It's done! Our first sustainability report in accordance with the German Sustainability Code (DNK) is as good as finished. Now it just needs to be approved by the DNK.
When we decided to put sustainability at the heart of melles & stein, we quickly realized that we first needed to take stock. We wanted to know exactly where we stood as a company in terms of sustainability - and where we had the greatest potential for improvement and could achieve the most as a relatively small company.
With the support of our sustainability consultant Thomas Vogt, we decided on a sustainability report in accordance with the German Sustainability Code (DNK), which covers the current reporting standards and was a perfect introduction to the topic for us.
Yes, it was quite a laborious process at times. The data collection in particular was time-consuming. But if Thomas is to be believed, the first report is the worst, because you often don't really know what data you need, let alone where to get it. What's more, we work with a lot of small, regional family businesses that often didn't even have this information. Let's hope that Thomas is right and that everything will be much easier next time!
At the same time, the whole process was extremely valuable and informative for us. On the one hand, it was great to see that we are already doing a lot of things really well in many areas. Secondly, thanks to our work on the report, we now know exactly where we need to start in order to do our bit for a sustainable trade fair industry.
As a first step, for example, we have addressed the issue of working conditions for our employees internally. Even more flexible working time models and extensive further training are just two aspects here. Externally, we have started to revamp our entire product range. Our consumables are now all sustainable and we have switched to organic and fair trade for many products. We are also tackling the issue of food waste with creative concepts.
In any case, we are delighted and proud that we have finally been able to submit “the thing” to the DNK for review!
As soon as the report has been approved, it will be publicly available on the DNK website. And we will of course also link to it here.
And after that? Then the real work begins, because even the best report is useless if the measures it contains are not implemented.