we have set ourselves clear targets, the progress of which we continuously measure and make transparent. We want to halve our greenhouse gas emissions by 2028 and achieve CO2 neutrality by 2035. And, of course, we want to support our customers in reducing the climate emissions resulting from their waste. Despite a wide range of regulatory requirements for the recovery, disposal and recycling of waste, there is currently no obligation to provide proof of the recyclability of products before they can be placed on the market. As a result, we are confronted almost daily with new waste that requires creative ideas for sustainable recycling. One of the most controversial current examples is batteries from electric cars, which have so far been very costly to recycle and dispose of. And this is precisely where we come in to contribute to a sustainable circular economy in the face of scarce resources and climate change,” explained Büchl.
“In addition to technical expertise in sustainability and climate management, digitalization skills, which must be anchored in the company, are crucial for sustainable management in a company,” added Sustainability Officer Tretter. Digitalization in particular is an important tool for not only making processes more transparent, faster and safer, but also for measuring, evaluating, reducing and improving their impact on the environment, climate and society.
The discussion at the end of the meeting demonstrated just how multifaceted sustainability is. The entrepreneurs covered a wide range of topics – from Ingolstadt’s path to climate neutrality by 2030, to potential technologies with which it should be possible to store CO2 in the future, to the alternative fuel HVO100 made from old chip fat and the economic viability of photovoltaic systems.
Büchl recommended that all companies, including smaller ones, take a look at their company’s carbon footprint and determine their own carbon footprint. “If we don’t know where we stand, we can’t improve. The carbon footprint creates the starting point. On this basis, we can set ourselves clear targets within the company and motivate our employees accordingly.” Entrepreneurs referred to the IHK tool ecocockpit, which helps to determine the CO2 footprint.
Caption: The IHK Regional Committee Ingolstadt with host Reinhard Büchl (7th from right) in front of one of the newly developed safety containers for the transportation or storage of high-voltage lithium-ion batteries from electric cars.
Text and photo credits: © IHK Munich
