How can companies position themselves more sustainably and in this way make a meaningful contribution not only to themselves and their customers, but also to society at large? The UN Global Compact Network Germany offers its members the opportunity to promote young talent from their own ranks and thereby implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. A team of five Vecoplan employees took part in the programme.
“Responsible consumption and production”, “Climate action” and “Decent work and economic growth” – these are just three of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. As a member of the UN Global Compact Network Germany, Vecoplan has undertaken to represent these SDGs internally and to specifically address them. To this end, a team of five Vecoplan employees took part in the international SDG Innovation Accelerator programme.
The specialist recycling company sent four of its young professionals to take part in the programme, accompanied by Thomas Sturm, an experienced colleague, who is Head of QESH (Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental Management) at Vecoplan. “We deliberately chose motivated and interested colleagues from different divisions, each of which contributes to the SDGs: Human Resources, Finance, Development and Purchasing,” says Sturm. “The more interdisciplinary their cooperation is, the more efficiently the goals can be achieved.”
Events and SDG Innovation Accelerator
The first InnovationCamp was held in April, and three further events took place in the following months. In total, teams from 14 well-known companies in the financial, retail, telecommunications, automotive and mechanical engineering sectors took part. The young specialists learned about the core competencies of corporate sustainability and the SDGs during the individual programme phases and in the online academy between the phases.
They identified and prioritised specific sustainability goals, generated new ideas and used tools to convert ideas into projects. The SDG Innovation Accelerator concluded with a pitch in September, when the teams presented their solutions, completing the programme successfully. “We presented a pragmatic approach directly from our product portfolio,” says Sturm. “We’re using a specific project to determine the CO2 footprint of one of our main products – the VAZ 1700 series shredder. Our aim is to cover as many aspects of the SDGs as possible by reducing this footprint.”
