The sustainability management advantage
Evaluations by financial analysts show that a sustainability strategy and resulting sustainability management practices are key to securing the long-term success of a business. In addition, limited resources and increasing prices for raw materials dictate for many industries whether they can remain competitive in the global arena. More than ever, efficiency is critical and, more than ever, the simple formula is to achieve more with less.
Do you know the relevant key sustainability data for your business? Are you already concerned with resource efficiency? Now is the time to initiate important changes in your sustainability strategy and secure long-term success for your business.
How we support you in sustainability management
Sustainability will become even more important in the future. With the right consultant for corporate sustainability management at your side, you can winnow out the important key data and immediately start making the relevant changes. Set your course now to successfully navigate tomorrow's challenges.
Hands-on sustainability consulting: planning with a vision
Our consulting services are personal, customized, fair, transparent, and partnership-based. As your competent partner for sustainability management we offer solutions tailored to your specific needs. We can manage complete projects, build your in-house know-how through project monitoring or special training, or supply just the right software tool adapted to your specific needs.
The importance of experience: we know what counts
The road to efficient sustainability management can be very rocky. But you don't have to make all the same mistakes of the past – just rely on our more than 20 years of experience as the sustainability experts. Sustainability management and resource efficiency are second nature to us. Based on our methodical expertise, we've developed our off-the-shelf Umberto software to put the right sustainability tools at your fingertips. And no one knows our software with all its capabilities better than we do! Let's start by getting to know each other in person.
Implementing sustainability management with ifu Hamburg
What is sustainability management?
In the second half of the 20th century it became apparent that increasing economic activities was leading to scarcities of resources as well as destruction and pollution of the environment. Consequently, protecting our natural ecosystems was recognized as a prerequisite for a functioning economy. By introducing environmental management, responsibility for the environmental aspects of production was integrated into the overall concept of business management. On a political level, sustainability was defined not only as an intact environment, but also by the level of social awareness and the stability of the economy. This integrated approach was also applied to management practices. Thus, sustainable management includes concepts and methods that not only meet today's environmental challenges, but social and economic challenges as well.
As the core of sustainable management, a sustainable strategy outlines how an enterprise reacts to the specific challenges presented by its overall business environment. A sustainability analysis takes stock of the present state a business is in and forms the basis for deriving a variety of options for improvement. The focus of the analysis is dependent on the company's line of business as well as other basic parameters including the activities of the business itself, the value-add chain, the customers, and all other stakeholders.
Measures for improving sustainability management
A business can face a wide variety of sustainability challenges, all having a range of possible measures to create improvement: Increasing energy and material efficiency can have positive impacts on both environmental and economic outcomes. By either initiating or intensifying cooperation with suppliers, you can help optimize the overall environmental impact reduction possible for your product. Or you can launch a stewardship project, which can have a positive, long-term influence on production conditions in other countries.
Sustainability reporting allows a company to make their sustainability management activities more transparent. A company's sustainable management process can be certified under ISO14001 and/or EMAS standards.
ifu Hamburg's sustainability consulting supports many of the different aspects of sustainability management. We can help you to investigate key sustainability figures based on the specific needs of your business and to develop innovative concepts for how to improve your sustainability performance.
By becoming engaged in sustainability management you contribute to the solution of a global challenge, while at the same time growing your competitive advantages.