Main topic: sustainability in medium-sized companies
Center for Sustainable Governance (CSG)
The FHM Center for Sustainable Governance (CSG) was established as a foundation institute of the economy and administration of East Westphalia-Lippe (Dr. Oetker, Dr. Bernhard von Schubert, Bankverein Werther, Schloss und Gut Wendlinghausen, Stiftung Bildung und Handwerk and the district of Lippe). The aim is to establish a reliable, comprehensible and practical operationalization and measurability of state, municipal and corporate sustainability. To this end, a measurement and estimation methodology is being developed that expresses qualified sustainability criteria in numerical values and presents them systematically and transparently using the so-called sustainability compass.
The aim of the Center for Sustainable Governance (CSG) is to specify the (extensively available but abstract) ecological, social and economic criteria for the corporate sector in terms of industries and companies, to monitor compliance with them and thus to be able to control development.
To this end, a measurement and estimation methodology is being developed to express qualified sustainability criteria in numerical values in order to arrive at a sustainability compass. The concept assumes that consumers and investors will demand such a sustainability compass as soon as it is possible and has gained acceptance. Companies that are strong in the area of sustainability will use such a compass offensively in competition. This shows the key function of such a compass for more sustainability: sustainable entrepreneurs are economically more successful!
![[Translate to Englisch:] CSG Broschüre](/fileadmin/_processed_/f/4/csm_csg_broschuere_77c6f8a6d9.png)
The concept of sustainability, i.e. the imperative to shape our lives and economic activities in such a way that the foundations of life and economic activity for future generations are comprehensively preserved and promoted, is now widely recognized in society, politics and business. However, the practical observance of this principle is still inadequate in many respects. The financial market crisis, national debt and the loss of natural species are just a few examples. One of the reasons for this implementation deficit is that sustainability is almost always discussed only in abstract and general terms in strategies and scenarios, but there is a lack of concretization, measurability and thus controllability. This is where the “Center for Sustainable Governance” project comes in.
At the same time, sustainability is much more than a corporate success principle. It is a (survival) condition of humanity and, as an existential responsibility for the future, a global ethical imperative. This is aimed at the current generation for the sake of future generations and, in addition, at the industrialized countries of the West, whose consuming lifestyle is definitely not sustainable for a world population of 7 billion, which will reach almost 9 billion in one generation. In order for sustainability to become effective as a globally generalizable ethical principle, it must be practiced in a concrete and exemplary manner, and thus as a model for success, especially in the developed countries of the West.
The Fachhochschule des Mittelstands (FHM) Bielefeld is setting up the Center for Sustainable Governance as an FHM institute, the core and goal of which is the reliable, comprehensible and practical operationalization and measurability of state, municipal and corporate sustainability.
Sustainability needs a specific yardstick for action at the corporate level. The Sustainability Compass of the Center for Sustainable Governance (CSG) provides orientation and delivers operational criteria and indicators that companies can use to find their own distinctive position beyond a general commitment to sustainability. The demand arising from customer needs on the one hand and public regulation on the other is too great to remain vague. Progress needs a compass!
The Fachhochschule des Mittelstands (FHM) is creating endowed professorships at the Center for Sustainable Governance for the specific development, testing and application of the Corporate Sustainability Compass.
The objective is the development, testing and application of the Corporate Sustainability Compass. The aim is to set standards for practical sustainability reporting that takes into account the realities of medium-sized companies in Germany. At the same time, the concept should be firmly anchored in the international development concept. The planned committees, the board of trustees of the institute members and the international standardsetter advisory board, will ensure that the institute's work is competently supervised.
The Sustainability Compass is the reflection of a method that enables the transparent and systematic evaluation of various sustainability criteria in relation to the respective level of action.
In view of the increasing relevance of corporate sustainability in the perception of customers, lenders and opinion leaders, sustainability has become more of a corporate success factor than a fulfillment of legal requirements. In close cooperation with partners from the business world, the aim is to take up the many previous attempts in this field to develop a uniform and transparent standard for sustainable corporate action. It is particularly important for companies that the Corporate Sustainability Compass is not the result of abstract research, nor does it rely on one-dimensional test values. The central requirements are a focus on results and practicality.
There is only one future! - Sustainability is on the corporate agenda! In view of the increasing relevance of corporate sustainability in the perception of customers, lenders and opinion-makers, sustainability has now become primarily a corporate success factor and represents something other than the fulfillment of legal requirements. In close cooperation with partners from the business world, the aim is to take stock of the many and varied attempts made in this area to date in order to develop a uniform and transparent yardstick for sustainable corporate action, particularly on the basis of the German Sustainability Code. It is particularly important for companies that the Corporate Sustainability Compass is not the result of abstract research, but nor should it be a one-dimensional test value. The key requirements are a focus on results and practicality.
In addition, entrepreneurial action is increasingly influenced by state regulation, and the need for reliability and clarity arises on the corporate side. Where sustainable governance has an effect on the corporate sector, it is therefore important to set accepted and practical standards for what sustainability means in the company. A current example is the linking of management board remuneration with a company's sustainability efforts, as regulated in Section 87 of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG). However, this regulation is not yet practicable for either supervisory or management boards, as there is a lack of suitable benchmarks for evaluating this management dimension.
This is where the work of the Center for Sustainable Governance comes in. The aim is to define suitable, comprehensible and reliable criteria and indicators against which the organs of a company can measure their own actions. These must be suitable for implementing sustainability for the benefit of corporate development. From abstract admonishment to concrete implementation: sustainably profitable! The Corporate Sustainability Compass is a management navigation tool.
The Center for Sustainable Governance is a place for meetings and exchanges where science, practice and politics come together to find common solutions to these pressing issues. In accordance with the profile of the Fachhochschule des Mittelstands (FHM), the aim is to achieve results that will benefit the entire economy in Germany. With a platform for dialogue, an entrepreneurial board of trustees and an international expert advisory board, the Center for Sustainable Governance is setting recognized standards.
In the short term, the establishment of a branch of the institute in the Lippe district is also planned.
The Center for Sustainable Governance represents a science that turns to the practice of medium-sized businesses. Together with the participating companies, it takes an individual and innovative approach to business-related research and teaching in the field of corporate sustainability.
As soon as the Center for Sustainable Governance is established as an FHM institute with its identity-forming topic, its operational activities will be located in the four fields of work (see figure).
The fields of research and consulting are geared towards developing the Corporate Sustainability Compass and its utilization in the economy. The fields of knowledge transfer and teaching serve to disseminate knowledge and application, both in a practical context (knowledge transfer) and in academic teaching. It is conceivable that the subject of “Corporate Sustainability” could become a fixed module in all relevant FHM courses of study and thus become standard business knowledge.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Der Begriff Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) entstand in den 1980er Jahren. Er meint allgemein die (freiwillige) gesellschaftliche Verantwortung von Unternehmen, die über die gesetzlichen Forderungen (Compliance) herausgeht.
Zwei wichtige Definitionen liefern die Europäische Kommission: "CSR ist ein Konzept, das den Unternehmen als Grundlage dient, auf freiwilliger Basis soziale Belange und Umweltbelange in ihre Unternehmenstätigkeit und in die Wechselbeziehung zu Stakeholdern zu integrieren" und das World Business Council for Sustainable Development: "Corporate social responsibility is the commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development, working with employees, their families, the local community and society at large to improve their quality of life". Da die Nachhaltigkeit als Modell aus den drei Säulen Ökologie, Ökonomie und Sozialem verstanden wird, ist CSR Teil des Nachhaltigkeitsbegriffes.
Corporate Governance
Corporate Governance (CG) ist die Gesamtheit aller internationalen und nationalen für Unternehmen geltenden Regeln, Vorschriften, Werte und Grundsätze. Sie ist der Ordnungsrahmen für die Führung, Leitung und Überwachung von Unternehmen z.B. mittels Gesetzen, Richtlinien, Kodizes, Absichtserklärungen oder Unternehmensleitbildern. Während Nachhaltigkeit ein allgemein gültiges, breites Konzept von Zielen, Methoden und Maßnahmen beschreibt, so ist CG beschränkt auf die Funktionsweise der Leitungsorgane, ihre Zusammenarbeit und die Kontrolle ihres Verhaltens im Sinne dieser oder anderer Ziele.
Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitskodex
Im Jahr 2001 wurde erstmals der „Rat für Nachhaltige Entwicklung“ berufen, dessen 15 angehörige Personen die Bundesregierung bei der Umsetzung der nationalen Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie unterstützen.
Der „Deutsche Nachhaltigkeitskodex“ stellt Empfehlungen des Rates und eine Dokumentation des "Multistakeholderforums" vom 26. September 2011 dar. Unternehmen, Kapitalmarktvertreter und die Zivilgesellschaft erarbeiteten den Kodex im Dialog mit dem Nachhaltigkeitsrat ohne Einfluss der Politik. Der Kodex stellt ein freiwilliges Instrument dar, das nach dem Prinzip "comply or explain" Empfehlungen macht für eine transparente Darstellung der unternehmerischen Verantwortung für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung. Wie auch der Deutsche Corporate Governance Kodex bietet der Nachhaltigkeitskodex Unternehmen durch öffentliche Kommunikation in Entsprechenserklärungen die Möglichkeit, auf Basis nichtfinanzieller Leistungsindikatoren die Nachhaltigkeitsleistungen bewertbar zu machen und somit Kapitalmarkt und Öffentlichkeit Transparenz über die Nachhaltigkeit zu liefern. Dem Kodex liegt dabei die Nachhaltigkeitsdefinition des Brundtland-Berichts von 1987 zugrunde.
Die Anforderungen des Kodex teilen sich auf in die Bereiche Strategie, Prozessmanagement, Umwelt und Gesellschaft und beziehen sich auf umfangreiche Berichts- und Offenlegungspflichten. Als Leistungsindikatoren für die Kodexerfüllung werden die höchsten Berichtsstandards von GRI (A+) oder EFFAS (Level III) herangezogen. Zum Stand März 2013 entsprechen 10 DAX-Unternehmen dem Deutschen Nachhaltigkeitskodex durch Berichterstattung nach GRI A+ Level der Global Reporting Initiative.
Die Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) ist eine Non Profit-Organisation, die die Global Reporting Guidelines, ein standardisiertes Berichtswesen für Nachhaltigkeit und nicht-finanzielle Leistungsindikatoren für Unternehmen und Organisationen, erarbeitet hat. Die Richtlinien sollen Transparenz herstellen bezüglich wirtschaftlicher, ökologischer, sozialer und politischer Leistung eines Unternehmens, um allen Stakeholdern die unternehmensinterne Nachhaltigkeitsleistung öffentlich zugänglich zu machen.
Sustainability requires reliable, comprehensible and specific benchmarks for action at the corporate level. The Sustainability Compass of the Center for Sustainable Governance (CSG) provides orientation in this regard.
The core of the CSG is the development and provision of operational criteria and indicators that companies can use to find their own distinctive position beyond a general commitment to sustainability. The demand created by customer needs on the one hand and public regulation on the other is too great to remain vague. Progress needs a compass!
The Sustainability Compass is a practical method that transparently and systematically enables the evaluation of various sustainability criteria in relation to the respective level of action.
The National Sustainability Compass, developed at the University of Applied Sciences for SMEs (FHM) with funding from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, is the model for the Corporate Sustainability Compass (further information can be found here). The National Sustainability Compass vividly and transparently illustrates the sustainability impacts of laws for political decision-makers at a glance.
The result of the benefit assessment of laws in the context of regulatory impact assessment is the “National Sustainability Compass” (see graphic), which systematically presents the evaluation of the various sustainability criteria in relation to the respective law under examination.
The compass is the graphical representation of the numerical results of the law benefit assessment with the standard benefit model. The individual results of the four indicator areas of the National Sustainability Strategy – “intergenerational justice”, “quality of life”, “social cohesion” and “international responsibility” – are entered in the four sectors of the circle. The individual pie slices, which represent the 21 sustainability indicators of the National Sustainability Strategy examined, as well as any additional indicators specific to the law, are color-coded as follows, depending on their impact on sustainability: green = positive influence of the law on the sustainability indicator; yellow = neither a positive nor a negative influence; red = negative influence; white = irrelevant, i.e. the law has no relationship to this indicator. The double-aggregated sustainability values are entered in the center of the compass: first the results of the four indicator areas; in the center of the compass, the aggregated and weighted overall sustainability benefit in relation to the sustainability benefit of the law is found as the final result.
This means that the ministry official or political decision-maker conducting the sustainability impact assessment can see at a glance all of the sustainability impacts of a law based on the National Sustainability Strategy. The particular advantage of the presentation lies in the clear concentration of a wealth of information in this compass form, even though some information is of course lost through the aggregation: The advantages and disadvantages of a law with regard to its sustainability impacts, its strengths and weaknesses and thus also the potential for improvement are visualized in this way and are immediately visible to the decision-maker; he can then delve into the underlying calculations for the additional information he needs.
Of course, the result should not be understood as a sustainability verdict on the independent politician. Rather, it is intended to create the necessary transparency for the political decision-making process and to provide the political decision-maker with an easy-to-use tool to help them decide on the “OB” of a proposed law, i.e. the usefulness of a legislative measure based on self-imposed sustainability standards.
