?? Sustainability at Qualifyze

Sustainability globally

As our world is developing ever rapidly in the 21st century, one topic that has been around for many, many years finally reached the center of attention of society: Sustainability! And hopefully, still in time for us to act. The recent heavy rain flooding in Germany was just another example.?

Thanks to FFF and many other great initiatives, being green is no longer an exotic political opinion but rather a key sense of being for the majority of people all over the globe. And whilst the FFF movement lost public momentum due to the Covid19 outbreak, overall the pandemic has helped to ignite the topic even further. A recent GWI study reveals that 56% of consumers had changed their thinking dramatically as a result of Covid-19 and its dramatic effect on public health and global economies. Another BCG study finds that 70% of people are more aware now than before C19 that human activity threatens the climate and that environmental degradation can threaten humans.

However, that said there is still a big gap between awareness and correct action on a corporate level. Whilst many companies are publicly vocal about their sustainability efforts, their business models, nature of business or heritage prevents them from ever becoming a true sustainability value creator. Check out this Top10 list featuring Amazon, Netflix and H&M. But the list goes on, a Bain survey (in all fairness from 2016) found that only 2% of companies achieved or exceeded their sustainability expectations.

Further, there is a huge need to catch up on a regulatory and political side. In April 2021, the constitutional court in Karlsruhe declared the German Climate Protection Law unconstitutional and as violent to the fundamental rights of the generations to come. A true landmark outcome. Then there is a strong debate about the just-passed Sorgfaltspflichtengesetz (CSR-law), which many consider being an alibi law rather than a true step in the right direction.

Sustainability at Qualifyze

At Qualifyze, we take action. As part of our joining of the Leaders for Climate Action (LFCA) initiative, we recently publicly pledged to become climate neutral in the foreseeable future. But to us, sustainability is not just about the climate. We understand sustainability in a much broader ESG (environment, social, and governance) sense. To us, true sustainability is also about how we treat our people and make sure that business is conducted in a fair and sustainable matter.

Nevertheless, we respect the challenge at hand. We know that it will be hard and that we need to make our learnings along the way. Some things might work, others won't and will need to be adapted. We don't want to be yet another company that publicly talks about their ambitious goals, whereas yet it's all words. Rather, we want to become known for our pragmatic and agile actions. And that is what we commit to.

What we will do

Our sustainability change journey will take place along 5 key dimensions covering self-awareness, how we do business, what business we do, pragmatic action, and accountability.

Self-awareness

Before change comes awareness. As part of the LFCA initiative, we completed a CO2 audit to understand our very own CO2 footprint. Following this assessment, we produced over 150t of CO2 in the last 12 months. Bearing in mind that we had to make use of estimates in some cases this number may not be 100% accurate, but it still gives a good indication. We then offset our carbon footprint through Atmosfair, meaning that we are now a climate neutral business??????????.

How we do business

To clarify how we do business and what we expect from our business partners and clients, we will soon publish the first Qualifyze code of conduct. This guide will provide meaningful orientation on how we define sustainable and fair business. It will further outline our business ethics and values. Once published, we will hold ourselves responsible to comply with our own standards.

What business we do

As a global auditing company, our business model is to assess suppliers all around the globe on their daily operations. Thereby our heritage lies in the pharmaceutical industry with a 100% focus on quality assessments. However, we are looking to change this by bringing ESG and broader sustainability criteria checks into our auditing practices. Together with a handful of partners and leading ESG / CSR experts, we are working on models that can bring change and value to the industry.

Pragmatic action

One of the first things we will start doing is planting trees. From July onwards, for every new audit we conduct, we will plant a tree through tree-nation and by this offset the emission produced during the audit. By creating our own Qualifyze forest, we are looking to create an immediate impact. However, we will also look at the topic more strategically as we have volunteered to become one of the first teams to test the ROSE (Return on Society & Environment) Framework.

Accountability

Lastly, we will hold ourselves accountable to our pledge to ensure that our goals are succeeded by action. As founders, we will commit to executing and promoting our initiatives within and beyond the organization.

But long-lasting and sustainable change can only happen if we act together as a team. This is why we call every Qualifyzer to help realize the change. What are your ideas? What are your suggestions? How can we make a change in a pragmatic yet impactful way? The first suggestion already arrived!

Let us do something together and right now!